One Surprising Reason People May Believe Bizarre Conspiracy Theories

By Tom Jacobs, Miller-McCune Magazine
Posted on April 25, 2011, Printed on April 27, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/150730/one_surprising_reason_people_may_believe_bizarre_conspiracy_theories

K now any conspiracy theorists? No doubt they’ve tried to convince you that man didn’t really land on the moon or President Obama was born in Kenya.

In fact, they were imparting genuinely interesting information — about themselves. New research suggests belief in such theories may reveal a Machiavellian mindset.

“At least among some samples and for some conspiracy theories, the perception that ‘they did it’ is fueled by the perception that ‘I would do it,’” University of Kent psychologists Karen Douglas and Robbie Sutton write in the British Journal of Social Psychology.