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------------------In this book, we will uproot the conspiracy theory from the minds of its believers------------------A recent edition of New Yorker magazine includes a story about the growing number of people who insist that the Earth is flat. Vital to their belief is the understanding that the moon landings were faked - indeed, space flight in general, and many accepted scientific principles are, they say, all part of a network of conspiracies, organised towards achieving an unspecified goal.The article quotes several attendees at a flat-earth conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, in the US. Facts are not true just because they're facts, if that makes any sense, one speaker says. 99% of received wisdom is questionable; if you can't observe it for yourself, it can't be trusted, says another. It simply comes down to, 'Have you been there? Have you been to Saturn? Have you been to Jupiter?' One of the key messages delivered at the conference was to trust in your senses, the article notes. We all live in the world, one presenter says. We can see what's real and what's not. Science is really an excuse for people to be stupid.It all sounds like a badly executed script for The X-Files, the popular TV series that started in 1993. But today's environment of alternative facts and post-truth seems to be fertile ground for an increasing array of conspiracy theories.In a 2016 paper exploring the link between schooling and conspiracy theories, published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, researcher Jan-Willem van Prooijen from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands says well-educated people are less likely to believe in them.He cites three factors: a belief in simple solutions for complex problems; feelings of powerlessness; and subjective social class .Joseph Uscinski, from the University of Miami in the US who, with Joseph Parent, authored the 2014 book American Conspiracy Theories (Oxford University Press), tells Cosmos that their research found that conspiracy thinking is higher among people with less education and less wealth .

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