Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories | Rob Brotherton

Why do people believe conspiracy theories? What’s the harm if they do? And just what is a conspiracy theory, anyway? Conspiracy theories captured the attention of philosophers and historians decades ago, but it is only within the last few years that psychologists have begun gathering data on these kinds of questions.

In this talk, Rob Brotherton provides a psychological perspective on conspiracism, drawing on his own research as well as other insights explored in his book Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories. In particular, research into cognitive biases and heuristics – quirks in the way our brains are wired – suggests that we’re all intuitive conspiracy theorists; some of us just hide it better than others.

Rob Brotherton is an academic psychologist. He completed a PhD on the psychology of conspiracy theories with the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London. He now lives in New York City and teaches classes on conspiracy theories, social psychology, and science communication at Barnard College.

This talk was recorded live at CSICon Las Vegas on Saturday, October 28th 2017.
Check out more talks: https://reasonabletalk.tv/

Learn more about CFI: http://www.centerforinquiry.net/

Видео Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories | Rob Brotherton канала Center for Inquiry