Reasons Why a Conspiracy Theory is a Hole You Don't Want to Fall Down

A couple weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about my fascination with the sinking of the RMS Titanic. In researching the post, I came across a number of conspiracy theories linked to the wreckage. And while some of them may have been plausible, most were far beyond reason.

One of the most popular theories for example, suggests that the Titanic never sank, and the telling of its demise was actually a case of tactical insurance fraud.

The theory bases itself around the substantial damage that the RMS Olympic, another White Star Liner, experienced to its hull a year prior to the Titanic's maiden voyage. Many posit that the Olympic was so severely impaired that it was no longer profitable. As a result, White Star Line supposedly 'switched' the Olympic with the Titanic and sent it to the bottom of the North Atlantic, abandoning their damaged vessel and collecting their insurance money.

This theory has so many undeniable flaws, but my favourite is that the Titanic's insurance money wasn't even nearly enough to cover the loss of the Olympic.

Reading about these unswaying theorists reminded me of a presentation that guest speaker Robert Cutting gave my school a few years ago. Mr. Cutting illustrated the convincing nature of conspiracies in a really effective way: by having our class of hyperactive pre-teens interact with one first-hand.

He brought in album covers, tape recorders, and photographs, and we spent the day evaluating the "Paul is Dead" theory.

If you've never heard of it, this highly-elaborate theory suggests that Paul McCartney, bassist and vocalist for the Beatles, was decapitated in a car crash on November 9, 1966. Following McCartney's death, the remaining band members are said to have replaced him with the winner of "a McCartney Look-Alike Contest," and kept the casualty under cover for years.

Sounds pretty outlandish, right?

That's what my class thought at first, too. After laying out the theory's groundwork, Mr. Cutting asked for a show of hands to see how many of us were convinced. We were all pretty skeptical, and no one's hand went up.

But after a full day of studying song lyrics, holding mirrors up to album covers, and listening to Beatles' tracks backwards, Mr. Cutting asked for another show of hands, and one by one our hands went up. I guess to a class of 12 year olds, this theory was mind-boggingly conclusive.

And theories about shipwrecks and rock musicians are relatively harmless. But there's a really sinister world of anti-Semitic and Illuminati conspiracies that has lasting ramifications for those who fall into its traps.

In order to understand why conspiracies are so dangerous, it's important to first discern where they come from.

One of my favourite blogs, Terra Incognita, has a series on the theology of Disney XD's 2012 cartoon, Gravity Falls. The blog discusses 'duping delight,' which is that innate, often uncontrollable thrill that comes with telling a lie and getting away with it. 'Duping delight' often manifests as a momentary smile or laugh in the midst of a fabricated story.

That's what makes conspiracies so psychologically compelling. They give us a secret to be a part of. They give us a sense of power over others.

They give us delight.

But once you've bought into a conspiracy theory, it becomes a closed feedback loop. Each piece of disproving evidence only ends up enforcing it more, and the stronger the argument against it, the stronger the incentive to be right.

And once you've fallen down a conspiratorial hole, it causes a domino effect of inevitable consequences.

Take Jim Keegstra's students for example. Jim Keegstra was a Canadian public school teacher who was convicted of hate speech and charged under the Criminal Code in 1984 for teaching his social studies class that the Holocaust was a fraud. His students had no reason to disbelieve his lessons, which used appalling language to describe Jewish people.

And not only is this nauseatingly offensive, but it also caused irreparable cognitive dissonance among his students.

When people tried to convince them that the education they received from their seemingly trustworthy school teacher was entirely deceptive, it undermined their ability to decipher true from false. His students are interviewed describing the years and years it took to rebuild their trust in reliable sources.

I think it's especially important to be mindful of the manipulative nature of conspiracies today, during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Almost 30% of Americans believe the coronavirus was manufactured artificially and intentionally.

And it isn't wrong to have thoughts or to make speculations. But it's so critical that we don't present those opinion as facts, and that we do our best to maintain an educated and unbiased perspective.

A newspaper was delivered to my house the other day that was full of anti-Chinese sentiments and Sinophobic articles regarding COVID-19. And I couldn't help but sympathize for the paper's vulnerable readers, who- like Jim Keegstra's students- were being manipulated by a seemingly trustworthy source.

When a conspiracy is not approached cautiously, we become defenseless to its influence.

And that's why a conspiracy theory is a hole you don't want to fall down.