Why Do people believe conspiracy theories on the internet?

The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly rating their ability much higher than average. This bias is attributed to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their mistakes.1 Actual competence may weaken self-confidence, as competent individuals may falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding. As Kruger and Dunning conclude, "the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others" (p.

1127).2- -Confirmation bias (also called confirmatory bias or myside bias) is a tendency of people to favor information that confirms their beliefs or hypotheses. Note 11 People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. The effect is stronger for emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs.

For example, in reading about gun control, people usually prefer sources that affirm their existing attitudes. They also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position. Biased search, interpretation and memory have been invoked to explain attitude polarization (when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence), belief perseverance (when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false), the irrational primacy effect (a greater reliance on information encountered early in a series) and illusory correlation (when people falsely perceive an association between two events or situations).

- The IQ and the life expectancy of the average American recently passed each other in opposite directions.”? George Carlin There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”?

Isaac Asimov.

Some of us have valid concerns about political stories . We think this is not true and so we have to go with our gut response on this. I used to buy cigarettes for our handyman at this little gas station and I spoke to a nice man who was Pakistani name Krishna who was using a huge satellite phone from the dark ages.

I told my friend he was part of a sleeper cell and what would he do about this Yes, of course you might pray. Of course my friend decided I was a nut case. I said No, because God told me specifically he wanted me to see something at the gas station and then this fellow had these big satellite phones and so I called the FBI based on what God said to me I went back several times and there were never any white people working there at all.

I wondered where they found them in our small Amish community I contacted the FBI and I said these men are part of a sleeper cell and you should check them out. I shop at a liquor store with a Muslim owner so I do not assume all Muslims are terrorists . I hated moving here because there was no cultural diversity and suddenly these guys are here.

So it turned out that the owner was talking to the 9/11 bomber people about money and the gas station was shut down. He had plans for bombs and attacks on his computer on other facilities. The End.

One man's conspiracy theory is another woman's helpful hints from above. He went to Gitmo and I felt sad for him because people are people and if they have bad things happen, you feel sad because we are all human beings , except for the lizard people.. jk I have had a lot of these kinds of things occur in my lifetime and sometimes a hunch something is off is far more important then gathering a lot of facts. We should never underestimate the power of knowings.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.