A look at the doubt, fear, and broken trust that make conspiracy theories so compelling

Why do reasonable, grounded people end up believing ideas that sound far-fetched? A look at the doubt, fear, and broken trust that make conspiracy theories so compelling

There was a second gunman who actually assassinated JFK from that grassy knoll on behalf of the CIA.

New Coke was deliberately made with an inferior formula because Coca-Cola wanted to drive up sales on the original — and change its formula, too.

Vaccines cause autism.

COVID-19 was a cover to secretly embed people with microchips that would then control people, using 5G technology.

The California wildfires were begun by a Rothschild initiative to create Jewish space lasers.

The Jews.

Israel.

The Mossad....

A 2020 Allensbach Institute study found that 32% of Americans think that most conspiracy theorists are “crackpots,” but another 22% do in fact believe that conspiracy theories are at least somewhat based in reality. And back in 2014, researchers at the University of Chicago found that 50% of the United States believed at least one conspiracy theory.

Between you and me, I was an early adopter of the COVID-19 lab leak theory. And I don’t consider myself a conspiracy theorist. I’m also easily persuaded out of them. I totally believed that drug companies were intentionally stunting cancer research for profit for many years. I mentioned it once to an illustrious Family First editor, who said, very simply, “You think that Steve Jobs couldn’t afford to pay for a cure for his cancer?” Bam. Theory gone.

But in March 2020, a poll showed that 30% of Americans agreed with me on the lab leak. By March 2023, that number doubled to 60%. Look — Wuhan’s wet market, where Covid allegedly originated, is remarkably close to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where coronaviruses are studied. Was it really more likely that such a hardy coronavirus passed from a bat to another animal to a human than the simple idea that something hadn’t been disposed of properly? I don’t really buy into the more intense theories that it was some kind of super-virus, altered by the Wuhan scientists and intentionally released into the world as biological warfare, but the idea of a lab leak seemed so reasonable to me.

For a long time, scientists and the media scoffed at the idea that there was any validity to the theory. Maybe they were concerned about racism and Sinophobia, which I get. I am truly a simple woman. On the Sunday after schools were shut down, I brought my family to our local Chinese restaurant to support them in their time of need. And to partake in the best sweet-and-sour chicken in town, of course.

But there I was: conspiracy theorist.

So where does all of this come from? What propels a reasonable person into believing something absurd? And is it all really absurd? Aren’t some of these theories kind of… valid?

Conspiracy theories thrive when trust breaks down — in media, in government, in institutions — and people search for control, meaning, and safety. Media hype, the fast transmission of news through WhatsApp, and the echo chambers created by social media have exacerbated both the spread and the belief in them.