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When does incredulity become paranoia? By John Gartner
Jones, a fellow Austin resident. When I
confronted Jones with my reading ofthe
report, he became pugnacious, launch-
ing into a diatribe against psychologists
as agents of social control.
Conspiracy thinking is embraced by t
surprisingly large proportion of the pop-
ulation. Sixty-nine percent of Americans
LEx JONES rs tryingto warn us about an evil believe President John F. Kennedy was
syndicate of bankers who control most of the killed by conspiracy, and 42 percent
world's governments and stand poised to unite "
believe the governmentis coveringup evi-
the planet under their totalitarian reign, a ,,New dence offlyingsaucers, finds Ted Goertzel,
World Order.,, While we might be tempted to a professor ofpsychology at Rutgers Uni-
dismiss Jones as a nut, the..kingofconspiracy', versity at Camden. Thirty-six percent of
is apopular radio show host. The part-time film_ respondentsto a2OO6 Scripps News /Ohio
maker's latest movie, The Obama Deception,in Universitypoll at least suspected thatthe
which he argues that Obama is a puppet of the U.S. government played a role in9/LL.
criminal bankers, has beenviewed millions oftimes onyouT\rbe.
We're all conspiracy theorists to some
when we spoke, Jones ranted for two hours about FEMA concentration camps, degree. We're allhardwiredto find patterns
, Halliburton child kidnappers, government eugenics programs-and more. when I in our environment, particularlythose that
6' stopped him to ask for evidence the government is practicing eugenics, he pointed to might represent a threat to us. And when
I anationalsecuritymemorandum.Butrfoundthedocumentt;be;bhndpolicyreport. things go wrong, we find ourselves search-
Jones 'therry picks not just facts but phrases, which, once interpreted his way,
fE becomefactsinhismind,"saysLouisBlack,editoroftheAustinchron|/e,whoknows
ing for what, or who, is behind it.
In his lgllclassic ,The paranoid Style

September/October 2OO9 psychology Today 37

 We're alt
to find patterns of threat.
in American Politics, historian Richard
Hofstadter hypothesiz ed that c onspiracy
thinking is fueled by underlying feelings
of alienation and helplessness. Recent
research supports his theory. New Mex-
ico State University psychologist Marina
Abalakina-Paap has found that people
who endorse conspiracy theories are
especially likely to feel angq/, mistrustfu l,
alienated from society, and helpless over
larger forces controlling their lives.
Jones insists he had a "Leave It to
Beaverchildhood." I couldn't confirm such
an idyllic past. When I asked if I could
interview his familyor childhood friends,
he insisted his family was very "private"
and he had not kept in touch with a single
friend. When I asked if I might look them
up, he became irritated. He doubted he
could "still spell their names," and besides,
I'd alreadytaken up enough of his time. "I
turned down 50 or 60 requests for inter-
views this weeki' he wanted me to know.
The number sounded wildly inflated.
Conspiracy theorists have a grandiose view
ofthemselves as heroes "manningthe bar-
ricades of civili zation" at an urgent "turn-
ing point" in history Hofstadter held. Jones
has a "messiah complex," Black contends.
Grandiosity is often a defense against
underlying feelings of powerlessness.
Even well-grounded skeptics are prone
to connect disparate dots when they feel
disempowered. In a series of studies, Jen-
nifer Whitson of the University of Texas
and Adam Galinsky of Northwestern
demonstrated that people primed to feel
out of control are particularly likely to see
patterns in random stimuli.
Might people be especially responsive
to Jones' message in today's America,
marked by economic uncertainty and con-
cerns about terrorism and government
scandals? "There is a war on for your mind,"
,We're allhardwired
Jones insists onhisWeb site, infowars.com. the Institute of Psychiatry.
He calls his listeners "infowarriors." Indeed, there are no coincidences in
Information is the conspiracy theorists' Jones'world. In a scene from The Obama
weapon of choice because if there's one D eception,Jones dives "into the belly ofthe
thingthey all agree on, it's that all the rest beast," the hotelwhere purported conspir-
of us have been brainwashed. The "facts" ators will be meeting. As he begins a tele-
will plainly reveal the existence ofthe con- phone interview; the fire alarm goes off.
spiracy, they believe. And while all of us "The bastards have set us up," he says.
tend to bend information to fit our pre- Jones says that he has been visited by
existing cognitive schema, conspiracy the FBI and the Secret Service but can't
theorists are more extreme. They are discuss the interviews. It maybe that fed-
"immune to eviden ce," discounting con- eral agents, in fact, wanted to evaluate
tradictory information or seeing it as whether he is a threat to the president.
"proof of how clever the enemy is at cov- There's no reason to believe he is-but the
eringthings vp:' Goeftzel says. same can'tbe said ofhis listeners.In 2OO2,
Conspiracytheories exist on a spectrum Richard McCaslin, carryingan arsenal of
from mild suspicion to full-on paranoia, weapons, entered the Bohemian Grove, a
and brain chemistry may play a role. campground in California that annually
Dopamine rewards us for notingpatterns hosts a meeting of the political and busi-
and finding meaning in sometimes- ness elite. He told authorities he had been
insignificant events. It's longbeen known planning his commando raid for a year,
that schizophrenics overproduce dopa- after Qre says) hearingJones claim that rit-
mine. "The earliest stages of delusion are ual infant sacrifice was takingplace there.
characterized by an overabundance of The "war"continues. In a video pro-
meaningfu I coincidences/' expl ain Paul D. moting The Ob ama D e cepti on,Jones urges,
Morrison and R.M. Murrayofthe Institute "We know who they are. We know what
of Psychiatry at Kings College London. they are. We know what has to be done."
'Jumpingto conclusions" is a common rea-
soning style among the paranoid, find JOHN GARTNER, aPfblogger: isauthor of The
Daniel Freeman and his colleagues, also at Hypomanic Edge and ln Search of Bill Clinton.
How susceptible are you to conspiracy beliefs? Rate your agreement
with the statements below, from 1=strongly disagree to S=strongly agree.
1) For the most part, government serves the interests of a few organized groups,
such as business, and isn't very concerned about the needs of people like myself.
2) I have trouble doing what I want to do in the world today.
3) lt is difficult for people like myself to have much influence in public affairs.
4) We seem to live in a pretty irrationaland disordered world.
5) I don't trust that my closest friends would not lie to me.
5-11: weakly,l2-18: moderately,19-25: strongly (Adapted from a scale developed by Patrick Leman)