HOW TO SPOT AN UNFOUNDED THEORY

Not all conspiracy theories are unfounded. How can you tell? In

The Conspiracy Theory Handbook, psychology and communication researchers Stephan Lewandowsky and John Cook offer these signs that you’re dealing with a dodgy narrative:

• OVERRIDING SUSPICION

An automatic rejection of any official or authoritative account.

• THE ASSUMPTION OF NEFARIOUS INTENT You seldom hear of conspiracy theories about a benign global elite conspiring for humanity’s betterment, do you?

• PERSECUTED HERO Unfounded conspiracy theory proponents generally cast themselves in both victim and hero roles – as a victim of organised persecution and/or a heroic whistle-blower.

• IMMUNE TO EVIDENCE Evidence that counters the theory is reinterpreted as originating from the conspiracy. This reflects the belief that the stronger the evidence against a conspiracy (the FBI exonerating a politician from allegations of misusing a personal email server, for example), the more the conspirators must want people to believe their version of events (the FBI was part of the conspiracy to protect that politician).

• MAINTAINING THE BELIEF THAT NOTHING OCCURS BY ACCIDENT Small random events (such as intact windows in the Pentagon after the 9/11 attacks) are interpreted as being caused by the conspiracy (because if an airliner had hit the Pentagon, then all the windows would have shattered) and are woven into a broader, interconnected pattern.