People believe in conspiracy theories because they are conspiracists

The argument

Certain people simply subscribe to a conspiracist world view, constantly believing in conspiracy theories. People enter a cycle of belief where they are exposed to conspiracist views more and more, and are then more and more likely to believe them themselves. Conspiracists do not simply happen to believe in each conspiracy theory they come across, but rather have an altered worldview which means they always elect to explain events as happening due to unseen forces. A world view of conspiracism also serves to explain why the perceived perpetrators of conspiracy theories are all painted in the same way: monolithic and unrelentingly evil. This is not to say that everyone who believes in conspiracy theories has a conspiracist world view. However, there are certain parts of the population that everything is interconnected; that there is something behind the visible.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Explaining belief by calling believers 'conspiracists' is close to circular: it names the disposition rather than saying where it comes from or why it takes hold. A fixed-personality account also struggles to explain why belief in specific theories rises and falls with events, institutional distrust and social context — the very factors rival positions in this debate emphasise. If a settled worldview were doing all the work, conspiracy belief would not surge around particular crises the way it does. The label may describe a pattern, but it does not explain the belief.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Attributing belief to a conspiracist disposition restates the phenomenon rather than explaining it, and cannot account for why belief tracks events, distrust and social context.