the-bl00per

[the-bl00per]

5am xaio doodle

[the-bl00per]

Recent research into the psychology of conspiracy theories has emphasized the importance of belief systems in the acceptance or rejection of conspiracy theories. As for the acceptance of conspiracy theories, a plethora of research has made the argument that the public buys into the idea of conspiracy theories because we as human beings need to be able to make sense of the world around us. We are curious of the unknown and cannot leave any questions unanswered. Many researchers have confirmed that this is the reason behind why people believe in conspiracy theories so this has become the ‘accepted universal’ as to why conspiracy theories are developed. However, there is scarce information available as to why people believe the particular conspiracy theory (or explanation(s)) that they do. This paper will use experimental data to analyze the top twelve conspiracy theories associated behind what happened to the Malaysia airlines flight number MH370 and the different personality types that would lead one to come to each conclusion. Introduction The significance of this study is to understand why people think what they do. Conspiracy theories have been around since the beginning of time. The explanation that many credible researchers, such as Marina Abalakina-Paap, have reached regarding why humans come up with conspiracy theories is that we constantly need to be able to make sense of the world around us, but there is little research behind why each person believes what he or she does. This paper looks at the twelve most popular theories that people have come up with for the explanation of the disappearance of the MH370 flight. The MH370 flight was a Malaysia airlines flight that disappeared on March 8, 2014 as it was flying from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China. There were 227 passengers and 12 crewmembers on board this flight. Through the extensive efforts of experts and search teams there still has been no confirmed debris or crash site of the plane, but there have been many conspiracy theories that have surfaced addressing what many think happened to the plane. This paper will address how the twelve most popular conspiracy theories associated with the MH370 disappearance correlate with the big five personality traits. The hypothesis is that each personality trait with correlate with specific conspiracy theories leading to the conclusion that personality factors into one’s belief system. Past Research Other research that has been done which compares to this study was on conspiracy theories behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks by Michael J. Woods and Viram Swami. Woods’ research he came to the conclusion that people come to believe in conspiracy theories because of the power of suggestion. He used different conspiracy theories behind the 9/11 attacks and simply just presented them in different ways. Woods found that the way the media or other external sources present ideas to people has a major role on persuading them to believe it. Woods use the same surveying tactics that this study suggests but his main focus does not examine the psychology behind conspiracy theories and why people believe the things that they do. Woods addresses this and measures conspiracy theories using personality factors but that was not the emphasis of his study. Another study that was done by Viram Swami focused looking at the actual psychology behind conspiracy theories. Swami uses the big five personality factor along with many other

demographics and descriptive statistics (such as age, ethnicity religion, etc.) to find a correlation between that and conspiracy beliefs. Swami’s research tends to focus more on other descriptive statistics and not solely on personality. The focus of this research is exclusively on conspiracy theories and the big five personality factors. Because he was measuring more than just personality, Swami used a 17 item big five personality questionnaire and this research will use a 46 item questionnaire. This research will conduct a more comprehensive investigation to understand the personality types of individuals and then aim to find a more accurate correlation between personality types and different conspiracy theories.