CNN's John Sutter has been following extreme conspiracy theory groups. He says the people who join them are often grizzled and outside of social norms. His research found that those traits, as well as anti-social personality traits, drove kuenon. The group is thought to be taking over politics in some parts of the United States.
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.
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