Paranoia, 9/11, and the roots of conspiracy theories

[alienlovechild 75]

This one goes out the VJ conspiracy gang . . . you know who you are.

Paranoia, 9/11, and the roots of conspiracy theories

By Ilan Shrira on September 11, 2008 in The Narcissus in All of Us

A friend of mine recently convinced me to watch "Loose Change", a documentary about the alleged conspiracy and cover-up of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by the U.S. government. I'm not a big fan of conspiracy theories, and I knew little of the specific theories surrounding 9/11, but I watched the film with the most open mind I could muster.

I found the film to be very engaging, and though I didn't buy the film's conspiracy and cover-up hypotheses, it did make me question whether something important was being kept secret. Seeing the conspiracy theories laid out so confidently and so sensationalistically also helped me to understand why one-third to one-half of Americans believe that our government either was somehow involved in the attacks or covered up information about them.

One reason I generally have trouble accepting conspiracy theories is that they're usually based on far-fetched claims that are nearly impossible to disprove, or prove. My skepticism is further strengthened by the fact that we humans have an assortment of cognitive biases that can distort our judgments and allow us to maintain beliefs despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Some of these biases include the tendency to see patterns where none exist, and to interpret new information and recall old information in ways that confirm our expectations and beliefs. However, most of the time we're unaware of these biases and overly confident that our perceptions represent the objective truth.

This is not to say that conspiracies never happen, or that I'm immune from engaging in my own conspiracy-like thinking sometimes. It just means that one of my own biases is to doubt these sorts of theories.

Rather than speculating about the existence of specific conspiracies, I find a far more intriguing topic to be the psychology behind conspiracy thinking. Fortunately, an excellent book called Empire of Conspiracy by Tim Melley explores this issue.

Melley seeks to explain why conspiracy theories and paranoia have become so pervasive in American culture in recent decades. He discusses some of the paranoia behind our obsessions with political assassinations, gender and race relations, stalkers, mind control, bureaucracies, and the power of corporations and governments.

Melley proposes that conspiracy thinking arises from a combination of two factors, when someone: 1) holds strong individualist values and 2) lacks a sense of control. The first attribute refers to people who care deeply about an individual's right to make their own choices and direct their own lives without interference or obligations to a larger system (like the government). But combine this with a sense of powerlessness in one's own life, and you get what Melley calls agency panic, "intense anxiety about an apparent loss of autonomy" to outside forces or regulators.

When fervent individualists feel that they cannot exercise their independence, they experience a crisis and assume that larger forces are to blame for usurping this freedom. "For one who refuses to relinquish the assumptions of liberal individualism, such newly revealed forms of regulation frequently seem so unacceptable or unbelievable that they can only be met with anxiety, melodrama, or panic."

Although Melley doesn't present any empirical data to show that conspiracy thinking has been increasing for these reasons, some research by psychologist Jean Twenge is consistent with his hypotheses. Twenge's research examines how Americans' personality traits have been changing over the past several decades. She reviews the results of hundreds of studies published from the 1960s through the end of the century, looking at the personality scores for each year. For example, she finds that trait anxiety (or neuroticism) has been rising dramatically in both children and adults over this period.

In another study, she shows that people have come to hold an increasingly stronger external "locus of control"; this refers to the feeling that external forces are determining what happens to you, as opposed to an internal locus of control, the feeling that you dictate your own outcomes. Twenge suggests that the stronger external locus of control reflects our ever-increasing exposure to uncontrollable events and a rise in the "victim mentality" of our culture. (Is this sounding familiar?)

Individualistic values have also been getting stronger in our culture, with greater importance attached to personal freedoms and self-reliance. The U.S. currently ranks highest in individualism compared to all other nations in the world.

The rise in anxiety, individualism, and external locus of control may therefore underlie the rise in conspiracy thinking. This is somewhat troubling because these personality trends show no sign of leveling off. In fact, given the current pace of globalization and the "Americanization" of other countries, it seems likely that these personality traits (and conspiracy thinking) will be increasing elsewhere too.

But what's the actual appeal of believing in conspiracy theories? What purpose do they serve people?

For one thing, conspiracy theories help us cope with distressing events and make sense out of them. Conspiracies assure us that bad things don't just happen randomly. Conspiracies tell us that someone out there is accountable, however unwittingly or secretly or incomprehensibly, so it's possible to stop these people and punish them and in due course let everyone else re-establish control over their own lives. Conspiracies also remind us that we shouldn't blame ourselves for our predicaments; it's not our fault, it's them! In these ways, believing in conspiracies serves many of the same self-protective functions as scapegoating.

In addition to the changes in personality, conspiracy theories are also growing more popular because of the mass media, which circulates these ideas to a wider audience and indoctrinates more believers. Plus, the sheer amount of information in today's media increases the odds that someone will detect "coincidences" or "patterns" that serve to fuel these beliefs. These trends in the media won't be reversing themselves anytime soon either.

Does all this mean we should expect even more conspiracy theorizing and paranoia to come? Will conspiracy theories ever become a dominant ideology in our culture the way scapegoating sometimes is in other cultures?

It's not clear whether we've reached any sort of tipping point yet. But if polls are any indication, the events of 9/11 may have transformed conspiracy theories from "implausible visions of a lunatic fringe" to a mainstream response to the most disturbing of events.

How are we to prevent this kind of thinking from taking us hostage

http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-...racy-theories-0

[Ban Hammer 14,640]

next up - the usa attacked itself at pearl harbor.

[akdiver 3]

One reason I generally have trouble accepting conspiracy theories is that they're usually based on far-fetched claims that are nearly impossible to disprove, or prove.

And yet, so many people believe in "God" - and really - isn't that the biggest conspiracy theory of them all? God's best angel went bad, and as a result, all of humanity must be "saved", or else? If that's not a far-fetched claim that is nearly impossible to disprove, then I dunno what is. Edited September 11, 2008 by akdiver

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Conspiracy theorists are just one crazy reverend from finding nirvana.

BTW....I saw Elvis in Vegas this last weekend. He lives in a small wedding chapel named, Graceland. I think the housing crunch killed his equity.

[MrsCat 6]

next up - the usa attacked itself at pearl harbor.

really?

cause the USS Arizona Memorial is pretty well put together then to make you believe otherwise. I feel cheated.

[jundp 191]

I confess, it was me.

All of it. Roswell, Pearl Harbor, 9/11. All of it.

[IAMX 3,055]

One reason I generally have trouble accepting conspiracy theories is that they're usually based on far-fetched claims that are nearly impossible to disprove, or prove.

And yet, so many people believe in "God" - and really - isn't that the biggest conspiracy theory of them all? God's best angel went bad, and as a result, all of humanity must be "saved", or else? If that's not a far-fetched claim that is nearly impossible to disprove, then I dunno what is.

I wouldn't say it's necessarily the "God" thing itself, but more or less the religions that not only made up their god, made this god vengeful, and of course made them kill indiscriminately, as well as send those to purgatory who didn't believe, that perpetuate the world's biggest conspiracy theories, from nation to nation, religion after religion. Some of us are agnostic and understand this is one thing that won't ever be proven or disproven in our lifetimes, hence to just have as best a life as possible, however, there are others who wish to impose their conspiracy theories upon others, so they need to be ridiculed as much as possible.

In regards to the 9/11 conspiracy theory, or "truthers", sort of thing, so I've come to learn of late that they're called, I really dunno what they're aiming for.

However, I do know that the government is both capable of creating a terrorist attack, and/or creating a false one which never happened as a pretext or justification for war. In the 1950s the U.S. and Britain both used it to attack Iran and make them seem far worse off and far more of a threat than they really were, and then there was Operation Northwoods which the U.S. government had drafted plans itself, the CIA more specifically, to attack our own ships and citizens in justification for an all-out war with Cuba in the early 60s. Knowing that is the only reason I can't declare 100% for sure it wasn't the government that participated in this in any way. It would be far from suggesting though that they did for 9/11. I haven't seen any evidence, just the same collaborative want that is highly prevalent coming from people who claim to have seen Bigfoot or aliens visiting us. And no matter how great a story someone tells me, if they have no evidence beyond models which are hard if not even impossible to recreate, there's no reason I'm going to believe them until they do.