On susceptibilty to Conspiracy Theories

[Jacob]

Interesting article on susceptibility to conspiracy theories, plotted against political leanings in the US: http://www.vox.com/2015/12/10/9886222/conspiracy-theories-right-wing.

They looked at two factors, trust in the political system and level of knowledge of current affairs (their term, though the definition they use seems to be better represented by "level of engagement" in my view). Their hypothesis was that lower trust in the system tended towards susceptibility to conspiracy theories, while higher levels of knowledge would mitigate such susceptibility.

That hypothesis held up when looking at Americans with views on the Liberal end of the spectrum. However, on the Conservative end level of knowledge appeared to have no effect among those with high levels of trust in the system - i.e. susceptibility didn't change however much or little they stayed informed. However amongst low trust Conservatives, susceptibility actually increased with the level of information.

[mongers]

Jacob, interesting, though I tend to use belief in conspiracy theories as a handy gauge against which to measure how much I want to interact with the person and at what level.

[Malthus]

Jacob, interesting, though I tend to use belief in conspiracy theories as a handy gauge against which to measure how much I want to interact with the person and at what level.

You conspire not to interact with them? 

[The Minsky Moment]

Confirmation bias in action.

[mongers]

Jacob, interesting, though I tend to use belief in conspiracy theories as a handy gauge against which to measure how much I want to interact with the person and at what level.

You conspire not to interact with them? 

No, I'll be explicit and explain to them why I'm 'backing away'. 

[mongers]

Confirmation bias in action.

[The Brain]

Sometimes they actually ARE sending you East to be eliminated. Better safe than sorry.

[grumbler]

Interesting article on susceptibility to conspiracy theories, plotted against political leanings in the US: http://www.vox.com/2015/12/10/9886222/conspiracy-theories-right-wing.

They looked at two factors, trust in the political system and level of knowledge of current affairs (their term, though the definition they use seems to be better represented by "level of engagement" in my view). Their hypothesis was that lower trust in the system tended towards susceptibility to conspiracy theories, while higher levels of knowledge would mitigate such susceptibility.

That hypothesis held up when looking at Americans with views on the Liberal end of the spectrum. However, on the Conservative end level of knowledge appeared to have no effect among those with high levels of trust in the system - i.e. susceptibility didn't change however much or little they stayed informed. However amongst low trust Conservatives, susceptibility actually increased with the level of information.

Actually, you have it backwards on what they assumed about political knowledge going in, if the article is correct:

They went into the study with two hypotheses:

1. All things being equal, knowledge — close engagement with partisan politics, consumption of political news — will tend to exacerbate the tendency to endorse conspiracy theories (CTs).

2. Trust in the political system will tend to mitigate this effect; those with high levels of trust will be less prone to accept CTs.

The hypothesis failed when examining the left, and was only partially true on the right (i.e. low trust and high knowledge behaved as expected, high-trust conservatives didn't become more conspiracy-minded as knowledge increased).

[Siege]

People that believe in conspiracy theories are stupid.

[viper37]

People that believe in conspiracy theories are stupid.

Like people who believe global warming is as fake as the moon landing because there's a vast scientific conspiracy?

[alfred russel]

People that believe in conspiracy theories are stupid.

Trump will be the next President.
Americans are tired of the liberal agenda that is destroying this country.
The liberal control of academia, the educational system and the mainstream media has back fired and provoked a rebellion.

Don't believe the polls. Trump is far more ahead in reality than the polling companies claim.
The liberals are using polling to shape opinion.
Then the week before election they start to report the real numbers so it doesn't appear as if they were wrong in their polling data.

[lustindarkness]

People that believe in conspiracy theories are stupid.

[Jacob]

Actually, you have it backwards on what they assumed about political knowledge going in, if the article is correct:

You're right 

[grumbler]

People that believe in conspiracy theories are stupid.

Ooops.  You let your mask slip there, kemosabe.

[The Minsky Moment]

People that believe in conspiracy theories are stupid.

Ooops.  You let your mask slip there, kemosabe.

Still managed to catch a couple in the troll net though.