Thirty shades of truth: conspiracy theories as stories of individuation, not of pathological delusion

Abstract

Recent studies on conspiracy theories employ standardized questionnaires, thus neglecting their narrative qualities by reducing them to mere statements. Recipients are considered as consumers only. Two empirical studies—a conventional survey (n = 63) and a study using the method of narrative construction (n = 30)—which were recently conducted by the authors of this paper—suggest that the truth about conspiracy theories is more complex. Given a set of statements about a dramatic historic event (in our case 9/11) that includes official testimonies, allegations to a conspiracy and extremely conspiratorial statements, the majority of participants created a narrative of 9/11 they deemed plausible that might be considered a conspiracy theory. The resulting 30 idiosyncratic stories imply that no clear distinction between official story and conspiratorial narrative is possible any more when the common approach of questionnaires is abandoned. Based on these findings, we present a new theoretical and methodological approach which acknowledges conspiracy theories as a means of constructing and communicating a set of personal values. While broadening the view upon such theories, we stay compatible with other approaches that have focused on extreme theory types. In our view, accepting conspiracy theories as a common, regulative and possibly benign phenomenon, we will be better able to understand why some people cling to immunized, racist and off-wall stories—and others do not.

Understanding Conspiracy Theories

“…Conspiracy theories therefore appear to be communicated about events that are perceived to be important and relevant to people’s political interests. In a similar vein, Raab, Ortlieb, Auer, Gunthmann, and Carbon () argue that conspiracy theories could be viewed as a way of constructing and communicating a personal set of values and moral feelings, and Klein, Clutton, and Dunn () show that anger is a precursor to the sharing of conspiracy theories.…”

An automated pipeline for the discovery of conspiracy and conspiracy theory narrative frameworks: Bridgegate, Pizzagate and storytelling on the web

“…This initial step is reminiscent of the experimental design of Raab et al [14], who asked participants in their study (n = 30) to select and arrange phrases from a deck of cards containing various statements pertaining to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. These cards were arranged into subsets representing varying degrees of conspiratorial thinking.…”

“…Despite the attention that conspiracy theories have drawn, little attention has been paid to their narrative structure, although numerous studies recognize that conspiracy theories rest on a strong narrative foundation [14] [16] [21] or that there may be methods useful for classifying them according to certain narrative features such as topics or motifs [19] [34].…”

“…Consequently, determining the underlying narrative framework of a conspiracy theory-its cast of characters, the relationships between those characters, the contexts in which those relationships arise, and the previously hidden events the interpretation of which comprise the conspiracy theory's action-is difficult. Yet understanding the underlying narrative framework which, in the case of conspiracy theories, is often the work of multiple people negotiating the boundaries of the narrative through repeated, albeit brief, interactions, can provide significant insight into the various sources of threat imagined by the conspiracy theorists, identify allegedly hidden or special knowledge on which their theorizing rests, and detail the strategies they suggest to counteract the threats encoded in the conspiracy theory [14] [39] [40]. These strategies can have real world consequences, as evidenced by the case of Edgar Welch, who opened fire with a rifle in a Washington DC area family restaurant while "investigating" the claims of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory [41].…”

Online communication as a window to conspiracist worldviews

“…By portraying a disliked outgroup as a sinister enemy of ambiguously vast power, conspiracy theories may help to manage threat and anxiety (Kofta and Sędek, 2005; Swami, 2012; Grzesiak-Feldman, 2013; Sullivan et al, 2014; Mashuri and Zaduqisti, 2015). Finally, theoretical and qualitative works present a convincing case that conspiracy theorizing is very often an anti-authoritarian activity, focused on challenging dominant societal power structures and providing counter-narratives to mainstream understandings of the world (Raab et al, 2013; Sapountzis and Condor, 2013; Harambam and Aupers, 2015). …”