Yes. We are on the bed.
You could call it an homage to old YouTube.
I call it...
comfortable for my butt.
Conspiracy theories.
So as somebody who's lost, like, many a night
tumbling down Wikipedia rabbit holes,
I- I love a good conspiracy theory.
It's like, "Ooh, aliens!"
"Ooh, how do people make such big triangles?"
I think that that it's just fun
imagining the world to be more interesting
than what I was taught.
But then something weird happened?
A couple weeks ago, I found myself
in the middle of a conspiracy theory.
And then, all of the fun was replaced with just...
pure confusion.
The conspiracy itself is, like, weird and fun and innocuous.
However, what I really cared about is, like,
how do you get to that point?
How do you start seeing signs that were never there to begin with.
That's what I want to know.
And I also want to, like, disprove this whole conspiracy theory
'cause it's whack.
However, as the person in, in the middle of all of this,
I can imagine why I'd be seen as unreliable.
So...
...I'm calling on a friend!
Uhh, I don't know how to put this. How do you put this?
People think that I am part of the Illuminati.
Uh-
Well, are you?
[laughs]
This is just one of the comments,
but I think it really summarizes the issue.
"I find this channel to be highly disingenuous-"
"-Corporate product masked to have the appearance of
an independently run YouTube channel." "There's no way a single person is that skilled
at animation, editing, presenting, research-" "Everything is too professional for that-"
"There's no way this girl is the one who did this"
"A production company put this video together with you just as a host."
So now- Now... Now what?
Why am I calling you? Right?
Yeah. I'm, like, "How do you want me to prove this?"
I am wondering if you could explain to me and the viewers of this video,
how could somebody see something so mundane
that's just, like, a part of my life, I guess.
How could someone see that and think, like, "There must be more."
I'm interested. I'm fascinated.
'Cause I'm, like...
I'm not only interested in your conspiracy, as interesting as it is.
I think conspiracies have a, have a knack for, especially nowadays,
to just....
just ruin people's lives, you know?
I'm gonna solve this mystery. ♪ Scooby-dooby-doo ♪
We don't have the copyright on that.
We're going to investigate this conundrum. I'm-I'm-
You're doubling down on it, I see.
Hello, I'm Taha.
I'm apparently Sabrina's only British friend.
I've been given free reign over this part of the video,
so, welcome to my chaos.
Sabrina's asked me to get into the mind of a Sabrina Cruz truther
and figure out what's going on.
Okay, hold on.
It needs pictures.
Let's read some conspiracy theories.
"This is a fake channel
A propaganda channel paid by others.
Why the spotty uploads?"
Maybe because it's- it's just one person?
I love this one.
"Who do you work for?
We all know this isn't your channel. Whose script are you reading?"
"I think she works for the government."
Oh. This is the best one.
"Her main channel is crash course with 10 million subs."
John and Hank Green, eat your heart out.
Okay, so basically,
people think that Sabrina doesn't make her own videos,
that she's a presenter, that maybe she works for the government.
How did people get here?
Let's figure it out.
Okay. So, here's what I found out.
There are loads of ways to define conspiracy theories,
but they all kind of boil down to the same thing.
It's basically the belief that a group of people
are secretly working together to do something bad.
But here's the thing:
When we talk about conspiracy theories,
we aren't talking about every time anyone has ever got together
to secretly do bad things.
So what are people talking about when they say "conspiracy theory"?
Or when they talk about conspiracy theories on the internet?
They talk about a specific type of conspiracy theory.
It's the type of conspiracy theory that Sabrina is in the middle of right now.
These conspiracy theories seem to be unlikely by design.
Here's the really interesting thing that I found.
These theories have pretty distinctive features that you can spot
and these features make them not only unlikely to be true
but also difficult to argue against.
These features are that they are speculative,
based on educated, or, not-so-educated guesswork
rather than solid evidence.
The rationale being that if a conspiracy was successful
then it wouldn't have left a trace.
They can become contrarian.
They form in opposition to the obvious or official explanation.
Conspiracy theories will dismiss this explanation, citing
"That's what they want you to think."
Because of this, theories can become esoteric.
If the obvious explanation isn't true, then the theory is based on speculation.
The conspiracy theory can run wild.
Explanations can become increasingly detached from reality.
Theories are also amateurish.
Now, that isn't a comment on a theorist's intelligence.
That's a comment on how qualified these theorists are.
In most cases, they don't have the relevant expertise
to be conclusively analyzing evidence.
Even when they do, they're in the small minority
and the professional consensus doesn't agree with them.
And is it more likely that all experts are lying
or that most informed and qualified people are coming to the same conclusion.
Conspiracies can also become premodern.
These conspiracies believe that incredibly complex events
can be controlled by a small number of people acting in secret.
Nothing is a coincidence or a series of uncorrelated events,
but a coordinated conspiracy.
And lastly, these conspiracies are self-sealing.
What this means is that
the conspiracy is difficult to argue against.
If a conspiracy is based on speculation,
it dismisses the obvious explanation in favor of a more obscure one.
if it ignores expert consensus
and believes that a small group of people can control complex events,
any explanation against the conspiracy is just "what they want you to think."
Now, that doesn't mean that every time you hear the words "conspiracy theory"
you should just dismiss it.
Because we know that throughout history, there are well-documented conspiracies.
I find this really interesting concept
that distinguish between conspiracy theory and conspiracy fact.
Essentially, when you have a bunch of solid evidence
that supports the fact that a conspiracy occurred,
you can consider it fact.
But it isn't sensible to believe conspiracy theories,
the ones that tick all of the boxes that make them unbelievable.
And not unbelievable in a way like, "Oh, that's unbelievable!"
In a way that's like, "I don't believe you."
And even if conspiracy theories aren't true,
they still have a function.
Not a good function, but still a function.
So, what is it?
People believe conspiracies
that reinforce their political or ideological bias.
Nobody's believing a conspiracy theory
that goes against what they think the world is like.
We see patterns and theories that reinforce our ideology
and we're happy to get onboard.
In this way, conspiracy theories are a type of ideological propaganda.
By spreading the theory, you also end up spreading your own world view.
In order to believe a theory,
you have to believe that the world is a certain way.
So, by convincing people of your conspiracy theory,
you are also implicitly convincing them that the world is the way
that you believe it to be.
Okay. So, in the process of researching this video,
I ended up going down a lot of conspiracy theory rabbit holes.
Some of them I obviously know were untrue, but others I thought,
"Maybe they could be true?"
That was kind of scary to me.
And I wanted to find out what it was about conspiracy theories
that made them so... attractive.
And that's when I got into the psychology of conspiracy theories.
There are 2 key psychological phenomenon that drive a natural inclination
towards conspiracy theories.
First is "pattern perception".
We're bad at recognizing randomness.
Instead, we are more likely to see a pattern when there is none.
And, secondly, is "agency detection".
We tend to think that events occur due to agents acting intentionally,
rather than recognizing neutral or coincidental occurrences.
These 2 phenomena are compounded by cognitive biases
that make conspiracy theories believable.
These include "proportionality bias,"
which leads to thinking that the cause of an event
has to be as big as its consequences.
When the explanation is not as grand as the event itself,
people can find it difficult to believe.
This means we assume things happen on purpose rather than by accident.
When the conspiracy explains how something was intentional,
believing that it was an accident becomes difficult.
"Confirmation bias" means that once we believe a conspiracy,
we tend to only pay attention to evidence that supports our conclusion.
So, now I know why my brain thinks the way it does.
But doesn't necessarily change the fact
that I still felt like those conspiracy theories were true.
So, now what?
Here is where it gets interesting.
One of the books I ended up reading for this video...
was written by a professor
that I had last year at university.
So, I just asked him.
This is Quassim Cassam,
a professor of Philosophy at the Universtiy of Warwick.
His main research interests are knowledge,
perception,
intellectual vices, and
conspiracy theories.
I also owe him an essay.
So, yeah, my sort of, like, initial question
that I didn't know how to tackle myself was just...
how do you think about being healthily skeptical
versus, sort of, unnecessarily conspiratorial?
[Quassim:] Right
I think that lots of people
that believe conspiracy theories,
think that it's a good way to express their skepticism
and lack of trust in government and authority.
My own view is that, is that, well,
of course it's a very good thing
to hold an establishment to account.
And it's very helpful
when journalists and whistle-blowers come up with evidence.
I mean, I have to concede
that- that- that the sources that I regard as trustworthy
are of course sources that, to some extent,
tell me the things I want to hear.
It's very easy to get sucked into the vortex,
you know, so questions you ask yourself,
you know, with respect to your own favorite conspiracy theory,
is that, well, what would convince you that your theory
is false?
It- would anything convince you? That your theory is false?
If the answer is that, well, actually, what anybody else comes up with,
you're going to state your guards, you're going to continue to say
there was a conspiracy, well then, then that's the point
at which you really need to kind of, you know, pull yourself out, you know.
But human beings are fallable, right. We all make mistakes, you know,
We're all subject to biases of all various kinds and wishful thinking.
The recommendation that I would make is: just be aware of that.
Be aware of these failings of people, of human beings in general,
including ourselves.
Hello! Different angle.
Yeah, basically, I was so stressed trying to interview my professor
and sound intellectual that I completely forgot to record my thoughts,
straight after my interview.
I, I just lay down and took a nap. So, yeah.
I, I feel like I, I have a pretty good idea of how conspiracy theories
are formed, how conspiracy theorists think about them, and,
and why we think about them
and I feel like I understand what's going on in Sabrina's
comment section.
So, I guess the final thing to do is to call Sabrina back and, and
tell her everything we found out.
[phone line ringing]
Hello! How's it going?
[Sabrina] Hello! I-
[Taha] What's it like being part of the government?
[Sabrina] oh, are we doubling down on that? Is that what ended up happening?
You're just now a conspiracy theorist?
[Taha] The, the fact is, that, like, people do, throughout history,
conspire to do bad things.
It's not like that's unheard of.
But some of those things are like, verifiably true.
Like they're-there's documented evidence, there's whistle-blowers,
Those can't be, like, put in the same bucket as a conspiracy theory
in the traditional sense.
You know, it's important to make that distinction.
And then once you get into sort of the world of conspiracy theories,
it's just a never-ending bucket of chaos.
The thing that I discovered, which, you're going to find very comforting,
so, if you're a hardcore conspiracy theorist,
there's basically nothing you can say to them that they will, will take
on board because if you say anything against any of the conspiracies
they believe, they'll just say "that's what they want you to think."
[Sabrina] that's great. [laughs]
[Taha:] essentially, for whatever reason, it's more comfortable for them
and their- the way they think about the world
to believe that you are, sort of, like, part of the Illuminati.
You know, a government mole, than it is to just believe
that you are a talented person.
And, like, what are you supposed to do with that?
My, my lecturer, he did talk about sort of, like, being conspiracy curious.
He really emphasized the idea that, um, a wise man porportions his
beliefs to the evidence.
And, what he meant by that was essentially, you know, is there evidence
that I can, you know, rely on, to
conclude the things that I wanna conclude?
Most people, like myself, are just conspiracy curious.
And now that I understand how conspiracies come about, I can really quickly spot
when I'm falling into these biases.
So, just by learning about them, it's, like, really opened my eye into all
of these ways that I can be biased, and all of these ways that I am vulnerable
to the conspiracy thinking.
[Sabrina:] Well that's a good lesson.
[Taha:] Thumbs up!
[Sabrina:] Thanks, friend.
Oh, my phone landed on my ankle and it hurts so bad.
That call was exactly what I expected,
and exactly what I didn't wanna hear.
I think what freaked me out the most is just, like, how easy it seems to be to
fall for conspiracy theories.
And to think that our brain, like, develops these tricks,
presumably to help us survive, is now
something we need to actively fight against.
But you can't fight against it too hard, or else you might become extremely skeptical.
And believe in nothing.
It's just so hard.
And maybe the easiest thing to do, at least in my case,
in my very innocuous little conspiracy theory case,
is...
to make them...
true!
Duh duh duh! What could she possibly mean?
I'll explain next week.
But either way, have a lovely day!
Please don't become a conspiracy theorist. Take care of yourself
and your little brain.
Bye!