UscinskiConspiracy

• UscinskiConspiracy

Conspiracy Theories : a primer

Joseph E. Uschinski 2020 Tigard 001.9 USC

• https://www.joeuscinski.com/

• Professor of Political Science at the University of Miami

• American Conspiracy Theories 2014

• Conspiracy Theories and the People Who Believe Them (ed) 2018

• p01 Ch 1 Why Study Conspiracy Theories?

• p-vii: FBI report about conspiracy theories

• p02 ref 6 Stanley Kubrick allegedly helped fake Moon landing, Refuted by daughter Vivian

• pxx ref 32

• p21 Ch 2 What Is a Conspiracy Theory?

• p47 Ch 3 The Popularity of Conspiracy and Anomalous Beliers

• p48 Likert scale .p58

• p59 Ch 3 ref 81 Paranormal America 2017 survey "25% of Americans believed that people can move objects with their minds"

• p59 Linda Lyons, "Paranormal Beliefs Come (Super) Naturally to Some"

• p59 !QAnon and flat Earth are newsworthy but unpopular

• p65 Ch 4: The Psychology and Sociology of Conspiracy Theories

• p67 conjunction fallacy -> conspiracy theories and paranormal phenomena

  • Do I Think BLS Data are BS? The Consequences of Conspiracy Theories Political Behavior Vol. 37 pp. 679–701 (2015), Katherine Levine Einstein & David M. Glick

• p67 Some strongly need cognitive closure, intolerant of uncertainty

• p67 Addicted to answers: Need for cognitive closure and the endorsement of conspiracy beliefs 2017 pdf

• p67 overactive cheater detectors, heavy debt + large insurance policy + house fire = suggests arson

• p67 death of Supreme Court conservative Antonin Scalia 2016. Obama conspiracy? or overweight 79yo smoker with diabetes and heart problems?

• p69 Cass Sunstein: conspiracy theories stem from crippled epistemologies

• p69 Walter Lippmann: People look to the news the way a drunk looks to a lamppost -- not for illumination, bur rather for reinforcement. "oft quoted" no cite, cannot find

• p69 Political arguments end in stalemate; unreasoned opinions cannot be altered with reason and evidence
• p69 motivated reasoning dismisses challenging information
• p69 People with less capacity for analytical thinking tend to believe conspiracy theories
• p70 four styles of personality traits: secure, anxious, avoidant, and fearful
  • anxious, avoidant, need for uniqueness, narcissism predict belief in conspiracy theories

  • delusional thinking, magical thinking, schizotypy, and hallucination proneness predict conspiracy beliefs

• p71 Paranormal ideation supernatural ideation

• p71 Neil Dagnall Conspiracy Theory and Cognitive Style: a Worldview Journal of Parapsychology

• p71 The concomitants of conspiracy concerns Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 2017

• p72 n27 Sean Richey 2017 A Birther and a Truther: The Influence of the Authoritarian Personality on Conspiracy Beliefs

• p79 Ch 5. The Politics of Conspiracy Theories

• p80 n3 Medea Benjamin 2017 America Dropped 26,171 Bombs in 2016

• p81 n5 Joel Rosenblatt 2018 Champagne Remark May Cost Lawyer $289 Million Bayer Award (title of Bloomberg paywall article)

• p83 White replacement theory: corporations and governments conspire to replace whites with inexpensive foreign workers

  • Widely believed in Europe, 50% in France
• p86 Masonic square and compass image, the "G" in the center stands for Geometry (precision) and also God or "Grand Architect of the Universe". Freemasonry is non-denominational, but a belief in a supreme being is a requirement to join.

• p87 media messages have strong effects, hypodermic needle theory

• p89 Facebook "polarized users" of "conspiracy pages" comment and "like more often

  • n38 Bessi et.al. 2015

• p92 n55 Many political left don't accept that they also believe conspiracy theories, then argue the definition of conspiracy theory

  • PR Bost in Conspiracy theories and the people who believe them 2019 (edited by Joseph E. Uscinski)

• p94 Rich Lowry 2015 Bernie’s Conspiracy Theory

• p94 no legitimate economics or politics textbooks treat the "one percent theory" (Sanders, the left) as fact

• p94 Robert A. Dahl 2013 A Critique of the Ruling Elite Model

• p96 n68 Sarah Ann Gordon 1984 Hitler, Germans, and the Jewish Question PSU basement DS146.G4 G57 1984

  • 1984 History at Pace University in New York City
  • 1979 Student at SUNY Buffalo

• p96 n72a Jim Tankersley 2015 Sorry, Bernie Sanders. Deodorant Isn't Starving America's Children

• p96 n72b Sam Frizell 2016 Bernie Sanders' Long History With Alternative Medicine

• p97 n75a Smallpage, Enders, and Uscinski 2019 The Partisan Contours of Conspiracy Theory Beliefs

• p97 n75b Casey Klofstad et. al. 2019 What Drives People to Believe in Zika Conspiracy Theories

• p98 quadrant map, dem-rep horizontal, high to low conspiracy thinking vertical
• p99 hence most partisan conspiracy theories top out at 25%
• p99 non partisan conspiracy theories higher, bundle of all Kennedy assassination theories 60% to 80%
• p101 Trump 2016, 50% Dems believed Russian vote tampering

  • n89 Jack Edelson et. al. 2017 The Effect of Conspiratorial Thinking and Motivated Reasoning on Belief in Election Fraud

• p103 NYT (left leaning Paul Krugman):
  • during Bush "The truth is that many of the people who throw around terms like 'loopy conspiracy theories' are lazy bullies, they try to suggest that anyone who asks those questions are crazy"
  • during Obama "conspiracy theories are supported by a lot of influential people on the right, but not on the left"
  • during Trump "It looks more and more as if we had an election swung, in effect, by a faction of our own security sector in alliance with Putin."
• p103 ... if this can happen to a Nobel Prize winner, it can happen to anyone.

• p109 Ch 6 President Trump, the Internet, Conspiracy, and Conspiracy Theory

• p109 Trump justified policies and actions with conspiracy theories

J. Eric Oliver Wendy M. Rahn Rise of the Trumpenvolk Populism in the 2016 Election

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• p125 Conclusion