“Go figure: If you’re a birther or a 9/11 denier, chances are you aren’t much fun to be around. Sure, we’ve been saying this about our wack-job uncle for years — but now it’s backed up by science.”
“People who buy into outrageous conspiracy theories — say, that no human has ever walked on the moon or the ancient pyramids were built by aliens — are more inclined to actively engage in anti-social behavior.”
“That’s the main finding of a team of psychologists from the UK’s Staffordshire University and the University of Kent, who investigated the wider impact these paranoia-fueled fringe beliefs can have on behavior.”
“In addition, exposure to conspiracy theories was found to make people more apt to engage in low-level criminal activity. Researchers found that this tendency was “directly linked to an individual’s feeling of a lack of social cohesion or shared values, known as anomie.””
“For the non-psycholinguists out there, anomie is defined as “the lack of the usual social or ethical standards in an individual or group.””
Read more: Believing conspiracy theories might make you a criminal: study
2021-week36
