Is it pathological to believe conspiracy theories?

According to a naturalist conception of what counts as a disorder, conspiracy beliefs are pathological beliefs if they are the outcome of a cognitive dysfunction. In this article, I take issue with the view that it is pathological to believe a conspiracy theory. After reviewing several approaches to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Transcultural psychiatry p. 13634615231187243
Main Author:	Bortolotti, Lisa
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	London, England SAGE Publications 01-08-2023
Subjects:	implausibility pathology unshakeability conspiracy theories cognitive dysfunction
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	According to a naturalist conception of what counts as a disorder, conspiracy beliefs are pathological beliefs if they are the outcome of a cognitive dysfunction. In this article, I take issue with the view that it is pathological to believe a conspiracy theory. After reviewing several approaches to the aetiology of conspiracy beliefs, I find that no approach compels us to view conspiracy beliefs as the outcome of a dysfunction: a speaker's conspiracy beliefs can appear as implausible and unshakeable to an interpreter, but in a naturalist framework it is not pathological for the speaker to adopt and maintain such beliefs.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1363-4615 1461-7471
DOI:	10.1177/13634615231187243