The Loudest Girl in the World

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conspiracy theories like this, the ones that form communities, are rare. So it's not that the intenet makes conspiracy theory communities more likely. It's that it lowers the barriers to creating a community in general. And as we've learned from past episodes, most conspiracy theorists are reasonable, intelligent, curious people. They love their families, they hold down jobs, they pay their bills. In other words, they're not stupid.

When we talk about conspiracy theories we tend to focus on what people believe instead of why, and, more importantly, why they believe those things and not other things. In this episode, we sit down with two psychologists working to change that, and in addition, change the term itself from conspiracy theory to conspiracy narrative, which more accurately describes what makes any one conspiracy appealing enough to form a community around it and in rare cases result in collective action.