Understanding Trump's Conspiracy Theory Followers

[TC Talks]

We've seen some batshit crazy ideas thrown about over the last year in the political forum. But as Trump and his nut Brigade head off into the sunset of Fantasyland, here's a fairly interesting study that looks at how they come to the beliefs such outlandish things.

In the new study, titled “Looking Under the Tinfoil Hat” and posted online in the Journal of Personality, Ms. Bowes and Scott Lilienfeld led a team that administered a battery of standardized personality surveys to nearly 2,000 adults.

The study had two elements. First, the team rated each person on their level proclivity for conspiracy theories. Participants were asked to rate the probable veracity of general statements such as “Some U.F.O. sightings and rumors are planned or staged in order to distract the public from real alien contact” or “The government uses people as patsies to hide its involvement in criminal activity.” The volunteers were then asked do the same for statements about specific events, such as “U.S. agencies intentionally created the AIDS epidemic and administered it to Black and gay men in the 1970s.”

The study included participants recruited both online and in person, at Emory. About 60 percent scored low on the scales, meaning they were resistant to such theories; the other 40 percent ranged above average or higher.

In the second phase, the research team gave the participants several standard personality questionnaires. One parsed general, fairly stable traits, like conscientiousness and sociability; another asked about moods like anxiety and anger; and a third addressed extremes, like narcissistic tendencies. (“I often have to deal with people who are less important than me.”)

To rough out a personality profile, or profiles, the research team measured which facets of personality were most strongly correlated to higher levels of susceptibility to conspiracy beliefs. The findings were at least as notable for the associations revealed as for those not found. For example, qualities like conscientiousness, modesty and altruism were very weakly related to a person’s susceptibility. Levels of anger or sincerity bore no apparent relation; nor did self-esteem.

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“Keep in mind, personality tests are not very good measures of things we don’t understand very well,” Ms. Bowes said. “You’re going to get a fuzzy picture, especially the first time through.”

The personality features that were solidly linked to conspiracy beliefs included some usual suspects: entitlement, self-centered impulsivity, cold-heartedness (the confident injustice collector), elevated levels of depressive moods and anxiousness (the moody figure, confined by age or circumstance). Another one emerged from the questionnaire that aimed to assess personality disorders — a pattern of thinking called “psychoticism.”

Psychoticism is a core feature of so-called schizo-typal personality disorder, characterized in part by “odd beliefs and magical thinking” and “paranoid ideation.” In the language of psychiatry, it is a milder form of full-blown psychosis, the recurrent delusional state that characterizes schizophrenia. It’s a pattern of magical thinking that goes well beyond garden variety superstition and usually comes across socially as disjointed, uncanny or “off.”

In time, perhaps some scientist or therapist will try to slap a diagnosis on believers in Big Lie conspiracies that seem wildly out of line with reality. For now, Dr. Pennycook said, it is enough to know that, when distracted, people are far more likely to forward headlines and stories without vetting their sources much, if at all.

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“As a rule, people don’t want to spread false content,” he said. “But at a time like this, when people are worried about the virus, headlines like ‘Vitamin C Cures Covid’ or ‘It’s All a Hoax’ tend to travel widely. Eventually, these things reach the Crazy Uncle, who then shares it” with his like-minded network.

Conspiracy theories about secret government plots will probably never go out of style, and at some level they function as safeguards against real conspiracies, official and otherwise. As for the bloodsucking, cartoon versions, those are likely to be keepers too, the new research suggests. They have a core constituency, and in the digital era its members are going to quickly find one another.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/28/heal ... ories.html

[MotorCityRadioFreak]

The amount of narcissism is astounding among these nationalists. They somehow believe that only they can save America. It's a savior complex.

It is bad enough that these people do not care to wear masks to protect others. Then they gaslight and say, "You're wearing a mask, and you've said they work."

No, asshole. I wear my mask for you and yours is for me. Never thought a pandemic would change my view of people so quickly.

[Deleted User 14896]

I'm not going to lend any validity to Trump's claims of fraud. But here closer to home, I sometimes ponder.

Like I mentioned before, I got a little hustle going around taking care of court documents. Dropping stuff off, picking stuff up, witnessing signatures, that sort of thing. I get to talk to folks from Franklin to Ferndale. From Lake Angelus to Lincoln Park.

And I've had more than a few folks from Detroit and Ecorse and towns like that tell me were suprised Peters won. Every one they know voted for the brother.

Now I fully admit I'm only in contact with a tiny fraction of the community. So in no way is this some sort of authoritive survey.

[MotorCityRadioFreak]

Now I fully admit I'm only in contact with a tiny fraction of the community. So in no way is this some sort of authoritive survey.

Correct.

[Matt]

Are we going to pretend the four years of Russia bullshit didn't happen?