A conspiracy theory is an explanation of an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy without order court, usually involving an act illegal or harmful carried out by the government or other powerful actors. Conspiracy theories often produce hypotheses that contradict the prevailing understanding of the story or simple facts. The term is derogatory.
According to political scientist Michael Barkun, conspiracy theories are based on the view that the universe is governed by design, incorporating three principles: nothing happens by accident, nothing is what it seems, and everything is connected. Another common trait is that conspiracy theories evolve to incorporate whatever evidence exists against them, so that they become, the Barkun writes, a closed system that is unfalsifiable, and therefore "a matter of faith rather than proof.. "
People formulate conspiracy theories to explain, for example, power relations in social groups and the perceived existence of evil forces. Conspiracy theories have mainly psychological or socio-political origin. Proposed psychological origins include projection; The personal need to explain "a significant fact a significant cause"; And the product of various types and stages of thought disorder, such as paranoid disposition, ranging in severity to diagnosable mental illness. Some people prefer sociopolitical explanationsabout the insecurity of encountering random, unpredictable, or otherwise inexplicable events. Some philosophers have argued that belief in conspiracy theories may be rational.
The Oxford Dictionary defines conspiracy theory as “the theory that an event or phenomenon occurs as a result of a conspiracy between interested parties, the belief that a covert but influential agency (typically political in motivation and oppressive in intention) is responsible for an unexplained event. "
Today, conspiracy theories are widely present on the Web in the form of blogs and YouTube videos, as well as on social media. Whether or not the Web has increased the prevalence of conspiracy theories is an open research question. The presence and representation of conspiracy theories in search engine results has been monitored and studied, showing significant variation across different themes and a general absence of high-quality, reputable links in the results.
