Cambridge Skeptics Discuss: Conspiracy Theories

Back on the 18th May 2021 I lead a discussion on the psychology of conspiracy theories with the rest of the Cambridge Skeptics team.

Cambridge Skeptics are a not-for-profit community organisation, founded to promote science, positive skepticism and critical thinking skills via public engagement.

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Links from the talk:

The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories – Karen Douglas et al, 2017
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0963721417718261

Conspiracy theories as part of history: The role of societal crisis situations – Jan-Willem van Prooijen & Karen M Douglas, 2017
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1750698017701615

Understanding Conspiracy Theories – Karen Douglas et al, 2019
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/pops.12568

Popular COVID-19 conspiracies linked to vaccine ‘hesitancy’ – University of Cambridge, 2020
https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/popular-covid-19-conspiracies-linked-to-vaccine-hesitancy

Brexit and Trump voters more likely to believe in conspiracy theories, survey study shows – University of Cambridge, 2018
https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/brexit-and-trump-voters-more-likely-to-believe-in-conspiracy-theories-survey-study-shows

More than 1 in 3 Americans believe a ‘deep state’ is working to undermine Trump – Mallory Newall, 2020
https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/npr-misinformation-123020

Conjunction fallacy – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjunction_fallacy

Dunning–Kruger effect – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect