--- title: Why Do So Many People Believe in Conspiracy Theories? description: Why do so many Americans believe conspiracy theories? Here's what scientists say canonical: https://time.com/4965093/conspiracy-theories-beliefs/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-15T10:00:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:05.743Z article:section: Science og:title: Why So Many People Believe Conspiracy Theories og:description: It's more common than you may think og:url: https://time.com/4965093/conspiracy-theories-beliefs/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt42acbcdb35528d51/6988e1874ee262163230f5cd/why-people-believe-in-conspiracy-theories.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: why-people-believe-in-conspiracy-theories og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why So Many People Believe Conspiracy Theories twitter:description: It's more common than you may think twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt42acbcdb35528d51/6988e1874ee262163230f5cd/why-people-believe-in-conspiracy-theories.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why So Many People Believe Conspiracy Theories > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Future Proof: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Future Proof is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Making sense of the climate and energy economy. Future Proof examines the forces transforming energy and climate, and what those changes mean for business, technology, policy and the global economy. Senior correspondent Justin Worland goes beyond traditional climate coverage to connect the energy transition to the bigger decisions reshaping companies, markets and society. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: A History of Trump as a "Birther" [Watch (HLS stream): A History of Trump as a "Birther"](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Fg2XFQPB.m3u8) (2:48)  _Published 2016-09-16. Donald Trump addressed the so-called "birther" theory, finally abandoning the long-debunked conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the United States. "President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period," Trump said_  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Oct 15, 2017 10:00 AM UTC  Man on box talking to audience with cogs in speech bubble Man on box talking to audience with cogs in speech bubble Gary Waters—Getty Images  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Oct 15, 2017 10:00 AM UTC William of Occam would have hated conspiracy theories. A 14th-century philosopher and Franciscan friar, William is celebrated for developing the “law of parsimony,” better known today as “Occam’s razor.” According to the razor principle, the simplest explanation for an event is almost always the best; shave away any extraneous assumptions, and what you’ve got left is usually the truth. That’s not exactly the way conspiracy theorists think. Either Barack Obama was actually born in Hawaii, or an international plot unfolded over multiple decades to conceal his Kenyan birthplace and install him in the presidency. Either vaccines are safe and effective, or every major hospital and health organization in the world is covering up the fact that they actually cause autism. Never mind the razor — conspiracy theories are nothing _but_ extraneous assumptions. The question is, Why do so many people believe in them? Why do even the most preposterous theories — the [Nazis survived but they fled to the moon](https://motherboard.vice.com/en%5Fus/article/jpgmb7/nazis-in-space); the world is secretly being run by a [reptilian elite ](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1860871%5F1860876%5F1861029,00.html)— have fiercely loyal adherents? There are nearly as many explanations for conspiracy theories as there are theories themselves, but some patterns do appear again and again. The most common theories are the ones that follow the eddies of politics. As a broad rule, a party or group that’s out of power will be more inclined to believe in conspiracies than a group that’s in power. “Conspiracy theories are for losers,” says Joseph Uscinski, associate professor of political science at the University of Miami and co-author of the 2014 book [_American Conspiracy Theories_](https://www.amazon.com/American-Conspiracy-Theories-Joseph-Uscinski/dp/0199351813). Uscinski stresses that he uses the term literally, not pejoratively. “People who have lost an election, money or influence look for something to explain that loss.” So consistent and predictable is this phenomenon that in the U.S. at least, leading conspiracy theories flip almost the moment the presidency does. When Bill Clinton was President, the principle conspiracy tales involved stories of Clintonian cocaine dealing in Arkansas and the alleged murder of Presidential friend and confidante Vince Foster. Once George W. Bush took over, so too did new conspiracy fables, this time involving Vice President Dick Cheney, Halliburton energy and the Blackwater protection company masterminding the Iraq war in order to seize the nation’s oil. Certainly, not all disgruntled members of the out-party believe or traffic in the prevailing conspiracy tales. A lot also depends on demographics, with belief in the theories generally inversely related to education and wealth. One survey showed that about 42% of people without a high school education believe in at least one conspiracy theory, compared to 23% of people with a post-graduate degree. A [2017 study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5423964/) found a household income average of $47,193 among people who were inclined to believe in conspiracy theories and $63,824 among those who weren’t. “In this case, conspiracy theories can be like emotional poultices,” says Joseph Parent, a professor of political science at Notre Dame University and Uscinski’s co-author. “You don’t want to blame yourself for things you may lack, so you blame anonymous forces instead.” Just as important in fostering conspiracies is a desire to be special or different — and that’s a need that cuts across demographic lines. [In a study](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejsp.2265/full) published in May 2017 in the [_European Journal of Social Psychology_](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/%28ISSN%291099-0992), provocatively titled “Too Special to Be Duped,” subjects either took a survey designed to measure their desire for uniqueness or wrote an essay on the importance of independent thought. By significant margins, those who tested high on the need to be special or were primed to feel that way by writing the essay were also more inclined to believe in various conspiracy theories. “A small part in motivating the endorsement of…irrational beliefs,” the researchers wrote, “is the desire to stick out from the crowd.” That partly explains why evidence that refutes the theories rarely changes any conspiracy theorists’ minds, since surrendering the belief means surrendering the specialness too. When President Obama tried to put a stop to the rumors about where he was born by releasing his short form birth certificate, the conspiracy mongers demanded the long form. When he released that, they insisted that it had to be a forgery. “They just move the goal posts,” says Uscinski. In some cases, the very nonsense of conspiracy theories may actually be an attempt to make the world make _more_ sense. After a national trauma — the assassination of President Kennedy, say — something called the “proportionality bias” may take hold, as the mind recoils at the idea of small causes leading to such massive effects. So the fiction of a CIA or Mafia conspiracy takes the place of a lone gunman who was able to get to the President. The more people who join the circle of believers, the less likely any one of them is to break away. “Group affiliation becomes central,” says Parent, the Notre Dame professor. “The beliefs almost become like gang tattoos.” That indelibility is a problem. Nattering on about a reptilian elite may cost you dinner party invitations, but apart from that, it doesn’t do anyone any harm. But if you buy into the fables about dangerous vaccines, you’re less likely to vaccinate your own children, and that can be deadly. [Recent research](http://time.com/3982723/changing-minds-vaccines/) suggests that the worst way to change the minds of the conspiracy crowd is to criticize or, worse, mock their beliefs. That only puts them on the defensive, making them less rather than more likely to change their minds. What may work better is non-judgmentally discussing the consequences of believing in conspiracy theories. In the case of vaccines, that can mean showing parents pictures of children with measles, or describing the deadly effects of preventable diseases. Intervening early with facts can also make a difference. Children who learn the science behind vaccines or global warming are less likely to believe in conspiracies when they encounter them later in life. Catch the conspiracy bug first, and the infection can be hard to cure with even the heftiest later doses of science. Ultimately, the human mind is a free and often irrational agent, and people will believe what they want to believe. Believing the truth may not be as much fun as believing the fables, but it makes for a better mind — and a better culture, too. ## Transcript How not to mention her in the same breath. But Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it. I finished it. You know what I mean. There's a real question about The birth certificate. Why doesn't he show his birth certificate? Why can't he produce a birth certificate. Let him show the birth certificate. Why are there no hospital records, why doesn't he issue his birth certificate? He did, he put it on a web site. He produced that long form birth cert. Well, a lot of people don't agree with you. And a lot of people feel it wasn't a proper certificate. And by the way there's a huge difference between a Birth Certificate and a Certificate of Birth. The Certificate of Live Birth meets the standard in the State Department for anyone's citizenship . >> George, George, they've co- opted you. Who's they? It's not, obviously, Obama and his minions. He may have one but there's something on that birth, maybe religion, maybe it says he's a Muslim, I don't know. You refuse to accept that the President was born in the United States. I hope he was. Because if he was then that's the greatest scam in history, not political history, in history. But they knew that the birth is just unbelievable to a point. Well, people are afraid to talk about this subject. That's the biggest pile of dog mess I've heard in ages. [ CROSSTALK ] I mean, any white presidents asked to be shown the birth certificate. When they become the United States of America, you know that he's American. [ CROSSTALK ] [ APPLAUSE ] A few weeks ago, I felt Like probably he was born in the country, today it's possibly. I'm telling you it's changed. We're gonna see what happens when. You could end this right now if you wanted to. I am embracing the issue and I'm proud of the issue. George, next question George. But just in case, there are any lingering questions. Tonight, I'm prepared to go a step further. [ LAUGH ] Tonight, for the first time, I'm releasing my official birth video. [ LAUGH ] [ MUSIC ] President Barack Obama [ MUSIC ] Was born in the United States, period. 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