Why do so many people swallow falsehoods while rejecting verifiable facts and scientific data as "lies"? Many anti-vaxxers persist in their beliefs that vaccines and masks are useless or harmful, even after losing unvaxxed family members to covid! Any theories?
The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0963721417718261
Thanks, Publicenemy, that was a good read.
From the article, this is the little nugget that disconcerted me:
"Furthermore, history has repeatedly shown that corporate and political elites do conspire against public interests. Conspiracy theories play an important role in bringing their misdeeds into the light."
So, sometimes there's a grain of wheat amongst the chaff. I know I'm not clever enough to sort it!
They aren't exposed to alternative opinions because they listen to and watch RW media like Fox and the others. They are being lied to every day and every night, 7 days a week. If you only see and hear one side of issues and then only see and hear what they want you to, then it's natural to believe it because you have nothing to compare it to. I'm not saying this is the only reason because I'm sure this is just a generalization, but I believe this is a major reason.