What has COVID-19 done to make us so readily embrace some, evidently misinformed and false, conspiracy theories?

(This is a follow up on the previous NEWS article,“‘Once Upon a Virus’: Analysis of US-China interactions as the two countries engage in a battle of narratives on the Twitter platform.”)

Following from my reading of an article from the Atlantic, currently my favourite media platform due to their quality analysis and their non-mainstream coverage (yes, despite all news and media agencies publishing on the same coronavirus-relevant topic, they are the only ones, in my opinion, who are able to make it entertaining as well as informative), I felt an urgency to address this issue before it gets swept under the rug by ‘ground-breaking discoveries’ of the ‘truth’ behind the origin of coronavirus.

As a writer myself and an avid reader of articles, it’s those which prompt deeper questioning and analysis that I find the most engaging. Enthused as always by new mutations of speculations and allegations, I am a lover of conspiracy theories and spend a lot of free time entertaining conspiracies and extrapolating these theories to predict the future of the world, sometimes even going against the laws of natural cause and effect.

It was suggested in the Atlantic article,‘The Coronavirus Conspiracy Boom: Nearly a third of the people we polled believe that the virus was manufactured on purpose. Why?’, that coronavirus has necessarily produced ‘fertile ground for conspiracism’ due to the surfacing of ‘feelings of extreme anxiety, powerlessness, and stress’ in the current social climate. It identifies the two main coronavirus conspiracy theories being distributed between ‘those that doubt the virus’ severity’ and ‘those that suggest it might be a bioweapon.’ Out of the 2,023 Americans that participated in the Atlantic’s poll on these theories, 29% believe that the threat of the virus was being exaggerated to hurt President Trump’s chances at re-election and 31% believe that the virus was created and spread on purpose. Whilst considerably high, the survey results indicate that formation of what is known as a ‘natural ceiling in conspiracy beliefs’. This refers to a ‘firewall’, formed by non-subscribers, which limits the spread of the conspiracy theory.

The explanation of the mechanism behind the ‘natural ceiling’ draws from an analysis conducted by Joseph E. Uscinski who argues that for an individual to support theories of conspiracism, one must not only have ‘a worldview that encompasses conspiratorial thinking’ but must also ‘be in accord with their other predispositions’. What Uscinski essentially introduces is an argument for the ‘Coronavirus Conspiracy Dimension’ which instructs that due to socialisation, one becomes more susceptible to conspiratorial thinking and begins to interpret new information and understand the world in a certain way. One of the most noticeable aspects of socialisation prevalent in the current social climate is that of political attitude. He advocates for the importance of attitude congruence as key to subscription of conspiracism: a Republican supporter is more prescribed to view coronavirus rhetorics as the Democrats’ ‘new hoax’ to alter the results of the November Elections than not. If beliefs in conspiracy theories tend to accord with political attitudes, it makes it difficult for countries with more than one political party to embrace one conspiracy theory. As long as there are multiple conspiracy theories and non-subscribers exist amidst the mix, conspiracy theories remain relatively harmless.

What does this mean for me?

Well, it means that you and I can both continue to entertain these conspiracy theories and give our opinion on them without there being any proper implications associated. What is important is not that the thought process remains inefficient and unproductive, but that conspiracism facilitates multi-dimensional thinking and critical analysis. What should be noted, however, is that conspiracism is often based on groundless speculations. It becomes a problem when bigotry blinds our conscience and leads us to believe all sorts of misinformation and fake news.

Note that opinions expressed in the article above do not represent the overall stance of Asiatic Affairs, Students' Union UCL or University College London. If you have read something you would like to respond to, please get in touch with uclasiaticaffairs@gmail.com.