Conspiracy Theorist: As a Mental Illness

In addition Social cognition is a major element that drives people through a variety of methods.

Social cognition is a growing area of social psychology that studies how people perceive, think about, and remember information about others. One assumption in social cognition is that reality is too complex to easily discern, and so we see the world according to simplified schemas or images of reality. Schemas are generalized mental representations that organize knowledge and guide information processing. For example, one's schema for mice might include the expectation that they are small, and furry, and eat cheese. Social cognition proposes that cultural groups develop similar schemas. Individuals who share schemas can essentially have the same thoughts when confronted with a stimulus. For example, schemas often operate automatically and unintentionally, and can lead to biases in perception and memory. Schematic expectations may lead us to see something that is not there. One experiment found that people are more likely to misperceive a weapon in the hands of a black man than a white man (Correll, et al., 2002). This type of schema is actually a stereotype, a generalized set of beliefs about a particular group of people. Stereotypes are often related to negative or preferential attitudes (prejudice) and behavior (discrimination). Schemas for types of events (e.g. going to McDonalds, doing laundry) are known as scripts.

Another major concept in social cognition is attribution. Attributions are the explanations we make for people's behavior, either our own behavior or the behavior of others. An attribution can be either internal or external. Internal or dispositional attributions assign causality to factors within the person, such as ability or personality. External or situational attributions assign causality to an outside factor, such as the weather. Numerous biases in the attribution process have been discovered:

* Fundamental attribution error - the tendency to make dispositional attributions for behavior. The actor-observer effect is a refinement of this bias, the tendency to make dispositional attributions for other people's behavior and situational attributions for our own.
* Just-world phenomenon- the tendency to blame victims (a dispositional attribution) for their suffering. This is believed to be motivated by people's anxiety that good people, including themselves, could be victimized in an unjust world.
* Self-serving bias - the tendency to take credit for successes, and blame others for failure. Researchers have found that depressed individuals often lack this bias and actually have more realistic perceptions of reality.

Heuristics are cognitive short cuts. Instead of weighing all the evidence when making a decision, people rely on heuristics to save time and energy. The availability heuristic occurs when people estimate the probability of an outcome based on how easy that outcome is to imagine. As such, vivid or highly memorable possibilities will be perceived as more likely than those that are harder to picture or are difficult to understand, resulting in a corresponding cognitive bias.

There are a number of other biases that have been found by social cognition researchers. The hindsight bias is a false memory of having predicted events, or an exaggeration of actual predictions, after becoming aware of the outcome. The confirmation bias is a type of bias leading to the tendency to search for, or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions.

en.wikipedia.org...(psychology)

From a social psychologists perspective it's a growing problem today, peoples needto escape in our society is a major issue.

Lol, from this guy's/gal's suppossition, they seem to be incredibly ignorant on what and how we create our points of view and who we are, he makes assumptions on what is rubbish and what he assumes to be the truth.

Shall we look?

A conspiracy theorist's attempts to project it's fiction onto real-life people, groups and organisations. It purports to actually be true that which really is fiction and this is the problem. Their attempt to project into reality that which at best is fiction is one reason I believe they have a mental illness.

Well, this would have to be based on a strict consideration of what is and could be 'reality', this in itself is subject to the percpetions of the individual and so makes it an incredibly stupid and ignorant comment. He can't prove his reality is the reality, therefoe how can he make any educated comment.

One person who is a conspiracy theorist says he gives an "accurate account of history". The problem is that in his paranoid imagination he believes he is right. Again, it does not matter if you show him to be totally wrong, because to him you then become part of the conspiracy. In short they have lost all touch with reality.

Lol, does he seriously believe that our history is true? to the lowest extent, history is written by the victors, therefore that which we teach is bias to the current 'Champion' of history. Would Hitler have left in the 'Genocide' in his history books?

He and other conspiracy theorists change their so called evidence in response to each part of the conspiracy that is debunked. As soon as one delusion is unmasked, they simply invent another to replace it, and deny the first ever exsisted. Theorists aften argue that those who debunk such information are themselves involved in the conspiracy.

Generalisation, I admit, I have seen this done before on here but to say ALL 'conspiracy theorists' do this is like saying 'all Germans are efficient', generalised stereotype.

If some new information appears to undermine a conspiracy theory, either the plot is changed to make it consistent with the new information, or the theorist questions the legitimacy of the new information.

Lol, this happens on both sides of the fence, debunkers do this same thing, new photo or footage comes out, it is straight away cast out as a fake.

Should we be expecting the belief in Religion and the Government to be under this scrutiny and classification of 'mental illness' these too both involve in the belief of the unknown.

Maybe I should make up a mental illness: 'No farther than thou nose' syndrome.

These people tend to believe in only that they see with their own eyes, and even then, this is subject to whether it fits into their current paradigm or belief system. They show signs of aggression and frustration when confronted with conflicting information and usually accept information from an official stand point, regardless of it's content or explanation. They feel safe with the belief of a mundane life, they cling to this as they 'know' this place, are comfortable with the world they know so much about, rather than consider the possibility of something else, something bigger that will make them seem smaller and insignificant.

As usual, people attacking what they don't understand or care to investigate, need for labelling for an understanding on 'their' life,

DON'T PUT ME IN A BOX MAN!!

EMM


[edit on 1-7-2008 by ElectroMagnetic Multivers]

[edit on 1-7-2008 by ElectroMagnetic Multivers]

Originally posted by sir_chancealot

Originally posted by kdial1
...conspiracy theorists change their so called evidence in response to each part of the conspiracy that is debunked. As soon as one delusion is unmasked, they simply invent another to replace it, and deny the first ever exsisted. Theorists aften argue that those who debunk such information are themselves involved in the conspiracy.
...

Did anyone else notice this description fits modern scientists to a "T"? ESPECIALLY this one: "As soon as one delusion is unmasked, they simply invent another to replace it, and deny the first ever exsisted.

If anyone doubts me, look up how the Wright Brothers were treated by scientists. Then ask any scientist how he thinks the Wright Brothers were treated.

BOOM!! Exactly, I smell...
DISINFORMATION!!
ASSEMBLE!!

reply to post by Breifne


Sorry mate but i have to reply on this one not only because i read that topic but also cause i posted too (i think it was in the second page,i'm not sure).

Me and some other people are clearly joking around without bashing anyone.That topic became the excuse (cheap or not) to lighten up a bit and fool around.

You can say even personally that i did post something that it wasn't any kind of help,i'll fully admit that.

Please read it again and you'll see that many of the posters are just fooling around. (some even said that the OP might got abducted...!:lol

Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
I like reading this site. I don't feel you are a bunch of paranoid types. You seem like open minded thinkers to me. Most know not to believe every word on here or anywhere else on the internet or television. Take fear out of your quest for knowledge and you'll be fine.

Exactly, we are not the sheep that believe everyword that comes out of the MSM. We question what they have to say, I'd say that makes us the non-crazies. We think of all the possibilities instead of the one outcome they want you to see. Exactly like you said, we are "Open Minded"

-Kdial1

This "mental illness" conspiracy theory disorder you're referring to is simply an opinion.

Here's a real "mental illness" conspiracy that happened to me last week.

Research it. Once you figure out that I'm not making this up ... tell me: am I mentally ill?

[edit on 1-7-2008 by tyranny22]

If conspiracy theorists are mentally ill, pray tell what is 'normal'

being a sheep? following the herd? being a good boy and closing your mouth?

well then wouldn't the other side of this be the constant debugger,the one that thinks everyone else is nuts?...given the society we live in , the amount of people in prison,and politicians, wouldn't that have to be classified as a disease? i mean there are people that are on this site that virtually will not allow people to theorize. sometimes i get the feeling that they get a feeling of power from shooting other down. they use force to get their point across. wouldn't that be a disease too,just in the opposite sense?
and doesn't the government breed conspiracies by their silence and lies? doesn't silence about the things we have a right to know about cause thinking people to fill in their own blanks?
and most of all,sometimes doesn't LOGIC MANDATE conspiracy thought?

[edit on 2-7-2008 by Spectre0o0]

reply to post by Oceanborn


Thanks Oceanborn,

It was just an observation of ATSers (in general) chasing their own tails for 30 hours, infighting and flagging over nothing, on one occasion one member flagging to piss another member off.

Believe me, looking from the outside in, it was a farce. Maybe not a mental illness, but when some 'conspiracy theorists' get a scrap of information, their psyche does change considerably for the worse, even it becomes comedy night.

But again, just my opinion.

Cheers,

Breifne

reply to post by Oceanborn


i had also posted on the on youtube, using people's words and statements (with references) from this thread, but my post had gotten deleted.

Either he/she did it or youtube did... It's a Conpiracy against me (sarcasm, sorry but i am tired... been up all night)