Study: Conspiracy theorists are not necessarily paranoid

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Jan 31, 2008
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A new study from psychologists Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz helps to untangle the relationship between belief in conspiracy theories and paranoia.

The researchers found that conspiracy theorists are not necessarily paranoid. While paranoid people believe that almost everybody is out to get them, conspiracist believe that a few powerful people are out to get everybody. Their findings were published in the European Journal of Social Psychology.

“I have been studying conspiracy mentality for almost ten years now and although there is fantastic scholarly work out there, something bugged me about the way conspiracy scholars talk about conspiracy ‘believers’. Too often, there is a slight pathologizing tone and a certain arrogance towards the ‘crazy’ conspiracy believers,” explained study author Roland Imhoff, professor of social and legal psychology.

“On the one hand, I can see where this comes from, also because several colleagues have really negative interactions with people who endorsed conspiracy theories,” he told PsyPost. “On the other hand, I have always tried to not take a normative stand but merely describe what correlates, antecedent and consequences of belief in conspiracy theories are without claiming that having such beliefs is either correct or incorrect, normal or paranoid.

“In this study, we wanted to counter the impression that belief in conspiracy theories is just a symptom of a paranoid delusion.”

An initial meta-analysis of 11 previously published studies, with a combined total of 2,006 participants, found there was a significant correlation between conspiracy beliefs and paranoia.

The researchers then conducted two studies, with 209 German and 400 American participants in total, to better understand the overlap and differences between conspiracy beliefs and paranoia.

The conspiracy mentality of the participants was measured by asking them how much they agreed or disagreed with statements like “There are certain political circles with secret agendas that are very influential.” Paranoid, on the other hand, was measured with statements like “I need to be on my guard against others.”

They found that conspiracy beliefs were associated with socio-political factors like decreased trust in the government, but paranoia was more indicative of a person’s personality traits. Beliefs in conspiracy theories were also strongly associated with assigning blame to a few powerful people, while paranoia was associated with assigning blame to humanity in general.

“I think our findings are best encapsulated in the notion that while there is a certain overlap of subclinical paranoia and conspiracy beliefs, the two markedly differ in their scope of both the threat and the target: Whereas paranoid people believe that virtually everyone is after specifically them, conspiracy believer think that a few powerful people are after virtually everyone,” Imhoff explained.

The researchers said the findings also suggest that belief in conspiracy theories is more of a political attitude than a symptom of a psychopathological issue.

However, the study has some limitations.

“We looked at variations within non-selected samples, not at cases of clinical paranoia,” Imhoff said. “Also, we explored existing inter-individual differences at a certain point in time, but we have no longitudinal data to follow whether one of the two typically precedes the other.”
 
Jan 29, 2005
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conspiracy believer think that a few powerful people are after virtually everyone,” Imhoff explained.
They paid for a study to come to this conclusion? I thought that was always the well known common knowledge thought on conspiracy theorists, that they think the government/corporations/illuminati are out to get them.
 
May 9, 2002
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I tend to lump them together, even though i know its a gross generalization. It seems to me that there isnt just one kind of conspiracy theory believer, but a multitude of them. Now, where they are all share exact similar personality make ups i have no idea, but just looking at their backgrounds (or at least what i can tell/what theyve let be known), it really takes all kinds.

Ive been skeptical of our government since....forever, but 9/11 is what really put me over the fence in some capacity. The second i woke up and saw that on the TV, my IMMEDIATE thought was "this is an inside job". Dont know why, just something about it.

I peek into the forums and watch some videos discussing illuminati's and pizzagates, and mostly for informative views of all sides, but i rarely dive that deep into the rabbit hole...and mostly because, honestly...who cares? Most, if not all, of this stuff is out of reach for someone like me. What does it matter that i know? Can i convince anyone else? Even if i could, what does it really matter? Will one day the entire world will "know the truth" and then what? In the grand scheme of things, i feel like these theories quite frankly can drive you mad and to BE more paranoid...ive caught myself in that state a number of times and who wants extra anxiety added on to your life?

This whole QAnon thing is a perfect example. Its almost like passive hysteria being driven by this whole "movement"....THE GREAT AWAKENING....just wait trust the process!!! OK...and for what? Nothing huge has happened, the people backing this movement is still very small comparatively speaking. What IS the end goal here?

I do my best to worry about me and my life, and keep my anxiety narrowly spaced to that...otherwise you begin to grind down over things you have no control over. And thats the real height of paranoia.
 
Jan 31, 2008
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I tend to lump them together, even though i know its a gross generalization. It seems to me that there isnt just one kind of conspiracy theory believer, but a multitude of them. Now, where they are all share exact similar personality make ups i have no idea, but just looking at their backgrounds (or at least what i can tell/what theyve let be known), it really takes all kinds.

Ive been skeptical of our government since....forever, but 9/11 is what really put me over the fence in some capacity. The second i woke up and saw that on the TV, my IMMEDIATE thought was "this is an inside job". Dont know why, just something about it.

I peek into the forums and watch some videos discussing illuminati's and pizzagates, and mostly for informative views of all sides, but i rarely dive that deep into the rabbit hole...and mostly because, honestly...who cares? Most, if not all, of this stuff is out of reach for someone like me. What does it matter that i know? Can i convince anyone else? Even if i could, what does it really matter? Will one day the entire world will "know the truth" and then what? In the grand scheme of things, i feel like these theories quite frankly can drive you mad and to BE more paranoid...ive caught myself in that state a number of times and who wants extra anxiety added on to your life?

This whole QAnon thing is a perfect example. Its almost like passive hysteria being driven by this whole "movement"....THE GREAT AWAKENING....just wait trust the process!!! OK...and for what? Nothing huge has happened, the people backing this movement is still very small comparatively speaking. What IS the end goal here?

I do my best to worry about me and my life, and keep my anxiety narrowly spaced to that...otherwise you begin to grind down over things you have no control over. And thats the real height of paranoia.
I see what you are saying and agree with you but I believe if one gets educated enough, not only on politics or history etc., but on human/animal nature and psychology, then one may begin to have a better discernment of what is likely and what isnt, or at the very least be able to know what is worth spending time on(The blatant take-over of the middle east, UFOs even) and what isn't (Flat earth, hollow earth, reptilian people, etc).

They flood us with so much true and false information that as you indicated, we become unable to act on any of it because we simply cannot keep up. A little self-awareness and understanding of human nature can allow one to avoid such traps and pitfalls.


If you ever feel like you are losing your mind from so much anxiety etc., remember that this whole human experience is a construct whereby none of it is objectively real, and that whether they destroy the environment or not, one day the sun will devour the earth, etc.

People tend to think so-called "big picture thoughts" aka society level shit but fail to think even bigger; man made constructs including society are not the foundation of life or the cosmos. And in THAT layer of existence is where I find my peace and solace.
If you keep up with the anarchist thread in the GOM there will be light shone on inherent qualities of our existence and those that are ephemeral man made constructs.
 
Jan 29, 2016
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I can see why mothafuckas go crazy tho. Cant forget some people cant handle truth and snap man. My homies brother is in the Looney bin cuz he thought the government was on him. Shit for all we know they probably were but he couldn't discern paranoia from reality. I can really see why niggas snap but I try to not focus on shit I cant change and do me; and be aware.
I've seen videos of fools on the "gangstalking" shit.

Like walking into a store and its alone and all of a sudden it gets popping in there. Or I'm driving somewhere and all of a sudden everybody I left get infront of me, being a nice driver, is going EXACTLY where I'm going.

Ive noticed that, but those fools recording random people I feel are tripping hard. But shit who knows lol
 
Jan 31, 2008
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I can see why mothafuckas go crazy tho. Cant forget some people cant handle truth and snap man. My homies brother is in the Looney bin cuz he thought the government was on him. Shit for all we know they probably were but he couldn't discern paranoia from reality. I can really see why niggas snap but I try to not focus on shit I cant change and do me; and be aware.
I've seen videos of fools on the "gangstalking" shit.

Like walking into a store and its alone and all of a sudden it gets popping in there. Or I'm driving somewhere and all of a sudden everybody I left get infront of me, being a nice driver, is going EXACTLY where I'm going.

Ive noticed that, but those fools recording random people I feel are tripping hard. But shit who knows lol
I wish I knew what this is called... whatever it is it is a mental phenomenon.
It is like if I asked you to make the wind blow with your mind--at a certain point you will convince yourself that you can do it purely due to coincidences and the varying dynamic degrees of value you are giving the outcome.

The mind is filled with these things. For instance when you move your eyes from looking at one thing to another, the eyes go blind and a few of your frames are missing any images, followed by a frame of the second thing you look at. Your brain then fills the missing frames with last image you saw making it seem that there was a continuous jump from one image to the next.

another example
People with hemispatial neglect due to right hemisphere lesions do not look or turn their head towards the left side, nor do they attend to visual, auditory or tactile stimuli on their left[3] and thus, it is common that they eat only the food on the right half of the plate, draw only the right half of the objects when copying, or read half of the sentences or words in the absence of sensory deficits [2,3].

In a study that exemplifies the nature of this disorder [5], patients were presented simultaneously with two line drawings of a house: one undamaged house and one burning with flames and smoke coming out from its left side window. When asked whether the houses were identical or different, patients reported no differences; yet, when asked which house they would prefer to live in, they chose the undamaged house without being able to explain why.
The brain is built to hallucinate reality and it does a great job convincing you of its bullshit. Excessive smoking of marijuana exemplifies the bullshit.
A little self-awareness of the functioning of the Machine is a good place to start if you would like to get past this stage of adolescent retrospective rationalizing.

check this out
You Are Not So Smart
 
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