Conspiracy theories and schizophrenia

I was listening to a CBS Sunday Morning segment on a fellow who began manifesting symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia at early middle age and who dropped out of society, became homeless, and eventually died alone and unknown. Tragic tale...But I wondered if the tendency towards this particular manifestation of schizo-affective syndrome (as they are calling it now) might reflect a natural tendency in humans.

I listened to a lecture by E. O. Wilson some years back where he talked about brain structures in humans responding directly to ritual and ceremony, and that malfunctions of these areas led to syndromes like obsessive/compulsive behavior.

Might we have a tendency towards seeing shadowy forces at work against us? Look at the incidence of belief in conspiracy theories. Seems a very substantial segment of the population is willing to beleive that some nebulous "they" are doing something they shouldn't ...And messing with them on a personal level.
We are very sensitive about office gossip and cliques and such as they may be talking about us...

Is the severe malfunction of brain chemistry in schizophrenia (if that's what's going on) just affecting this tendency in particular in the case of paranoid?

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1l0dJGi