30 Myths That Widely Circulate As Truth, According To This Viral Thread

Many myths widely circulate as truth in our society, as this post has shown us all. And while some of them go about their ways for years and years after someone finally disproves them, other myths turn into full-blown fake news and conspiracies that can do a lot of harm.

Take anti-vaxxers, who vehemently avoid vaccines on the premise that they are dangerous and unhealthy. With the rise of the internet, they’ve organized into massive affirming echo chambers on forums like the Vaccine Resistance Movement. Researchers say that many conspiracies, just like covid denialism and anti-vaccination, are nothing new and they are all the result of fear and distrust. Think of 9/11 conspiracies surfing on the internet forums that were basically fueled by the lack of faith in the government.

So in order to find out how exactly conspiracy theories work and why some people are more prone to believing them than others, we spoke with Annika Rabo, a professor emeritus of the Department of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University.

“Conspiracy theories can be understood as a response to the question: why are bad things happening to me (or my family, my ‘group,’ my country.) In conspiracy theories there is no room for chance but BAD THINGS happened because of the evil plotting of hidden actors out to harm,” the professor explained.

Prof. Rabo said that there may be a few reasons why people are prone to conspiracies. “Some researchers claim that people who are less able to handle uncertainties are more prone to embrace conspiracy theories. Other researchers claim that people embracing conspiracy theories are evenly distributed in the population.” Having said that, she added that “populations in stable democracies in North and West Europe have until now been less prone to embrace conspiracy theories of a political nature.”

When it comes to the conspiracy theories we notice now in the pandemic period, Prof. Rabo said that they are not really different from earlier ones. “They involve hidden agents who are either evil outsiders or insiders. The suspicion against vaccines and the pharmaceutical companies is not new. What is new is the fact that news and conspiracy theories are spread VERY quickly across vast distances today,” she explained.

“The basic elements—the theme—of conspiracy theories are fairly constant, but the elements differ and if they do not resonate with local conditions, they will disappear or evolve into new elements,” the professor concluded.