Ricordia Op-Ed: The Danger of Conspiracy Theories

by Elisabeth Bailey '26

In this age of online misinformation, conspiracy theories are everywhere. They're so prevalent that they've become the butt of many jokes. You may have heard that “the Earth is flat” or “the moon landing was fake.” A few weeks ago my classmates were joking about the theory that Helen Keller was a fraud. These theories seem outlandish, so we find it funny that someone believes them.

But these theories aren't harmless, and their existence can help perpetuate far more dangerous myths. Anti-vaxxers aren't funny when kids are dying of measles, and Atlantis is far less interesting when it's being used to support white supremacy. In this piece I will break down the primary dangers of conspiracy theories, as well as why they seem to be popping up more recently.

First, the dangers of conspiracy theories. 

The first and most pressing danger is people losing trust in science. Science—broad science—is humanities' never ending attempt to understand the world we live in. It is as much an exercise in curiosity as it is an endeavor to benefit humanity through discovery and invention. Over the centuries, we have built reputable institutions so we know when science has been performed correctly and the results are reliable. Pseudoscience undermines this. Through the multiple ways you are made to believe misinformation, you lose trust in the fields that contradict you.

To believe the Earth is flat you have to believe you know more than the scientists who say it's round, and if you're smarter than those people, what else do “they” have wrong? How can you really trust that these institutions are right, or that they're not trying to "push an agenda?" 

Another concern is a tendency toward emotional reasoning and polarization of opinions. 

As you reject institutions, you lend yourself more toward emotional reasoning rather than logical reasoning. Have you ever continued to argue a point even when you knew you were wrong because you didn't want to be wrong? It's that but on a larger scale. It's people who will refuse the evidence in front of them, do mental gymnastics to justify their own beliefs, so as not to hurt their pride. 

It can eventually become a part of their own identity to believe in this type of thing, as they feel ostracized for believing it. And in this day and age, it is easier than ever to find online communities of like-minded people, creating echo chambers of confirmation of your beliefs and rejection of contrary evidence.

Finally, there is the concern of the rhetoric hidden amongst the facts.

Another danger of pseudoscience is the intention behind it. From where and from whom you get your information matters more by the day. Knowledge is power and controlling that knowledge gives you a great avenue to control the motivations and actions of people. In a StatNews article, Anil Oza examines how Trump’s campaign rhetoric and misinformation are helping to reintroduce eugenic ideas. From products and scams to the distortion of the past and present, what people tell you changes how you behave, and people are known to mislead you to get you to do what they want. 

When you pinhole yourself into your own beliefs, when you rely more on someone confirming you rather than trying to prove you wrong, it's easy to make a friend out of you. People who reason from their heart instead of their head are easier to convince with a few emotionally charged lies and sympathetic statements. 

But how do these conspiracy theories spread?

Easy access to online misinformation does much of the work for spreading these false theories. At Merion Mercy, we are extensively taught how to use our sources and find good ones when researching. This is a skill that needs to be taught in the modern age of the internet, because it's how you can tell fact from fiction. 

Sadly, not everyone knows how to do this, and even sadder, not everyone chooses to make the effort to do so. This is where the root of the problem lies; if anything that sounds "formal" could be true, then anyone who knows how to write can be right. 

What spreads misinformation even further are the algorithms that rule social media. Like I said, misinformation thrives on emotions, which is what these algorithms are based on. A post that's incorrect with 1,000 shocked comments will get pushed farther than a post that's correct with only a hundred comments. An outlandish hook in a video will catch the first few seconds of people's attention more effectively. More to this, conspiracy theories try to provide shorter, simpler answers than the more complicated answers of real science. As Michael Heller and Bartosz Brozek from the John Templton foundation studied, people tend to gravitate more toward simple and straightforward answers. Dramatic yet short stories perform better on social media than boring, evidence-based ones, meaning that more people hear the crazy stories.

In conclusion, pseudoscience is a dangerous destabilizer in this modern age of misinformation. As conspiracy theories spread, they carry distrust and often political polarization with them. They are easily spread and repeated through social media algorithms, and are appealing for their often simple or emotional nature. I hope this article helps you to be better informed about the dangers conspiracy theories pose in this day and age.