False beliefs about the invasion of Iraq and President Obama’s citizenship still flourish among Americans, according to the most recent national survey from Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind. More than four-in-ten Americans say it is likely that U.S. forces found active weapons of mass destruction program in Iraq after the 2003 […] Read more »
Fifty Years Later, Many Still See Broader JFK Plot, Cover-up
Fifty years later, majorities of Americans still believe that John F. Kennedy’s assassination was part of a broader plot and that a government cover-up tried to keep the public from learning the truth. But both suspicions have subsided from their peaks. CONT. Greg Holyk, ABC News Read more »
Why Rational People Buy Into Conspiracy Theories
… As Richard Hofstadter wrote in his seminal 1965 book, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” conspiracy theories, especially those involving meddlesome foreigners, are a favorite pastime in this nation. Americans have always had the sneaking suspicion that somebody was out to get us — be it Freemasons, Catholics or […] Read more »
Conspiracy trumps facts in scandals
It’s no coincidence that word leaked out about a poll revealing that 59 percent of Americans see a conspiracy in the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, just as discussion of the Benghazi and IRS scandals are heating up. Actually, it is nothing more than pure coincidence, but our […] Read more »
What a Conspiracy Theorist Believes
On a four-point scale, from one (strongly disagree) to four (strongly agree), please rate the following statements: “The Apollo moon landings never happened and were staged in a Hollywood film studio”; ”Princess Diana’s death was not an accident but rather an organized assassination by members of the British Royal Family […] Read more »
Unlocking the Conspiracy Mind-Set
… Dr. [Stephan] Lewandowsky’s survey results suggested that people who rejected climate science were more likely than other respondents to reject other scientific or official findings and buy into assorted fringe theories. … This piece of research appeared in a specialized journal in psychological science, but it did not take long […] Read more »