New Dutch paper Analyzes how Conspiracy Theorists see themselves

[Jay Reynolds]

I found this to be interesting, but haven't been able to read the whole paper yet.

If you ask someone who believes in chemtrails or identifies as a 9/11 truther why they believe conspiracy theories, they'll tell you that they aren't conspiracy theorists at all.

Instead, most who believe in these theories think of themselves as "critical freethinkers," willing to challenge the conventional wisdom, according to a study recently published in the journal Cultural Sociology.

"[C]onspiracy theorists appropriate the image of the radical freethinker to differentiate themselves from the 'sheeple' who simply follow the crowd," authors Jaron Harambam of Erasmus University in the Netherlands and Stef Aupers of the University of Leuven in Belgium write.

Content from external source

http://www.businessinsider.com/conspiracy-theorists-critical-freethinkers-sheeple-2016-10


Full Paper:
http://sci-hub.io/10.1177/1749975516661959#

 

[tadaaa]

sort extension of the "Galileo Gambit" and the "appeal to the minority"

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Galileo_gambit

 

[Mick West]

The full paper is linked in the OP, I suggest people avoid commenting until they have read it in full, it's very interesting

 

[Mick West]

@Greylanda discussion moved to:
https://www.metabunk.org/greylandas-take-on-conspiracy-culture.t8056/