When people are broke, powerless, or just mad that nobody's taking their YouTube channel about chemtrails seriously — they get spiteful. And that spite makes them believe conspiracy theories that make their lives even worse.
Researchers at Staffordshire University and the University of Birmingham, did three different studies with over 1,000 Brits. They found that when people feel like they're getting the short end of the stick in life, they're more likely to embrace conspiracy theories as a way to metaphorically flip off the experts and elites.
"Spite is one of four basic social behaviors in the natural world (along with mutualism, selfishness, and altruism) and is harmful to both the actor and the recipient," say the researchers. In other words: it's like punching yourself in the face to give someone else a black eye.
This spite-fueled conspiracy embracing was obvious when it came to COVID-19 conspiracies. Insisting the pandemic was caused by 5G towers while chugging horse dewormer was all the rage among the spiteful set at the time.
Of course, the same conspiracy theories that make people reject mainstream experts leave them perfectly primed to trust the grifters who planted those theories in the first place. There's a whole ecosystem of snake oil salesmen ready to profit from these spite-poisoned marks. From supplement hawkers to "alternative news" sites, these slick weasels sell $50 miracle cures and $30 monthly subscriptions to "the truth" to people who would stop drinking bleach if they could afford food.
The researchers suggest that if we want fewer people falling down conspiracy rabbit holes, maybe we should work on fixing that whole "massive inequality" thing.
"If conspiracy theory beliefs can be seen as a manifestation of spite—of a feeling of disadvantage, high competition, and scarcity—then stemming the tide of conspiracy theories and science denialism is not separate from social issues such as financial inequality and precariousness." In other words: maybe if people weren't so broke and angry all the time, they'd stop believing Bill Gates put autism cooties in the vaccines.
Previously:
• How to cure people afflicted with conspiracy theories
• BP oil spill conspiracy theories
• How conspiracy theories challenge Snopes' mission to find the 'truth'
• How come so many Christians fall for conspiracy theories?
• Essay: The Conspiracy Boom, by Jay Kinney
• Here are the four stages of how conspiracy theories spread across social media
