Don’t Blame Social Media for Conspiracy Theories – They Would Still Flourish without It

Technology Isn’t the Problem
What we’re seeing now with COVID-19 is nothing new: conspiracy theories have flourished across human history, and for many reasons. Some psychologists suggest that they are a natural byproduct of evolutionary psychological mechanisms that are sewn into our DNA to help us detect threats and protect ourselves from rival groups. Historians find that conspiracy theories have been a regular presence, used by leaders and fringe groups alike to spread their message and build coalitions.

Despite their familiar tropes, COVID-19 conspiracy theories are new and disconcerting – and they are being spread on YouTube, Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter. But, modern commentary engages in numerous errors of reasoning. It sees only particular conspiracy theories, rather than the basic building blocks shared by all such theories.

In the past, video games, rock music, television, the telephone, radio, and books were all methods of communication upon which the supposed newfound ills of society were blamed. In the 1980s, for example, the popular new board game Dungeons and Dragons was said to be corrupting the nation’s youth; the TV show 60 Minutes even ran a story with supposed experts attesting that the game could summon actual demons.

Why People Believe Conspiracy Theories
Political science and psychology research shows that the motivations to believe or disbelieve conspiracy theories are largely unrelated to particular methods of communication.

What researchers call “motivated reasoning”, for example, leads people to accept conspiracy theories that are congruent with existing political and social motivations and reject those that are incongruent with such motivations. This explains why Trump supporters are more likely to believe the conspiracy theory that the threat of COVID-19 is being exaggerated to hurt Trump’s presidency than Trump’s opponents.

Likewise, many of the psychological states that make conspiracy theories attractive have little do with social media. Uncertainty, powerlessness and anxiety – feelings caused by a rising death toll, crumbling economy and social isolation – would be exacerbated by a pandemic irrespective of time spent on Facebook or Twitter.

In other words, people believe in conspiracy theories for a host of reasons, both conscious and unconscious. We are not merely blank slates, lemmings ready to believe any idea to which we are exposed. Recent studies even find evidence that young people who grew up with the internet are more discerning than those of past generations when it comes to the information they are exposed to online. They truly “don’t believe everything they read on the internet”.

Regardless of their long history, or their recent spread on social media, conspiracy theories do pose a problem for society. But, misattributing blame for conspiracy theories to social media ensures that the problems they pose will persist.

Joseph E. Uscinski is Associate Professor, Political Science, University of Miami. Adam M Enders is Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Louisville. This article is published courtesy of The Conversation.