"These people tend to be more suspicious, untrusting, eccentric, needing to feel special, with a tendency to regard the world as an inherently dangerous place," Hart said. "They are also more likely to detect meaningful patterns where they might not exist. People who are reluctant to believe in conspiracy theories tend to have the opposite qualities." - Joshua Hart [1] discussing their research [2] of 1,200 American adults.
I'm trying to understand the author's meaning for this statement: "They are also more likely to detect meaningful patterns where they might not exist."
It sounds like a critique of the persons who detect those patterns. But if/how one could refute that such patterns exist, or are meaningful, seems to hinge on the meaning of that quote.
In a recent season of The Expanse, there was a religious women (sorry, can't remember the character). Someone (perhaps herself) said that "she sees patterns that other's don't". That claim makes sense to me, because it doesn't rely on somehow knowing whether or not the patterns she sees are noteworthy.
I think if you focus on the need to feel special, there is a desire to have 'figured it out' and to be 'smarter than the mainstream'.
From this perspective, these people find 'facts', blow them out of proportion, and construct a wild theory. For example, review all the 'facts' in PizzaGate. [1]
This isn't about people not learning science. The QAnon folks took a lot of really random pieces of data, such as a photo of Obama playing ping pong, and constructed an highly dubious story.
> I think if you focus on the need to feel special, there is a desire to have 'figured it out' and to be 'smarter than the mainstream'.
IIUC you're saying that those traits explain why many conspiracy theorists fall into that camp.
I don't like leaning on ancedata, but I think I've seen persons like that in every ideological camp I've encountered. So I'm a bit skeptical that it's strongly correlated with being a conspiracy theorist.
I think I've seen persons like that in every ideological
camp I've encountered
I'm not the parent poster but yeah, I think the concept of being "in the know" in relation to others is definitely a concept that appeals to nearly everybody.
I mean, who doesn't enjoy that to an extent? Even if it's something innocuous like being "the person within your friends group who knows where all the cool bars in town are."
The allure of being "in the know is certainly not unique to conspiracy theorists, but I think it clearly is a major part of the appeal.
[1] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180925075108.h...
[2] Joshua Hart, Molly Graether. Something’s Going on Here: Psychological Predictors of Belief in Conspiracy Theories. Journal of Individual Differences, 2018; DOI: 10.1027/1614-0001/a000268