1. According to a recent survey, what proportion of Americans believes at least one conspiracy theory?

2. What percentage do not believe the official explanation of the JFK assassination?

3. What is President Trump's relationship with conspiracy theories?

4. What are three cognitive biases that may explain the appeal of conspiracy theories?

5. What does Eric Oliver believe is the greatest predictor of a person's likelihood to accept conspiracy theories?

6. In what way can conspiracy theories be seen as a coping mechanism? (to cope with something is deal with it or make sense of it)

7. According to a study in Social Science, how do conspiracy theories make some people feel special or unique?

8. What are some conspiracies in recent American history that turned out to be real?

9. Why are the sorts of giant conspiracies seen in movies like JFK and The Manchurian Candidate implausible (unrealistic)?

10. According to Posner and van Prooijen, why do facts and evidence generally fail to persuade conspiracy theorists?

11. How might social media be making the problem of conspiracy theories worse?

12. How can conspiracy theories be bad for democracy?

Analysis

1. This article was written in 2017. Since then, there have been widespread conspiracy theories about COVID (e.g. that it was created on purpose in a laboratory) and the 2020 election (that it was "rigged" or "stolen"). What are some social and political and social consequences of these kinds of conspiracy theories?

2. Why is belief in conspiracy theories not compatible with critical thinking? In other words, why will critical thinkers not accept conspiracy theories (unless they have some good evidence that it may be true)?