- Yes, we are on the bed. You could call it an homage to old YouTube. I call it comfortable for my butt.
(Sabrina laughs) Conspiracy theories. So, as somebody who has lost many a night tumbling down Wikipedia rabbit holes. I love a good conspiracy theory.
It's like, "Ooh aliens! " "Ooh! How do people make such big triangles?
" I think that it is 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 wanna know. And I also want to, like, disapprove this whole conspiracy theory.
'Cause it's wack. However, as the person in the middle of all of this, I can imagine, why I'd be seen as unreliable. So, I'm calling on a friend!
I don't know how to put this. How do you put this? People think that I am part of the Illuminati.
- Well, are you? (Sabrina laughs) - This is just one of the comments, but I think it really summarizes the issue. "I find this channel to be highly disingenuous.
" "Clearly a 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-" "Everything is too professional. " Research for that topic of animation takes decades.
" "There's no way this girl is that-" "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 can somebody 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 ♪ - Thank you!
- [Sabrina] We don't have the copyright on that. - We're going to investigate this conundrum. - 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 rein over this part of the video.
So, welcome to my chaos. Sabrina has asked me to get into the mind of a Sabrina Cruz truther and figure out what's going on. Okay.
Hold on. (keyboard typing) - 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. " "Who's 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 hearts 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.
(upbeat techno music) - 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 gotten 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're talking 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 guess work 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 a 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 that are 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 expo-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 found this really interesting concept that distinguished 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 is 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 on board.
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 knew 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 phenomena 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 two phenomena are compounded by cognitive biases that make conspiracy theories believable. These include the proportionality bias, which leads to thinking that the cause of an event has to be as big as it's 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 is 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 they way it does, but that 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 that 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 University of Warwick.
His main research interest 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 verus unnecessarily conspiratorial?
- 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, 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 conceive 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 the question to ask yourself, you know, with respect to your own favorite conspiracy theories, is that, well, what would convince you that your theory is false? Would anything convince you that your theory is false? You know, if the answer is that, well, actually whatever anybody comes up with, you're going to stick to your guns, you're going to continue to say there was a conspiracy.
Well, then that's the point at which you really need to kind of, you know, pull yourself out, you know? But, human beings are fallible, right? We all make mistakes, you know, we're all subject to biases of various kinds and wishful thinking.
The recommendation 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 just laid down and took a nap. So, yeah, I feel like I have a pretty good idea of how conspiracy theories are formed, how conspiracy theorists think about them, and why we think about them.
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 tell her everything we found out. (phone ringing) - Hello!
How's it going? - [Sabrina] Hello! - What's it like being part of the government?
(Sabrina sighs) - Are we doubling down on that? Is that what ended up happening? You're just now a conspiracy theorist.
- 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, 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, its 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 take onboard, because if you say anything against any of the conspiracies they believe, they'll just say, "That's what they want you to think. " - That's great!
- Essentially, for whatever reason, it's more comfortable for them and the way that they think about the world to believe that you are like sort of, like, part of the Illuminati, you know, a government mole, than it is to just to believe that you are a talented person. And, like, what are you supposed to do with that? My lecturer, he did talk about sort of, like, being conspiracy curious.
He really emphasized the idea that a wise man proportions 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 want to 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 am 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 conspiracy thinking. - Well, that's a good lesson! - Thumbs up!
- 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 want to 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, developed 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 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.
Dun, dun, dun! 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!
