Why do we believe in conspiracy theories?

Conspiracy theories have never been better than during the Covid-19 pandemic. Whether it’s the origin of the virus, its spread, its treatment and now the vaccine, believing in a conspiracy allows you to find answers to the questions you ask yourself.

We all need to make sense of what we live

If periods of crisis are conducive to different conspiracy theories, it is not by chance. Since the dawn of time, human beings have needed answers and to give meaning to what they are experiencing.

Believing in something real or false allows not only to identify with a group and give oneself an identity, but also to explain what is misunderstood. In the context of the pandemic, the questions are numerous and the answers insufficient, leaving room for different theories to give meaning and soothe the stress of the unknown.

If conspiracy theories flourish it is because they are cognitively less costly than in-depth research.

Even the most skeptical have rituals and superstitions. If the human being develops intuition in everyday life, it is because it allows him to save mental energy to arrive directly at a conclusion and therefore an answer. This form of thinking pushes us to validate a belief on the basis of very little information to fill a void that would be too scary.

On a neurobiological level, it is dopamine (among others) that leads us to magically interpret coincidences by attributing to them meanings that do not exist. Added to this the sociological and environmental context with the repetition of information on social networks and in the media, our brain becomes vulnerable to this type of theory which spreads very quickly in the population.

To learn to recognize them, it is necessary to adopt a critical spirit by providing the necessary effort to develop its capacity for analysis and research, allowing to put into perspective the conclusions that are a little too hasty.

Find out more: “Why do we believe?” by Thierry Ripoll, published by Sciences Humaines