The gullibility of our present population's acceptance of conspiracy theories is nothing new to ... [+]
Throughout Friday and Saturday morning, there has been speculation as to why the United States military didn't shoot down a Chinese balloon that has been slowly floating across the United States. While a number of facts are known, users on social media certainly attempted to fill in the blanks.
It was far from the only trending topic on the social platforms, as users continue to debate how classified documents ended up at President Joe Biden's residence, what is on son Hunter Biden's laptop, or even what caused Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin's cardiac arrest last month.
There is an answer for everything it seems on social media.
But we shouldn't believe a lot of it, as the platforms continue to be propagated with wild conspiracy theories, misinformation and even disinformation. However, social media isn't entirely to blame for such wild notions and conspiracy theories.
"The gullibility of our present population's acceptance of conspiracy theories is nothing new to history. In fact, records on the circulation and acceptance of conspiracy theories date back as far as this nation's establishment. It is not even a phenomenon unique to American culture. A recent study published in 2022, found that conspiracy thinking among European nations was just as common as in the United States," explained Dr. Kent Bausman, professor of sociology in the Online Sociology Program at Maryville University.
What has changed today is that conspiracy theories can be more readily spread among the masses. Whereas those with "fringe" ideas may have once had to seek out those with similar thinking, today there are like-minded thinkers just a click away on Twitter or Facebook.
Bausman noted that philosopher Karl Popper was the first to offer significant insight as to why some are more vulnerable to the acceptance of conspiracy theories than others. Popper argued that within any society there are those that will seek the path of least resistance in thinking and seek reductionist understandings of events in the world around them.
In this case social media fits nicely.
"Further, these individuals desire to attribute the source of the events they find confounding and fearful to some person(s) or entity in the culture," added Bausman. "The truth or falsehoods of these understandings are secondary to the feelings of resolution these understandings afford individuals typically on the margins or the extremes."
Why Do Some Believe Such Theories?
Even when there is compounding or even incontrovertible evidence that is contrary to a conspiracy theory, it lives on simply because people don't like the answer, but there are other factors.
There is a cognitive reason.
"The world is a complex place with thousands upon thousands of data points for us to sort through before arriving at a thoughtful conclusion," explains Dr. James Bailey, professor leadership at the George Washington University School of Business.
"Conspiracy theories save our brains from that tedious work by providing easily understandable resolutions, all neatly organized," Bailey added. "In that way, our mental processes take the easy way out, sacrificing accuracy for the sake of efficiency."
Another reason could be described as social-psychological in nature.
"Conspiracy theories are compelling because they involve subterfuge and intrigue and sharp denotations between good and bad," said Bailey, "Because we too want to be compelling, we are likely to repeat them. Once out of our mouths, those words are hard to take back. The only way out is to admit that we were 'wrong.'"
That can be a hard thing for many to do, especially as it makes individuals look bad – and it forces those "believers" to accept their wasted effort, time, and resources supporting the cause, so some no doubt will double down, even against the incontrovertible evidence.
"Confessing our faults bruises our fragile egos, something we go to great lengths to protect," Bailey continued. "As opposed to backing out, we ratchet up, escalating our spoken commitment, often elevating those words to the status of dogma."
Conspiracy Theories Thrive On Social Media
Simply put, conspiracy theories will only continue to spread and find an audience as social media allows everyone to have a voice. Fringe ideas suddenly don't seem so much on the fringe when thousands or millions suddenly embrace the theory as the truth or fact.
"The interesting dynamic of social media's contribution to conspiracy theories is not only its amplification of existing or emergent theories, but also how it has exponentially added to their commodification," said Bausman.
"There has always been an industry of books and documentaries around various conspiracy theories, the various theories of JFK's assassination is the perfect example," Bausman added. "However, social media has created whole platforms and personalities for the spewing and consumption of such theories."
These social platforms are the essentially the equivalent of the tabloids stand rags that once lived in the grocery store checkouts lines. The difference is that the social media presentation of conspiracy theories comes with an aura legitimacy that offers prospective authenticity to inauthentic claims, warned Bausman. In addition, social media through its further monetization of the trafficking of conspiracy theories has incentivized the proliferation of contributors with misleading content with no regard to the veracity of their claims or consequences.
It might also be simple to pass such theories off as harmless, but studies have found that those that hold such beliefs are more likely to hold prejudicial attitudes toward underrepresented groups and hold radical political positions leading to either disengagement in civic participation or violent agitation.
"What will be interesting to see going forward is the extent to which further amplification begins to confound reality," said Bausman. "It was one thing to pass off the random reading at a grocery store the headline 'Elvis is alive and living in a Trailer,' but if a message is trafficked enough it starts to develop this impression of possible legitimacy, such that even astute critics come to question their beliefs on a subject. It does seem to suggest that the spread of conspiracy theories through social media may present a greater problem for our society."
