What Conspiracy Theorists Don’t Believe
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Highlights
- Conspiracy theorists believe strange ideas, yes. But these outlandish beliefs rest on a solid foundation of disbelief.
- A focus on excessive credulity distracts from the problem of excessive doubt, which is everywhere in our modern information ecosystem. We are all capable of motivated reasoning, of believing what we want to believe. But we are all also capable of doubting what we want to doubt, and studies have found that motivated reasoning has a special power when it takes the form of doubt.
- When we are confronted with unwelcome evidence, we don’t need much of an excuse to reject it.
- It is also, from cover to cover, a warning that statistics are all about misinformation, and that one should no more believe in them than in stage magic.
- Skepticism is important—but we should recognize how easily it can curdle into cynicism, a reflexive dismissal of any data or testimonies that do not fit neatly into our preconceived ideas.