Why People Believe
This cognitive bias leads people to favor information that supports their existing beliefs.
What is confirmation bias?
People may believe conspiracies to feel unique or special—this is called this psychological need.
What is the need for uniqueness?
This type of media algorithm shows users content similar to what they already engage with.
What is an echo chamber (or algorithmic filtering)?
An action taken to hide a mistake or illegal activity from the public.
What is a cover-up?
This 1969 event is often claimed to have been staged in a studio.
What is the Moon Landing?
The mental discomfort experienced when a person holds contradictory beliefs, values, or attitudes, or acts in a way that conflicts with them.
What is cognitive dissonance?
This basic human tendency drives people to seek meaning in random events.
What is meaning-making (or pattern-seeking)?
This term describes false information spread intentionally to deceive.
What is disinformation?
Psychological manipulation to make someone doubt their own reality.
What is gaslighting?
This secretive U.S. military base is often associated with aliens.
What is Area 51?
People with this mindset tend to see hidden patterns or connections where none exist.
What is pattern recognition (or illusory pattern perception)?
This mental shortcut helps people make quick judgments but can lead to errors.
What is a heuristic?
This social factor makes people conform to group beliefs, even if false.
What is peer pressure (or conformity)?
Tool being used to create fake content.
What is AI?
This tragic 2001 event sparked theories about government involvement.
What is 9/11?
This trait is linked to distrust in authority and increased belief in conspiracies.
What is paranoia (or suspicious thinking)?
This personality trait is associated with openness to unusual beliefs and experiences.
What is schizotypy?
People are more likely to believe a claim after repeated exposure to it due to this effect.
What is the illusory truth effect
2025 Animation movie believed to have an underlying storyline exposing the new world order.
What is Zootopia 2?
Common birds that are believed to be government drones.
What is a pigeon?
This psychological effect causes people to overestimate their understanding of complex events
What is the Dunning-Kruger effect?
This theory suggests people believe conspiracies to protect their worldview when it’s threatened.
What is motivated reasoning?
This phenomenon explains how extreme beliefs become stronger within like-minded groups.
What is group polarization?
Director that was linked to faking the moon landing who also made a movie exposing the elites, dying shortly after.
Who is Stanley Kubrick?
This theory claims a secret global elite controls world governments and media.
What is the New World Order?