Who Is Profiting From Conspiracy Theories?

(warm music) - Conspiracy theories, they're everywhere, and they're all just plots from the global elite to maintain their power and wealth. No, I'm just joking. Or am I?

(suspicious music) What up world? Myles Bess, journalist and host of "Above the Noise" by day, secret lizard person controlling our government by night. This brings me to everyone's favorite topic, conspiracy theories.

People just love 'em like moths to an open flame. Chances are you got a relative sharing one on Facebook right now. You might even believe in one yourself.

I mean, obviously birds aren't real, right? Come on. And I want to know who's benefiting from spreading them.

Is there this shadowy cabal of conspiracy theorists getting rich, and how can I get in on the action? I'm just kidding. Or am I?

(suspicious music) But seriously, today we're asking, why are conspiracy theories so appealing? And are you just being conned? (radio static blares) (squeaking resounds) First, let's all get on the same page.

Conspiracy theories are generally defined as a belief that a group of people have a secret plot and are responsible for something happening. Have you ever noticed that it's always a shadowy cabal? What even is a cabal?

The cabal is a secret political clique or faction. Huh, thanks lizard Myles. The more you know.

Here's a classic example of a conspiracy theory. NASA faked the Moon landing. The theory part is that it's unproven.

And I mean, of course there are actual legit conspiracies. I mean the US government has been involved in some sketchy stuff. - A lot of Americans say, "Well, you know, if they did that, if the government actually had this massive spying campaign on all the civil rights leaders, if the government actually had the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, if it actually had mind control experiments, if it actually tried to kill Fidel Castro, then who's to say that they're not doing all of these horrible things right now?

" - That's Kathryn Olmsted, a historian at UC Davis who studies conspiracy theories in the US. She says that these real government conspiracies have caused more and more people to distrust the government. And that can make people more willing to believe in conspiracy theories about the US government.

But it's important to remember that a big difference between a conspiracy theory and an actual conspiracy is that actual conspiracies are proven to be true with actual documented proof. - With the FBI spying on Martin Luther King, there were FBI documents that proved that the FBI had been spying on Martin Luther King trying to destroy his reputation and ruin his movement. - Conspiracy theories, on the other hand, lack evidence.

I mean, believers often think there's proof, but it'll just be misinformation or disinformation. And sometimes people who believe conspiracy theories will use the lack of evidence as proof of just how impressive the conspiracy and the coverup is like that time I went down that flat Earth rabbit hole a couple years ago. (sighs) Bro, the Earth is flat.

NASA is just a scam faking space travel to further America's militaristic dominance of space. - So if I showed you, say, interviews of astronauts who've been to space, videos of Earth taken by satellites, none of that would convince you that the Earth isn't flat? - No, it just further proves the conspiracy.

Strange times. So the mere existence of conspiracy theories isn't necessarily a problem, especially if it means uncovering actual criminal activities. But what can be a problem is people's blind faith in them.

Like when they influence people's behavior, like when an armed dude stormed into a pizza place to investigate a human trafficking ring when in fact the only criminal thing happening was pineapple on pizza. (groans) And not all conspiracy theories are created equal. There is definitely a spectrum from the pretty harmless, entertaining ones to the ones that can be more dangerous either because they promote hate or deny some form of reality.

You know, like saying some historical event never happened or denying basic science or medicine. It's all fun and games until someone burns down a 5G tower because they think it's spreading COVID. (fire roaring) (sirens wailing) And wading through all the conspiracy theories is kind of Abbie Richards' thing.

She educates people about misinformation and conspiracy theories on TikTok and has amassed quite the following herself. She's created this whole upside down triangle to explain the different types of conspiracy theories. - [Abbie] Basically, it moves from grounded in reality up to detached from reality.

- And a lot of people defend conspiracy theories by saying, "Hey, I'm just asking questions. Do you not want me to ask questions? " - It's so important that you are looking at the world and asking questions about it.

But it's also important that we're doing that with some understanding of science and some understanding of how the world actually works and that we're willing to accept answers to questions when people have them and work from there. - All right, so that concludes conspiracy theories 101. Now on to why they're so appealing.

Long story short, conspiracy theories can provide our brain with answers that jive with our preconceived notions and biases. Now, bear with me for a while while I nerd out. Conspiracy theories tend to appeal to what psychologists call system one thinking.

Basically, our emotions, intuition, and gut reactions. And that's something like this. (cheerful music) (Myles groans) And then there's system two thinking, which is kind of the opposite of system one thinking.

It's more reflective and deliberate thinking. (thoughtful music) Well actually, the acid and the sweetness and the pineapple might cut through the cheesiness of the pizza. Hm, maybe.

- A lot of the conspiracy theories, especially as they manifest themselves on social media, they tend to explicitly pray on system one thinking. - That's Dominik Stecula, a professor at Colorado State who studies information environments. - If you have very strong attachments to either the Democratic or Republican parties, right, you're gonna like and retweet and share things that you agree with, right?

And you might negatively comment on things you disagree with. And all of that happens kinda intuitively on cruise control, right? You're not really pondering the depth of the article.

You're not really double-checking any of the claims made, necessarily. - And according to psychologists, conspiracy theories play into some of our innate human desires, like the desire for understanding and certainty, control and security, and desire for belonging and feelings of self-worth. They also tend to pop up in times of crisis like terrorist attacks, mass shootings, economic or political unrest and pandemics.

So that's why conspiracy theories are so appealing. Next question, who's benefiting from them? One obvious group, politicians.

- For centuries, conspiracy theories about marginalized communities have been very popular. And so one way for the leaders of these majority groups to maintain their power would be to say, "You know, we need to all work together because there are these plotters that are conspiring against us. " - But one big difference between conspiracy theories of the past and today is the internet and social media.

- You can have political leaders, through Twitter mainly, but from many different social media platforms that can directly send misinformation or link to sites that have a lot of disinformation on them. And so that makes it much easier for the political leaders to spread the theories. And also there's a lot more benefit to them to spreading conspiracy theories because the United States has become so politically polarized.

There's such partisan polarization that there is more of an appetite. - The internet and social media make it that much easier to get eyeballs and dollars. You're not just mobilizing people with printed flyers or anything anymore.

Conspiracy theories make the perfect clickbait, and media creators can use their views and popularity to sell other merch and products, too, profiting even more off the conspiracy theories that they're pushing like the granddaddy of them all, Alex Jones, who makes totally offensive, hateful, and baseless claims like school shootings are faked using crisis actors and that Joe Biden created the deadly tornadoes that took over the Midwest recently. And social media platforms and online retailers are in on it, too. According to one report, social media companies could be earning $1 billion from anti-vax content alone.

1 billion, and reaching as many as 58 million people. That's a lot. That's a huge profit motive right there.

But if we're talking social media it's important to remember, we're not just innocent, passive consumers. We're liking, sharing, commenting, which all drives the algorithm and the profits. So is there anything we can do about this?

How can we stop ourselves from falling for and promoting dangerous conspiracy theories? Well, some of it may come down to what psychologists call cognitive reflection, our ability to override our emotions and gut reactions. Remember that system one and system two thinking we were talking about earlier?

You can think of cognitive reflection like system two thinking overriding system one thinking. Researchers measure cognitive reflection by asking a series of questions and seeing how many you get right. Here's an example.

Let's see how you do. - So to give you an example, a bat and a ball costs $1. 10 in total.

The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? - Do you have your answer?

Okay. How many of y'all said 10 cents? That's what I said.

- The intuitive answer that your mind kind of jumps to is wrong. And if you stop and think more carefully for a minute, you can probably figure out the right answer. - The correct answer is actually five cents.

The bat would be a $1. 05, which is $1 more than five cents. And Stecula's own research has shown that people who score high in cognitive reflection are less prone to falling for conspiracy theories on social media.

So maybe one way of resisting conspiracy theories is to stop and think about what you're seeing. And why do you think all those pigeons are hanging out on telephone wires? The government is just recharging them to do more spying.

They ain't birds, they're drones! Wake up, sheeple. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(post swooshing) (suspicious music) Maybe all it takes is asking yourself some questions like, is someone benefiting financially or politically by spreading this rumor? Why am I attracted to this theory? Does it reinforce a belief or fear I might have?

Is this theory promoting hate against a particular group? I mean, anything really to get you to stop operating on autopilot before you like or share a dubious post. So in conclusion, our brains love conspiracy theories, and people are profiting from them, even the really harmful ones.

And one way we might be able to resist the urge to blindly believe is to think more critically about them. So have you ever stopped yourself or someone you know from falling for a conspiracy theory? How'd you do it?

Because that reminds me that I gotta go check on my uncle Otis. (laughs) Anyway, let us know in the comments below. Y'all know the drill.

As always, I'm your host Myles Bess. Oh hey, I'm glad you made it to the end of the video. I just want to give a big shout out to Common Sense who collabed with on this video.

And we've got some more episodes with them cooking so stay tuned, till next time, peace out. Our friends over at Storied have a new show called "Fate & Fabled. " It's all about the origins of ancient myths and legends.

Tell 'em Myles sent you. All right, for real this time, peace out.