Why Are Brilliant People Falling For Conspiracy Theories

I don’t know about you, but I keep running into brilliant people who tell me that they believe things that seem- to me at least- to be obviously incorrect or at least not factually supportable.

I very well know I don’t have a monopoly on truth, and I could be scammed myself, but some of these theories seem just off the wall.

The thing that is hard for me to understand is why otherwise intelligent people would truly believe these things.

This caused me to struggle – hard – since, as a philosopher, I am searching for truth as best as possible.

Often, people say that these people are just brainwashed or falling for propaganda, but I think that is too easy an explanation. I think of myself and believe it would be hard to trick me in this fashion. Yes, I know I am fallible, but I like to believe I would be harder to fool than someone sending me a TikTok video – or a picture next to a brain scan — and I just swallow it hook, line, and sinker. I am naturally suspicious, and at this point, I think almost everyone is at some level of suspicious since one thing we are pretty confident of is that there are many parties trying to convince us of many things. Certainly, highly intelligent people aren’t so easy to convince of things they just hear around town.

So I reject that as a reason that highly intelligent people fall for conspiracy theories.

Also, I have read a bunch of articles on the subject. They (generally) indicate that people are likelier to fall for a conspiracy theory if it fits their underlying political views. I think that makes some logical sense but doesn’t really answer my question of why really intelligent people fall for these theories.

After pondering this, I have come up with a theory that, although it has some holes in it, makes more sense to me than anything else. Here goes….

Let’s say you are very intelligent – dare I say you are even super-smart.

Consider what that means for a moment. For you to be such, you would have to be significantly smarter than average, as otherwise you wouldn’t be “smart”; instead you would be of average intelligence.

Now consider what it means to be very intelligent.

It means that you figure out the answer to the math problem faster and you also figure out other things that others don’t. You are maybe cutting edge in thinking in science or even philosophy.

And how do you do this?

You sift data points and see things that others cannot see so easily.

As you do this, what happens to your ego?

I would think it would grow a fair amount as you continuously get positive reinforcement for your perspicacity and intelligence and even brilliance. How hard is it to be brilliant and stay humble about your brilliance? I bet it is quite hard.

Dare I say it is more than a little bit likely that you become a bit arrogant, and even vexed or annoyed if your views are challenged by others who are not your intellectual equal, which, as we have defined, is most people.

And – without taking that much of a leap – your intelligence is at least partially defined by finding patterns that others don’t see so easily.

Now – I ask you – what is a conspiracy theory?

It is exactly that. It is someone – very eruditely, and cleverly – explaining something that others cannot easily see, and then holding himself out to be smarter than others and having figured things out – possible patterns — that others are missing.

If you are truly very intelligent is this like catnip to a cat?

Your brain is trained to find things others missed and maybe – just maybe – this is exactly that. Maybe – just maybe – this is a perfect example of a pattern in the data that others are missing.

And it is easy now to fill in any missing data points. I mean how many things are super clear in hindsight? Very few.

And if you start poking into the conspiracy theory, you will easily find a lot of parties that are agreeing with it – or claiming to do so. Add in some liars claiming – and repeating — facts that are made up – maybe some TikTok videos that may be false – and you are off on a conspiracy path.

Yes, there will be parties claiming the conspiracy theory is false, but maybe they are people you don’t respect or think highly of? Perhaps one political party (that you like) is saying one thing and a political party (that you don’t like) is saying the opposite? Perhaps you discount them for perceived bias? Or more likely you don’t hear about them at all due to whatever sources your news is coming from?

Since you are overly intelligent, you start to look for more data points to bolster your “theory.” This “could” be true, couldn’t it? and it could be something that others are missing but you figured out because you are so intelligent.

You would likely not consider how your view might be slanted by the ego-gratification you would get by espousing this theory to others who don’t dare doubt your intelligence.

Couple that with the indignancy you might feel if someone really challenges you. I mean, your ego is based on your smartness, and that very smartness itself is being challenged! You kind of have to defend your position, don’t you?

And there you go- off to the races, truly believing something that is patently false or at least quite unlikely to be factually correct – and, worse yet, sticking by it doggedly.

Okay – I admit that the foregoing has a few intellectual holes and leaps and is not perfect reasoning. I get that.

But I ask you, do you have a better explanation?

If the foregoing has you wondering and worrying about it, this last thought will make it a lot worse. How about people who are not very intelligent, i.e., people who are of average intelligence or even below average intelligence? How do all these theories impinge on them? Yikes! That is scaring the heck out of this philosopher.