THERAPEUTIC CONSPIRACY STORIES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6387812Keywords:
conspiracy theory, lies, COVID-19, Black SwansAbstract
Conspiracy theories ignore the law of parsimony which states that out of two competing explanations, the simple one should be chosen. Yet, some people tend to favor such theories, no matter how contorted their explanations. The present paper will argue that both extrinsic factors (such as conspiracies and lies fabricated by governments, or unpredictable events also known as Black Swans) and intrinsic elements (a innate human need for story-making) play equally important roles in people adhering to conspiracy theories.
References
Andersen, K.G., Rambaut, A., Lipkin, W.I. et al. “The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2”, Nat Med (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0820-9 (accessed April 7, 2020 from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9#citeas).
Arendt, H., Crises of the Republic, Mariner Books, 1972.
Beauchamp, Z., Animashaun, C., “New poll finds Fox News viewers think the coronavirus threat is exaggerated”, Vox, March 27, 2020, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/27/21195940/coronavirus-fox-news-poll-republicans-trump (accessed April 27, 2020).
Brownstein, R., “Red and Blue America Aren’t Experiencing the Same Pandemic”, The Atlantic, March 20, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/03/how-republicans-and-democratsthink-about-coronavirus/608395/, (accessed April 15, 2020).
Calma, Justine, “How to debunk COVID-19 conspiracy theories”, The Verge, March 20, 2020, https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/20/21187983/debunk-coronavirus-conspiracy-theorieshow-to-covid-19-news-science (accessed April 7, 2020)
Dodds, E.R., Grecii si iraționalul, translated by Catrinel Pleșu, Polirom, 1998.
Havel, V., The Power of the Powerless, 1978, PDF at https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/resource/the-power-of-the-powerless/.com
Klein, Jürgen, “Francis Bacon”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/francis-bacon (accessed April 7, 2020).
Lewandowsky, Cook, The Conspiracy Theory Handbook, published March 2020 by George Mason University, Center for Climate Change.
McKee C., Bohannon K. ,“Exploring the Reasons Behind Parental Refusal of Vaccines”. J Pediatr. Pharmacol Ther. 2016; 21(2):104–109, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4869767/ (accessed April 10, 2020).
Mitchell, A., Oliphant, B., “Americans Immersed in COVID-19 News; Most Think Media Are Doing Fairly Well Covering It”, Pew Research Center, March 18, 2020, https://www.journalism.org/2020/03/18/americans-immersed-in-covid-19-news-most-think-media-are-doingfairly-well-covering-it/ (accessed April 7, 2020).
Popper, K. R., Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, Routledge, London, 2002.
Qiu, Jane, “How China’s ‘Bat Woman’ Hunted Down Viruses from SARS to the New Coronavirus”, Scientific American, March 11, 2020, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-chinas-bat-womanhunted-down-viruses-from-sars-to-the-new-coronavirus1/ (accessed April 7, 2020).
Singer, P., Friedman, A., Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know, Oxford University Press, 2014
Taleb, N. N., The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, Random House, 2007.
