Negative Effects of a Conspiracy Theory

Conspiracy theories are a fascinating thing that can intrigue us when you hear their theories. To Wenner Moyer” a conspiracy theory can provide comfort by identifying a convenient scapegoat and thereby making the world seem more straightforward and controllable.” Conspiracy theories give a person hope and comfort and could help people suffering from anxiety or a sense of loneliness, that’s why they have conspiracy theories as an escape goat to help with their mental state or whatever they are going through. Even though conspiracy theories help people go through their problems, it is more of a negative impact to the individual than positive.

A conspiracy theory can play a negative role in a person's head and can promote violence such as the pizzeria attack or the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. In Moyers article he uses psychologists Daniel Jolley who’s said “conspiratorial thinking can incite individuals to behave in a way that increases their sense of powerlessness, making them feel even worse.” In Tara’s Westover Educated Tara describes her dad Gene as a paranoid and delusional man as he prepares for “Days of Abomination.” This belief causes him to become very isolated from everyone causing him to refuse to go to hospitals or clinics for medical help, describing doctors as being corrupted by “Satan.” Gene also refuses to allow his children to attend school, believing the government will only “brainwash” them. This shows how an extreme conspiracy theorist thinks they will have a negative way of thinking causing them to become paranoid and will make others feel the same way. This would cause fear, anxiety, and a sense of loneliness to whoever they promote to as such with Gene promoting all these beliefs making them feel such a bad way.

Another way conspiracy theories are negative to your mental health is shown in Moyers article which says around 39% of Americans feel more anxious about their health, safety, relationships, and finances. It furthermore says “2017 study found that promoting anxiety in people also makes them more conspiracy-minded. Feeling alienated or unwanted also seems to make conspiratorial thinking more attractive.” These problems such as safety or health are usually some ways a person uses a conspiracy theory as an escape goat. An example of this is shown in cults as many give you a false sense of hope and usually leads to something wrong, promoting all these good things making you feel more important than others. In Richard Feynman's article he writes” Doubt is clearly a value in the sciences. Whether it is in other fields is an open question and an uncertain matter.” He states that doubt is something we need as its very important to us since it helps us see a new direction and overall we would not get any new ideas. Doubt is used almost every time when hearing about a conspiracy theory since its recognizing how some are usually faked and used to seek attention from the media. One major example of doubt was when president Donald a Trump won the election leaving many dumbfounded and having doubt he won fair since it was clear that he was somewhat of the underdog causing people to believe the Russians were meddling with the Voting polls causing a major disagreement with the American people splitting them into two groups democrats or republicans. However the Russian meddling theory was proven to have had happen in which caused a major uproar from the opposition wanting an impeachment and getting into dangerous tensions when there is rally’s such as the trump rallies which sometimes has some sort of violence happening.

Vaccinations is also another conspiracy theory that is very critical to a person's health since it frees a person from worrying about getting ill and having a lot of health problems. These vaccine theorists say they won’t vaccinate their kids since it will create an infectious disease that put entire communities at risk. In Sean Blanda article he talks about how people should see their opposite point of view” When you hear someone cite “facts” that don’t support your viewpoint don’t think “that can’t be true!” Instead consider, “Hm, maybe that person is right? I should look into this.” Seeing from a different point of view could help a conspiracy minded people to see what is factual and what is fabricated, all they need is to see different points of view to have more of an understanding.

Inclusion – a way to help conspiracy theory people – is give them a sense of doubt and make them see from different point of views, they need some sort of support since a major reason they believe in conspiracy theorist is they feel anxious about their overall life. Some ideas used in conspiracy theory could give a person a bad state of mind so helping them have some doubt in their beliefs can help ease anxiety or overall mental health.