From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sun Jul 28 2002 - 00:05:19 MDT
ABlainey asks
> Does any one on the list have any solid Psychological explanation
> as to why people, even educated, highly intelligent people are
> sucked in by this kind of thing?
My guess is that conspiracy theories thrive for the following
reasons. First, highly intelligent people often have trouble
accepting that so many stupid things can happen in the world,
things committed by governments, corporations, extremely
knowledgeable academics, and shrewd people in powerful
power. It sort of defies common sense in their minds that
so much chaos, misunderstanding, and disastrous policies
could just happen. Surely, they're unconsciously thinking,
these things are not happening due to accidents, poor judgment,
faulty theories, and general misunderstanding. No, there must
be a sinister force behind appearances deliberately achieving
some of these effects. How else could such incredibly bad and
absurd situations arise?
Second, people of all degrees of intelligence can find appeal
in *shortcuts*, contrived explanations based upon secret knowledge
or nonstandard assumptions. This often lies behind the appeal
of pseudoscience, IMO. Why study science and have to, even after
years, admit that there are thousands or even millions of people
who still know more about something than you do, when with
relatively little effort you can sidestep all that hard work.
The psychics, after all, demonstrably know more than all those
fussy scientists. Just give one a call and see for yourself!
> I would class this kind of attraction along with cultism
> and religion, who would agree?
Definitely cultism, but somewhat less religion I'd say. Quite
a few people free from the "DavidIcke" type effect you describe,
and free from the mistakes I describe in my two paragraphs above,
nonetheless still cling to religion. Many do it for traditional
reasons, thinking consciously or unconsciously that anything which
worked for so many of their ancestors for so long must have something
to it. Others prefer to believe that "science doesn't hold all the
answers", and subscribe to a religion or two because of the nature
of the revealed truths therein, often, to be fair, merely truths
about themselves or aesthetic appreciations of the universe. The
latter are joined by those who, almost in the interests of fair
play, resent the hegemony of science over the last few hundred
years, and feel (often rightly so) that the high priests of
science and their defenders are rather arrogant. To them, I
retort that the personality foibles of certain proponents doesn't
alter the truth or falsity of their claims.
> I can immediately see the attraction to people who feel "hard
> done by" for the world not seeing their potential, Achievements,
> etc. But does this group include everyone? or is the attraction
> to this kind of thing more widespread?
Hmm. That's a factor I hadn't thought of. So you're saying that
a psychological motivation, in some cases, for people to enter
cults or accept pseudoscience may a way at getting back at the
world. Interesting.
Lee
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