Social Identity and Morality Lab

5min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

All conspiracy theories are attractive thanks to three base motivations, says sternisko. There is the social identity that's what draws people to the contents of a conspiracy theory. The non normativity, the community, the shared reality, if you will. It's either one or the other that initially attracts a person and has something to do with their motivations. We could potentially do as a society, meeting the needs that people initially draw to conspiracy theories and then also hold them there,. he adds.

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.