Some conspiracy theories are mostly harmless. Others have far reaching consequences. Now the scholars are very close to understanding the reasons why so many people believe things that are not true.
Conspiracy theories are not at all a new thing. Since the third century, the lost Philippian missing gospel said that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, a myth which has been perpetuated in literature, through books such as the "Da Vinci Code". Some argue that the Illuminati conspiracy theoretician theory has its roots in a secret society of 1776, but that society had no point of similarity to today's Illuminati.
Recently, there are those who deny that the Holocaust has happened. Despite irrefutable evidence, they say that the Nazis did not kill 6 million Jews during World War II.
The questions that psychologists raise is: why such theories continue to survive?
And there is no simple answer.
"In a sense, we all tend to doubt the government," says Karen Douglas, a psychologist. "The fact that we care and see with suspicion a group of people who do not understand makes sense from an evolutionary point of view. In some ways, it is a tendency to adapt to being suspicious of other groups. "
But when Douglas psychology digged a bit more, he discovered some other explanations. One of them is a nearly narcissistic need to be unique, according to a study. A person feels he has access to rare information or "secret" alternative explanations for certain world events, such as murders at Charlie Hebdo in January 205 in Paris.
Writer Michael Billig wrote in 1984: "The conspiracy theory offers the chance for hidden, important and immediate knowledge. So the one who believes can become an expert, possessing knowledge that neither the so-called experts have had. "
