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17 - The Conspiracy Frame: Coherence through Self-Supporting Beliefs

from Part IV - Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2024

Thomas T. Hills
Thomas T. Hills
Affiliation:
University of Warwick
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Summary

Conspiracy theories explain anomalous events as the outcome of secret plots by small groups of people with malevolent aims. Is every conspiracy unique, or do they all share a common thread? That is, might conspiracy explanations stem from a higher-order belief that binds together a wide variety of overtly independent phenomena under a common umbrella? We can call this belief the conspiracy frame. Network science allows us to examine this frame at two different levels: by examining the structural coherence of individual conspiracies and by examining the higher-level interconnectivity of the conspiracy beliefs as a whole.

Keywords

conspiracy theoriescostly signallingpointwise mutual informationcoherent beliefsmainstreamentropy
Type
Chapter
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Behavioral Network Science
Language, Mind, and Society
 , pp. 278 - 295
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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