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Conspiracy Theories Part 2

Douglas talks a lot about how when people find any type of motive, they will believe anything and I think this is very true when it comes to believing conspiracy theories that can be destructive. Another helpful resource I found was a report by the RAND Corporation, which examines the impact of conspiracy theories on public health. This article explains how COVID was a mess of misinformation that lead to arguments and conflict all over the world. It says, "Pandemics are inherently fast-moving and information is constantly evolving, creating opportunities for hateful extremist groups to spread doubt, fear and suspicion among the public". Due to the occurrence of the pandemic it made it easier for people to jump to drastic conclusions. There was another academic article I found that looked to explore the ways that conspiracy theories could affect politics, this including. Another academic article I found was "Expanding the Scope of the Spiral of Silence Theory to Increase Relevance the Digital Age" This article explains the theory of the spiral of silence and how people shift their beliefs in society and how critical misinformation can. It also goes into how technology has changed and effected so much in society, even to effect our beliefs and how we consume information. It exclaims how potential theories on politics can make people vote a certain way that is not true to what they actually may believe, this can be destructive because it can lead to a lot of misinformation to the next generation. The last credible study I found was "The Social Consequences of Conspiracism", which was very interesting. Jolley explains how people were exposed to conspiracies and the study was to see how they would react. In this they found that "Results revealed that exposure to information supporting conspiracy theories reduced participants’ intentions to engage in politics, relative to participants who were given information refuting conspiracy theories". This leads to strong mistrust in the government, which allows for a large amount of conflict because of opposing opinions.

I feel that overall conspiracy theories have a negative impact on society due to misinformation and potential conflicts. Conspiracy theories will never go away and will always be apart of society, but we can do our best to search for credible sources to form our own judgement because most people find these conspiracy theories from word of mouth and jump to conclusions. I believe that moving forward society must look to empirical evidence, and always do their due diligence before casting judgement or creating a narrative because it could easily be wrong. My research supported my initial feelings about conspiracy theories, but not to the extent that I found during my research. I found it all to be more intense and that conspiracies have a far greater impact than I had believed before researching the topic. I hope that society can learn to research and come up with personally evidence and reasoning on their beliefs before assuming another person beliefs are correct.

Works cited

Cox, Kate. "COVID-19, Disinformation and Hateful Extremism." Rand.Org, 14 Jun. 2021, www.rand.org/pubs/external_publications/EP68674.html. Accessed 1 May 2023.

This source is helpful because it had updated information up 2021 about theories about COVID and it talked a lot about the extremes that are possible when there is conflict from misinformation.

Douglas, Karen, Michael J. Wood, and Robbie M. Sutton. The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories. Routledge, 2017.

This was a great and very useful source because it displayed a lot of information on conspiracy theories and the psychological effects that are possible from misinformation spreading in the world. It is credible because it is a scientific study.

Douglas, Karen. "The Negative Social Impact of Conspiracy Theories." Nytimes.Com, 4 Jan. 2015, www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/01/04/are-conspiracy-theories-all-bad-17/the-negative-social-impact-of-conspiracy-theories. Accessed 1 May 2023.

This source was very helpful to use because it showed a lot of the impacts that conspiracy theories can have on society. It is credible because it displays a scientific study done and was published on the New York Times.

Drew, M. “Expanding the Scope of the Spiral of Silence Theory to Increase Relevance the Digital Age”. Journal of Student Research at Indiana University East, vol. 4, no. 1, June 2022, pp. 104-2, https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/jsriue/article/view/34203.

This study was done by Eastern Indiana University and showed very credible evidence of the theory of the spiral of silence which went along very well with my research. 

Jolley, Daniel. "The Social Consequences of Conspiracism: Exposure to Conspiracy Theories Decreases Intentions to Engage in Politics and to Reduce One's Carbon Footprint." Bpspsychub.Onlinelibrary.Wiley.Com, 4 Jan. 2013, bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bjop.12018. Accessed 1 May 2023.

This piece written by Jolley was great and very helpful with my research. It was done by an online scientific library. It talked about exposure to conspiracies and how to react to them.

University of Cambridge. "The Social Impacts of Conspiracy Theories." Phys.Org, 25 Oct. 2016, phys.org/news/2016-10-social-impacts-conspiracy-theories.html. Accessed 1 May 2023.

This source is from the University of Cambridge and it very trustworthy. It talked about how society can be impacted from conspiracy theories. It had a lot of information that supported my argument.

University of Pennsylvania . "Misinformation, Misconceptions, and Conspiracy Theories in Communication." Asc.Upenn.Edu, www.asc.upenn.edu/research/centers/social-action-lab/research/misinformation. Accessed 1 May 2023.

This source is from the University of Pennsylvania. It is very credible and displays a scientific study that talks about all of the misinformation that goes around society and the negative impacts that follow along with that misinformation showing how dangerous it can be.

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Conspiracy Theories Part 1

From JFK to the Illuminati, conspiracy theories are a concept that have been around for centuries. A confusing topic they are, one that I never fully understood until about this year but had heard talks of them growing up. My sister and I would often talk about conspiracy theories and if we thought some of them were true or just fake news. The big problem within conspiracy theories is that it is bound to fuel mistrust and misinformation to occur in society. Therefore, I wanted to explore the topic of conspiracy theories and the impact on society that is created. I was curious about the psychology behind conspiracy theories, how they develop, and how they spread. Prior to any of my research, I only knew that the range of conspiracy theories is one that is widespread, some are absolutely absurd and some are not crazy at all. I had heard some talks that it could cause violence in society and problems in politics, but did not believe any of this and thought that it was outrageous. I never really thought that conspiracy theories could have any affect on society because they were just peoples opinions on events and could not possibly mean that much. I started to wonder, "What is the impact of conspiracy theories on society?"

Before this I had never searched for information on conspiracy theories and did not know where to start. Trying to find credible sources was the most difficult part of the process because when it comes to conspiracy theories, there are a lot of different opinions. It is almost ironic because conspiracy theories exist because of people being skeptical, and the sources are easy to become skeptical of because you are not sure if it is just a person opinion on the topic or if it is factually backed up. Another challenge that I encountered was finding trustworthy sources that were from different viewpoints. For example, I found some sources that were promoting conspiracy theories and then sources that were debunking them, so that was challenging. However, I found that credible news outlets such as the New York Times and the BBC could provide different perspectives on the same topic. I knew I could trust sources that were from prestigious universities, that conducted scientific studies. I was curious to learn more about the topic at hand and what affects conspiracy theories could have on society. I was able to obtain a lot of information that I never thought I would learn or even understand. I was able to find sources done by scientists and studies done around society to gage a great understanding of the topic. To make sure my sources were credible I tried to find ones that were scientifically sound and ones that I could tell had done their due diligence. I did not just want to use article written by random people that were just stating their opinions because that would not be trustworthy. At first it was hard to find credible sources, but after some time I found plenty. The sources I found the most helpful were the ones published by universities that obtained studies in them, because these sources seemed the most credible to use.

Starting to wonder where to start my research, I stumbled upon an article written by the University of Cambridge titled "The social impacts of conspiracy theories". This piece displays studies done on society over the past 15 years on possible effects of conspiracy theories. This article talks about whether or not the progression of technology and the internet has had affect on conspiracy theories. Stating, "The internet doesn't make conspiracy theories more persuasive, it actually seems to compartmentalize people. We more efficiently come into contact with those who hold similar views, but we also mostly end up working in echo chambers. That's the way the internet works at the moment – especially in social media: you end up somewhere where everyone has the same views". This was such an interesting concept to think about because it made me realize that if people are always interacting with only those who share the same beliefs than overtime, people could possible be lead to believe anything if they were are being assured by those around them. This follows into how destructive this can be. If people are being closed minded to other opinions and other solutions than conflict is inevitable when finally faced with an opposition. I feel that due to people being stubborn and close minded, advancements in technology will reduce human interaction leading people to discuss potential conspiracy theories more. This will result in misinformation to the youth and also society being lost and confused at times. Next, I found an article from the NY Times that tells how most conspiracy theories are harmless, but after "recent psychological research suggests that some of the social consequences of conspiracy theories deserve more serious attention". It is interesting to think that if beliefs that society determine a lot, from who is elected to how the next generation is raised. Two examples from the article are "People who were exposed to anti-government conspiracy theories were less likely to want to vote than those who had read information refuting conspiracy theories. In a similar study, we found that people who read about climate change conspiracy theories (versus those who read anti-conspiracy material and those who read no material about climate change) expressed less intention to take action to reduce their carbon footprint". This article goes on to explain how people who believed the conspiracies about vaccines were less likely vaccinate. It is surprising how many base their beliefs off of word of mouth and not actual facts and research, I feel there would be less misinformation in the world and misunderstandings if people did their own personal research to come up with their own beliefs instead of going off of conspiracies that they heard from a peer. Another interesting source I found was done by the University of Pennsylvania titled, "Misinformation, Misconceptions, and Conspiracy Theories in Communication". This article talks a lot about the idea of fake news that revolves around society and how misinformation can be very destructive. A stat about misinformation tells, "The data reveal that misinformation is almost always accepted as fact — a staggering 99.6% of the time — whereas attempts to correct it succeed only in only 83% of cases. That leaves roughly 17% of the population still still believing in misinformation, even when shown evidence to the contrary". This is shocking because it shows that even faced with evidence, some people still will not believe. This article brings up an interesting topic and that is that some sources that are not credible about theories will use scientific language and terms to try and side track the audience to gain more trust into what they are feeding the readers. One of the most helpful sources that I found was "The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories" by Karen Douglas. This book provided an in-depth analysis of psychological factors that seek to drive people towards believing in conspiracy theories.