![]() ![]() 10 Second, at least three predictors of rumor-mongering match correlates of conspiracy theory: uncertainty, personal involvement or relevance, and anxiety or stress. They are constructed and spread discursively, evolving and changing over time as new information comes along. First, conspiracy theories are like rumors in that they act as an ongoing sense-making procedure. ![]() 2, 6–10 This recent research has produced a few key results. In part, this seems to have been driven by the quantity and visibility of online discourse around conspiracy theories and the combination of qualitative content analysis and big-data analytics that have come to define the study of rumors. Recently, the research literature on rumors and conspiracy theories have begun to converge. 3 Experimental research has shown that conspiracy theories about a particular event arise specifically from a need for sense-making, 5 and that this need is strongest when the event in question is both severe and self-relevant-essentially the same conditions under which rumors tend to arise. For example, conspiracy theories alleging secret government persecution of African-Americans (e.g., HIV/AIDS as a bioweapon created for racial genocide) were popular in African-American communities, particularly among people who felt victimized by and alienated from institutions like government and politics. 4 In that sense, at least some conspiracy theories fit the definition of rumors. However, are they psychologically different? Do people believe or reject these things for the same reasons? Previous work has defined rumors as unverified propositions that make claims to truth and that generally have personal relevance to the people who spread and consume them. There are certainly some conceptual similarities between rumors and conspiracy theories. It makes sense to ask whether conspiracy theories are just another kind of rumor, and indeed some scholars have reached conclusions along those lines. Defined as suspicions that powerful people or organizations are secretly carrying out sinister plans by deceiving the public at large, conspiracy theories can provide an immediately understandable picture of a situation: why something happened, who benefits from it, and who should be blamed. 2 These same situations also give rise to conspiracy theories, which, much like rumors, can help people make sense of ambiguity. Precisely because they help to make sense of the world, rumors tend to arise in crisis situations, where the world does not otherwise make much sense in its usual way. ![]() 1 Of course, this comes at a cost-some rumors are nothing more than gossip, some may be co-opted for propaganda purposes, and many others are simply wrong. As a sense-making process, they can reduce anxiety and uncertainty, and help people to come to grips with unfamiliar situations. R umors are a consistent feature of social life. ![]()
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