> Those who believe in conspiracy content are people characterized by a psychological tendency to take shortcuts whenever they can in order to minimize their efforts in learning and understanding new things
I dont think it is that simple. I remember reading finding that smart highly intelligent people are more attracted to conspiracy theories. The complexity of those theories and details those rely on attract them.
Also, I may be wrong here, but I remember reading that Parler was funded by some pretty rich people. If that is true, they should be able to pay for tech know how.
There is definitely a correlation between lazy thinking and believing in conspiracy theories. Mainly because conspiracy theories do not lend themselves to rigorous inquiry, almost by definition.
This is different than "intelligence." It's more about effort and rigor in thinking. It's the quality of the thought, and the willingness to question your own assumptions. And a willingness to recognize the limits of your own knowledge and understanding.
I'd be interested on information on that and how it was performed.
Ive found that many of successful people who talk about conspiracies tend to be self serving. Like that Texas lawyer that brought a case of election fraud, likely to catch attention of Trump to pardon him due to his own legal problems. Others as a scaremongering technique to influence politics.
The only ones that seem to believe in them are those clearly unhinged (McAfee comes straight to mind although his seems self serving too).
A study recently published on Scientific American seems to prove that left-leaning people tend to have more gray matter in the pre-frontal cortex (i.e. the area of the brain involved in complex planning, understanding of new things and pattern detection), wwhile right-leaning people tend to have more gray matter in the amygdala (the area of the brain responsible for spotting potential danger and refuse something new if it may pose a risk to survival): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/conservative-and-....
Keep un mind that before a conspiracy theory turns into the perverse mind-twist of a complex theory like QAnon it ALWAYS start simple, and always simpler than reality actually looks like. It can always summarized with "those guys want to harm you, so don't even bother to look further, the explanation is easy": pure and total amygdala stimulation. Then, when they are contradicted by evidence, they put up more and more complex twists to mitigate the arise of cognitive dissonance in its followers ("I know that it looks like things don't make much sense, but you know, you have to follow the crumbs, or keep in mind that Trump is talking to you in Morse code" etc.)
I dont think it is that simple. I remember reading finding that smart highly intelligent people are more attracted to conspiracy theories. The complexity of those theories and details those rely on attract them.
Also, I may be wrong here, but I remember reading that Parler was funded by some pretty rich people. If that is true, they should be able to pay for tech know how.