Why conspiracy theories aren’t harmless fun

Interesting article here. A few short excerpts below:

snip:

Quote:

It’s not just that conspiracy belief sometimes causes people to do terrible things. It’s that attachment to the conspiracy worldview violates important norms of trust and forbearance that are central to how we relate to each other and the wider world.

snip:

Quote:

To believe in conspiracy theory, you must believe in conspirators. To maintain a conspiracy theory for any length of time, you must claim that more and more people are in on the conspiracy.

snip:

Quote:

On some level, the ‘conspiracy theory of society’ ultimately asks us to give up on society altogether. And that takes us to a very dangerous place indeed.

Full article: http://ift.tt/1GVtGQY

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1LIEEQ1