Conspiracy generator demonstrates how easily conspiracy theories originate

Olivia Miller
Picture by Pixabay

An online conspiracy generator created by Kent researchers aims to demonstrate how easy it is to come up with a conspiracy theory and how fast it can spread.

The interactive generator assembles a random ‘protagonist’, ‘action’ and ‘motive’, producing a unique fake scenario that mirrors some of the conspiracy theories that emerge day-to-day across the world. Individuals then have the option to share their ‘conspiracy theory’ directly on Twitter.

Examples of generated conspiracy theories include:

‘Elon Musk and his associates are creating alter-egos to take over the world’

‘Pharmaceutical companies are using genetically modified organisms to give children bigger brains’

‘British politicians are putting secret messages in movies to deceive the public’

By showing just how simple it is to generate conspiracy scenarios, the CONSPIRACY_FX research team in Kent’s School of Psychology hopes that the generator will engage individuals to think about how conspiracy theories originate.

Director of the project, Professor Karen Douglas, said: ‘The conspiracy generator demonstrates how easy it is to come up with a conspiracy theory. As long as you have the right ingredients you can come up with a conspiracy theory that could very easily spread.’

The rise of conspiracy theories is often framed as a cause of various social ills such as declining public trust in democracy, the growing allure of populist and extremist politics, and the rejection of scientific consensus in favour of hearsay and fake news.

CONSPIRACY_FX is a five-year European Research Council funded project with the School of Psychology at Kent, addressing the impact of conspiracy theories on individuals, groups, and societies.

The Conspiracy Generator can be accessed here: https://research.kent.ac.uk/conspiracy-fx/the-conspiracy-generator/

Example of a ‘conspiracy’ generated through the online generator