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Yes, completely. I did an essay on it for one of my psychology classes at university. Basically, people in this hyper-connected world - in a world that ever since World War I has been growing increasingly reliant on one another, with the United Nations (and League of Nations before that) seen as a one world ruling body - have become disenfranchised. Even their own local communities are part of a larger one-ness; that sense of being someone, even in a small way, is lost as personal comparisons are made across the world to others. In order to feel better about themselves, that they are not just a number on a spreadsheet, people will try to adopt many different things. Artists, corporate leaders, sportspeople all have outlets to make themselves stand out from the crowd. But this is a very small minority. Others want to feel like they mean something, and that "meaning something" comes with the willingness, mentally, to be open to information that could help set them apart. A conspiracy theory (theory used in the philosophical sense, not the scientific sense) is a form of hidden knowledge. If the people in charge, if the "normal" people, do not see what the conspiracies are, then the believer feels they have special information, and that makes them feel like they are special in their own minds. They know things others don't. That takes them out of being just another number - they are part of the "enlightened." And, of course, Dunning-Kruger then comes into play. Belief in conspiracy theories - which really didn't start amongst the mass populace until the mid-20th century; some cite older ones, but the people, the regular people, had no idea - is a means for people to make themselves feel like they mean something in a world that increasingly makes people feel like they do not matter. It is a natural response to being a part of a world more focused on everything except humanity. The fact some conspiracies (and by some, I mean very, very few) come to pass only reinforces the idea that all conspiracies must be true to the believers. It does not care about intelligence, education or anything else. It is a personal response to an unfeeling, uncaring, increasingly hostile world that only seems to want to divide and conquer. (FWIW, my original essay was 4200 words and got me a distinction (92%).) |
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