Cargando…

Conspiracy theories as part of history: The role of societal crisis situations

In the present contribution, we examine the link between societal crisis situations and belief in conspiracy theories. Contrary to common assumptions, belief in conspiracy theories has been prevalent throughout human history. We first illustrate historical incidents suggesting that societal crisis s...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: van Prooijen, Jan-Willem, Douglas, Karen M
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5646574/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29081831
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1750698017701615
_version_ 1783272109831618560
author van Prooijen, Jan-Willem
Douglas, Karen M
author_facet van Prooijen, Jan-Willem
Douglas, Karen M
author_sort van Prooijen, Jan-Willem
collection PubMed
description In the present contribution, we examine the link between societal crisis situations and belief in conspiracy theories. Contrary to common assumptions, belief in conspiracy theories has been prevalent throughout human history. We first illustrate historical incidents suggesting that societal crisis situations—defined as impactful and rapid societal change that calls established power structures, norms of conduct, or even the existence of specific people or groups into question—have stimulated belief in conspiracy theories. We then review the psychological literature to explain why this is the case. Evidence suggests that the aversive feelings that people experience when in crisis—fear, uncertainty, and the feeling of being out of control—stimulate a motivation to make sense of the situation, increasing the likelihood of perceiving conspiracies in social situations. We then explain that after being formed, conspiracy theories can become historical narratives that may spread through cultural transmission. We conclude that conspiracy theories originate particularly in crisis situations and may form the basis for how people subsequently remember and mentally represent a historical event.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5646574
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2017
publisher SAGE Publications
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-56465742017-10-26 Conspiracy theories as part of history: The role of societal crisis situations van Prooijen, Jan-Willem Douglas, Karen M Mem Stud Articles In the present contribution, we examine the link between societal crisis situations and belief in conspiracy theories. Contrary to common assumptions, belief in conspiracy theories has been prevalent throughout human history. We first illustrate historical incidents suggesting that societal crisis situations—defined as impactful and rapid societal change that calls established power structures, norms of conduct, or even the existence of specific people or groups into question—have stimulated belief in conspiracy theories. We then review the psychological literature to explain why this is the case. Evidence suggests that the aversive feelings that people experience when in crisis—fear, uncertainty, and the feeling of being out of control—stimulate a motivation to make sense of the situation, increasing the likelihood of perceiving conspiracies in social situations. We then explain that after being formed, conspiracy theories can become historical narratives that may spread through cultural transmission. We conclude that conspiracy theories originate particularly in crisis situations and may form the basis for how people subsequently remember and mentally represent a historical event. SAGE Publications 2017-06-29 2017-07 /pmc/articles/PMC5646574/ /pubmed/29081831 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1750698017701615 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Articles
van Prooijen, Jan-Willem
Douglas, Karen M
Conspiracy theories as part of history: The role of societal crisis situations
title Conspiracy theories as part of history: The role of societal crisis situations
title_full Conspiracy theories as part of history: The role of societal crisis situations
title_fullStr Conspiracy theories as part of history: The role of societal crisis situations
title_full_unstemmed Conspiracy theories as part of history: The role of societal crisis situations
title_short Conspiracy theories as part of history: The role of societal crisis situations
title_sort conspiracy theories as part of history: the role of societal crisis situations
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5646574/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29081831
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1750698017701615
work_keys_str_mv AT vanprooijenjanwillem conspiracytheoriesaspartofhistorytheroleofsocietalcrisissituations
AT douglaskarenm conspiracytheoriesaspartofhistorytheroleofsocietalcrisissituations