Is There a Conspiracy Theory Out There?

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There is a real problem when we try to equate what goes on on twitter with real beliefs in the real world. When you look at actual get togethers of cuanon believers, it's like 50 people. So they're not able to muster sort of this wide spread support off line. Which leads you to question, well, how authentic is all this un line stoff? Every time i look at my front page, i see more news about conspiracy theories. We don't find strong evidence that people are more conspiratorial now than they have been in the past.

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.