Why Do People Buy Into Conspiracy Theories

The reason why people buy into conspiracy theories is a result of people having a sense of powerlessness and uncertainty, they can be caused by rational thinking, and people spend too much time on the internet and find exaggerated information that can possibly be false. Large numbers of disastrous events have been caused by conspiracy theories. For example, the Red Scare was caused by people thinking that Communists were out to get them. Conspiracy theories are everywhere and can cause usually rational people to do irrational things. There have been a multitude of statistics showing how conspiracy theories can affect people and the government. One of the reasons why people believe in conspiracy theories is because people have a sense of uncertainty and powerlessness. This is due to economic recessions, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters. People have little to no power over these things so they create erratic, over exaggerated theories to help them reason with what is happening. Also, there is a part of the brain called the amygdala. This part
People believe that conspiracy theories are imagined by people like Doomsday preppers, extremists, and other irrationally thinking people but that’s not always the case. Some of the most over exaggerated theories can be caused by rational thinking. There have been multiple statistics confirming this. One of those is statistics was a poll conducted by Farleigh Dickinson University; they found that sixty-three percent of Americans believed in a political conspiracy theory. Nevertheless, that does not mean that they are not caused by people thinking irrationally. There have been multiple instances where people thinking irrationally has led to horrible events. For example, in the late 1940s during the Cold War many people thought Communists were out to get them and steal the government which, consequently, created the Red