Conspiracy Brains

Are the Brains of Conspiracy Theorists Wired Differently – or is it Just Exaggerated Natural Mechanisms at Work

Before the pandemic conspiracy theories, particularly in the USA were running at a high, or seemingly at least. These have increased with the pandemic fuelling many conspiracy theories many directly related to the pandemic. Some of these are bizarre to the extreme but even reasonable people seem to be falling for many of these theories – so just what is happening in the brains of these people and how can we explain this increase in conspiracies?

At the time of writing, in March 2021, conspiracy theories seem to have become mainstream particularly in the USA (admittedly they have always loved a conspiracy or two). But obviously also with the pandemic still raging, admittedly also fading, conspiracies have raised their ugly head again, from the origins of the virus, to the intention behind it. For example, a contact of mine on LinkedIn recently posted a link to an article suggesting that the virus was part of a conspiracy to bankrupt businesses to bring in an age of Marxism. Yup really, and yup, on LinkedIn which is normally a lot more reasonable and rational than say Facebook. I for the life of me can’t see why bankrupting restaurants and theatres and enabling banks and big tech to profit (i.e. hardcore capitalists) will ring in an age of Marxism.

But more worryingly than the odd conspiracy theorist on any social media channel, which have always existed, is the sheer scale and number of people involved in these, and that some of these seem to be going mainstream. Obviously social media has acted as a giant turbocharger for many of these, but people still have to believe in them and that’s what gets me interested. What is happening in these people’s heads? Are their brains different? Or are these just natural mechanisms at play? Much like obesity which is driven by a natural desire for high calorie food, which enables survival in the wild, but has tragic consequences in modern society with a surplus of cheap easily accessible high-calorie food.

The answer is there is a lot going on! So, let’s dive in, if you have a few minutes, and uncover exactly what is going on psychologically and biologically.

“And the things that correlated most strongly with conspiracy theories were things like believing in supernatural or paranormal phenomena and then that's what got us interested in magical thinking and realizing that, oh well, conspiracy theory seems to be similar to these things and it's a form of magical thinking”

Surprisingly common

First off, there are a lot of people who believe in conspiracy theories – most research say that at least 50% of