Umberto Eco (author of The
Name of the Rose and Foucault’s
Pendulum) observes:
“In theory, the idea
that the world is full of conspiracists might not bother us: If, for instance,
some number of people believe that the Americans never landed on the moon, then
it’s just too bad for them. But it turns out that such misinformation may have
farther-reaching consequences. In a study published last year in the British
Journal of Psychology, Daniel Jolley and Karen Douglas found that exposure to
conspiracy theories decreases the likelihood that a person will engage in the
political process, as compared with someone who is exposed to information that
refutes conspiracy theories.
In practice, if I
encounter someone who is convinced that world affairs are run by the
Illuminati, the Bilderbergers or some other secret society, what do I do about
it? I give up—and I worry. Every conspiracy theory steers the public psyche
toward imaginary perils, thereby distracting it from genuine threats.”