The latest reading offer from the Lodz University Press is another entry in the "The Psychology of Everything" series, which also includes: "The Psychology of Art" by George Mather and "The Psychology of School Bullying" by Peter K. Smith. Publications by foreign researchers have been translated into Polish by Katarzyna Piszczek. It consists of a preface, six chapters ('The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories', 'When do People Believe Conspiracy Theories?', 'The Architecture of Belief', 'The Social Roots of Conspiracy Theories', 'Conspiracy Theories and Ideology', 'Explaining and Reducing Conspiracy Theories') and an extensive bibliography. A discerning reader will also notice a 'Further Reading' section in the book, which includes a carefully selected list of links to audiovisual materials and a list of supplementary readings (e.g. on conspiracy theories, beliefs or populism/extremism) that the author felt were worthy of attention and discussion.
Jan-Willem van Prooijen's identification of five components of conspiracy theories (Schemes, Agency, Alliances, Hostility, Continuous withholding information), which not only build a theoretical basis for further considerations by the Dutch scholar, but also systematise readers' existing knowledge in this area is an interesting point of reference for the discussion on what is worth calling a conspiracy theory today.
In his book, Jan-Willem van Prooijen attempts to answer the most frequently asked questions: Where do conspiracy theories come from? What makes people believe in conspiracy theories? What would happen if... one of the conspiracy theories turned out to be true? In the following chapters, he extensively discusses many conspiracy theories well known to the Polish and international community, concerning, for example, political assassinations in the 20th century, historical events or the activities of selected social and political groups.
The scientist notes that conspiracy theories are too common to discredit belief in them and consider it a pathological trait. They are a common part of people’s understanding of the world, just as various other forms of belief are.
In the course of his further reflections, he analyses, among other things, the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the Iran-Contras affair during the Reagan presidency, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, the deportation of Jews to Nazi death camps or the Watergate affair.
He states that there is something irresistibly mysterious, intriguing and at the same time frightening about credible conspiracy theories, and this is why they carry the potential to capture the attention of a wide audience.
The author also focuses on listing the characteristics that distinguish belief in conspiracy theories from supernatural phenomena, ideologies or other beliefs, such as the extent to which people identify with a group or a sense of threat from another group.
As part of his reflection, however, Jan-Willem van Prooijen is not indifferent to the work of other researchers. He refers to Bartlett and Miller's publication on conspiracy theories as multipliers of radicalism, Goertzel's text on the roles of conspiracies as 'monological belief systems' and 'conspiratorial thinking', as well as the work of Dieguez, Wagner-Egger and Gauvrit, whose studies have shown a lack of relationship between belief in conspiracies and the perception of schemes. In doing so, he cites Polish and foreign experimental research on conspiracy theories. The work of researchers at the University of Miami is the most interesting example. They have studied letters containing conspiracy theories submitted by readers to leading US newspapers over the past 120 years.
The researcher is keen to share his feelings and thoughts from his own life, for example, he decided to confront conspiracy theories in extremist regimes and travelled to the Cuban capital to visit the Museum of the Revolution. On the spot, he realised that the propaganda narrative included agitating the false sentence: "The CIA's bacteriological attack caused the occurrence of the tropical fever virus in our country. Of the 344,203 cases detected, 116,115 people were hospitalised; 57 adults and 101 children died" as a historical fact. He decided to capture the moment and show it off by including a photograph in the book. In fact, this is the only such visual material contained within the pages of this insightful popular science treatise.
I think that each of us has had a situation in our lives where we have been tormented by so many conflicting feelings and strong emotions that we have ended up believing in some conspiracy theory.
Conspiracy theories attempt to explain the world, stimulate the imagination and ignite emotions. I would like to recommend the book The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories to anyone (especially students of psychology, sociology, pedagogy and other social sciences) who is looking for an original and engaging read that describes numerous facts and curiosities related to conspiracy theories in an accessible way.
Klaudia Stępień-Kowalik