Conspiracy Thinking — When Superstition Goes Collective

The Psychology of Superstition · Apr 14, 2026 · 6m

This episode explores conspiracy thinking as a collective form of superstition. It explains how uncertainty, fear, and the need for meaning drive people to connect unrelated events into intentional narratives. Psychological mechanisms like apophenia, agency detection, proportionality bias, and confirmation bias reinforce these beliefs, especially within social groups and echo chambers. Conspiracy thinking becomes a closed system that resists contradiction while providing identity, control, and coherence. The episode concludes that such beliefs arise not from lack of intelligence, but from the…