The Social Dynamics of Conspiracy Rumors: From Satanic Panic to QAnon

Almost all past interpretations of conspiracy stories focus on the psychology of personality, emphasizing personal beliefs, motives, and preconceptions while ignoring their social constructions in groups. This article instead takes an alternative sociological approach, one that focuses on the influences of history, culture, and political organization. The difference between focusing on a conspiracy “theory” and …

If a Mr. J.H. Davidson, assistant head of variety (music) at the BBC, had had his way in 1948, the British public would never have experienced a two-year media frenzy—as it wasn’t called in those days—over the mind-reading abilities of a personable young couple whose deeds baffled everyone who tried to explain them. Davidson had …

After my diagnosis with breast cancer in 2003, I saw firsthand my fellow cancer patients being targeted by alternative medicine practitioners. These poorly trained people claimed that they knew the secrets of preventing cancer, had a cure for it, and had a product that would prevent our cancers from returning. My local support group would …

The legend of the Mothman has pervaded modern cryptozoological lore since the late twentieth century, when the creature was first spotted near Point Pleasant, West Virginia, on November 15, 1966 (“Couples See Man-Sized Bird …” 1966). It was then reported by various witnesses for the next thirteen successive months (Monstrum 2019). The creature was originally …

It is close to impossible for anyone to intuitively understand the complex and surprising process of human vision. As a result, most people do not have a fundamental grasp of how they see. This is an odd state of affairs, considering how much we rely on vision. Although the science is not complete, enough is …

Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine permeates the entirety of Russian society. It is dividing friends and families and silencing its critics with legislative changes. Propaganda about the rotten West and the heroic fight against fascism attack people’s minds on a daily basis. Is there still skepticism in Russia? Общество скептиков (the Russian Skeptics …

The Heilpraktiker (translated literally as healing practitioner) is an officially recognized healthcare professional practicing so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) in Germany. The profession is seen as exemplary by many proponents of SCAM, while others feel that it presents an unacceptable danger to health and progress. The Heilpraktiker might be perhaps best understood by looking at its fascinating …

People do things in groups that they wouldn’t as individuals. Understanding human behavior requires attention not just to individuals but to the social groups that influence them, notes Jeffrey A. Victor. As author of our cover article, “The Social Dynamics of Conspiracy Rumors,” the retired sociology professor brings his perspective to help us understand the …

The Center for Inquiry (CFI) has filed a groundbreaking lawsuit against Boiron, Inc., one of the largest manufacturers of homeopathic products in the world, for deceiving vulnerable consumers with useless products dressed up to look like real medicine. CFI, which fights on behalf of consumers against pseudoscience, says Boiron routinely makes false claims about what …

In August 2021, I was contacted by an editor at Kunsht (https://kunsht.com.ua/), a Ukrainian media group that covers science and technology “to promote critical thinking among Ukrainian youth.” Kunsht interviewed me for a podcast series on magical thinking in relation to astrology and numerology, and although doing the interview over Skype was a very enjoyable …

The Center for Inquiry has established a new arm in its battle against quackery, bringing all its efforts in this arena together under one proverbial roof. On April 15, CFI announced the launch of its Office of Consumer Protection from Pseudoscience. It will bring legal action, issue warning letters, and seek to educate and inform …

“This is the way science works and should work,” said Kurt Kjær, a geologist at the Natural History Museum of Denmark and codiscoverer of the Hiawatha Crater under the Greenland Ice Sheet. He and colleagues recently determined the crater is 58 million years old, far older than proponents of a controversial hypothesis had hoped (Science, …

My lead article in our seven-page memorial section for the late biologist and CSI Fellow E.O. Wilson (May/June 2022) included a long paragraph about recent accusations of racism against Wilson due to a letter he once wrote in support of controversial Canadian psychologist J. Philippe Rushton. I ended, “Of course Wilson is no longer here …

A panic circulated in schools and online in early April 2022, but it was no April Fool’s Day prank. The fear was over a thin, towering, cartoonish, fluffy blue figure with a gaping maw and terrifying teeth named Huggy Wuggy. As to what, exactly, the threat was, it depended on what version of the story …

A lengthy profile of CSI Fellow Elizabeth Loftus, “one of the most influential psychologists of the twentieth century,” has won its author a major magazine award. New Yorker staff writer Rachel Aviv won an “Ellie” in the Profile Writing category for what the magazine called her “nuanced” portrait of Loftus, one of the world’s leading …

Michael Mann is set to leave Pennsylvania State University, where he is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science, and on September 1 assume a new position at the University of Pennsylvania. According to a University of Pennsylvania news release, Mann, a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, will become a Presidential Distinguished Professor in the …

Talk about the unsinkable rubber duck! Believers in QAnon, what SI contributor Stephanie Kemmerer called “the ultimate conspiracy—the mothership; the umbrella; the ‘Choose-Your-Own-Adventure’ saucerful of secrets and codes” (SI, March/April 2021), are at it again. Undeterred by their beloved Donald Trump losing the 2020 election, and thus failing to fulfill the mysterious Q’s prophesy, supporters …

The long-gestating skeptical media literacy film Science Friction has recently been released. The documentary, produced by Brian Dunning (of Skeptoid) and directed by Emery Emery (The Aristocrats), exposes the truth about how science experts are mischaracterized in media. Many people are aware that television documentaries often distort events and take experts out of context, but …

March 26, 2022, was the first National Science Appreciation Day. It was on this day in 1953 that Jonas Salk announced the first successful trials of his polio vaccine.  Thirteen states (both red and blue states, I’m gratified to report) plus the District of Columbia issued declarations proclaiming March 26 National Science Appreciation Day, a …

Among cases that are found at the margin of the “strange” genre (and so are often included in lists of paranormal phenomena) are varying types of “hidden identity,” which present varying degrees of difficulty to expose. Some whimsical impostures are inadvertently exposed. For instance, young Deborah Sampson (1760–1827), prompted by a desire for adventure, assumed …

When I wear my hat as a philosopher of science (partially distinct from my other hat as an evolutionary biologist), I eventually run into a scientist (I could name names, but I won’t) who smugly tells me that philosophy obviously doesn’t make progress. The evidence? Philosophers disagree on all sorts of things and there is …

When I first started looking into chiropractic, I read about one of its continuing medical education (CME) offerings. CME for physicians is intended to update their knowledge so they can treat patients more effectively. This chiropractic CME course didn’t try to inform chiropractors about new knowledge from recent studies (there isn’t much new chiropractic research) …

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Play it again, Sam”? Many remember it as Ingrid Bergman’s most famous line in the movie Casablanca. Upon review, however, it turns out that Bergman actually said: “Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By.’” Yet many remember the phrase as “Play it again, Sam,” which was never uttered. …

Ignorant of your own ignorance. Frequently applied in a political context, the Dunning-Kruger (DK) effect has rapidly become a famous psychological concept. It describes a kind of double-whammy. If you suffer from the DK effect, you know very little about a subject—which is bad enough—but you also have the false impression that you know considerably …

On March 21, 2022, China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735, a 737, experienced a sudden and catastrophic event. Cruising normally at 29,000 feet, something happened to cause it to go into a steep dive. After hurtling downward for a minute, records show it briefly leveled off at 8,000 feet, then plunged again, even faster, before crashing …

Q: It seems that skeptics just debunk and naysay, but if they’re so confident in their explanations, why don’t they recreate the mystery and prove it? —A. J. Kitt A: This question was directed at me in the context of Florida’s famous Coral Castle (see this column, May/June 2006) but has appeared many other times …

BETWEEN APE AND HUMAN: An Anthropologist on the Trail of a Hidden Hominoid. Gregory Forth. The author, an Oxford-educated longtime professor of anthropology, examines the so-called “hobbit” discovery that excited both scholars and the public in 2003: In a cave on the Indonesian island of Flores, skeletons of a small-statured early human species were discovered …

In the final chapter of her book Flat Earth: The History of an Infamous Idea, Christine Garwood estimated “there are probably no more than a few thousand flat-earth believers alive in the world today and fewer still who would be willing publicly to declare their conviction.” That was in 2007. Fifteen years later, flat-earth conventions …

The Guardian has referred to Dr. Jen Gunter, author of the bestselling The Vagina Bible, as “the world’s most famous—and outspoken—gynecologist.” In her follow-up book, Gunter lives up to that appellation. The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism is just that—a manifesto that declares “what the patriarchy thinks of menopause is irrelevant. …

Afloat in Misinformation As a former teacher of undergraduate and graduate students, I appreciate Melanie Trecek-King’s excellent articles in Skeptical inquirer (“Teach Skills, Not Facts,” January/February 2022, and “A Life Preserver for Staying Afloat in a Sea of Misinformation,” March/April 2022). They are the result of much thought, effort, and devotion. Her students are very …