- Argument1 of 2›
Peer pressure makes people believe in conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theorists are often part of communities which socially reward them for believing.
The argument
The argument explains belief by what believing does for somebody socially rather than by what evidence they have encountered. Particularly with the creation of an online conspiracy community, people have a social incentive to believe in conspiracies: the belief is the membership condition of a group, so holding it delivers something that has nothing to do with whether it is true. The route in begins with a need that precedes the theory. People who are socially isolated may experience a desire to find meaning, and isolation is what makes the offer attractive, since what these communities provide is not only an explanation but people with whom to share it. They may then find online conspiracy theory communities and latch onto them as social communities — joining for the belonging, and acquiring the beliefs as part of the arrangement. What keeps somebody there is the cost of leaving rather than the strength of the case. As conspiracy theories become more community-based, it is entirely possible that believers could become part of one of these communities and not want to suffer the social penalty that not believing conspiracy theories may then introduce. Doubt in that setting is not a private revision of an opinion but a public act with consequences: it marks the doubter as an outsider to the group they joined in order to stop being one. That is what makes the mechanism specifically social rather than evidential. A person embedded in such a community faces an asymmetry — affirming the belief costs nothing and confirms their place in it, while questioning the belief risks the relationships that drew them in. Belief is sustained by that pressure, and can persist regardless of what any particular piece of evidence for or against the theory turns out to show.
Premises
Counter-arguments
There is no social element to conspiracy theories, as, in reality, people would gain social capital if they disavowed conspiracy theories. Those who subscribe to conspiracy theories are not rewarded, but socially punished and made to feel like outcasts.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P2] There is more of a social incentive to not believe in conspiracy theories.