Conspiracy Theories as Walt-Fiction

Ichino, Anna

doi:10.4324/9781003139720-16

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Pizzagate and QAnon theorizing resemble such storytelling, in that they contain various concrete details about people, their actions, and their motivations-for example, about specific Democrats drinking children's blood during occult rituals, or about a government insider called "Q" trying to 5 Recently, several other philosophers have invoked imagination in analyzing conspiracy theorizing (Ichino 2022; Ganapini forthcoming; Levy forthcoming; Munro forthcoming). Throughout, I'll situate my account in relation to theirs, including ways in which I depart from them.…”

Section: Conspiracist Narratives and The Theory Consumersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For one, as I mentioned above, conspiracy theories typically have narrative structures. As Ichino (2022) and Ganapini (forthcoming) note, these theories contain various tropes standardly found in fictional narratives, such as their focus on epic battles between good and evil forces. And it's natural to think that the imagination is involved in processing narratives of all kinds: that, as we consume a story, we grasp its contents by imagining them.…”

Section: Gaps In Existing Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

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Capturing the conspiracist’s imagination

Munro

2023

Philos Stud

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Some incredibly far-fetched conspiracy theories circulate online these days. For most of us, clear evidence would be required before we'd believe these extraordinary theories. Yet, conspiracists often cite evidence that seems transparently very weak. This is puzzling, since conspiracists often aren't irrational people who are incapable of rationally processing evidence. I argue that existing accounts of conspiracist belief formation don't fully address this puzzle. Then, drawing on both philosophical and empirical considerations, I propose a new explanation that appeals to the role of the imagination in conspiracist belief formation. I argue that conspiracists first become imaginatively absorbed in conspiracist narratives, where this helps to explain how they process their evidence. From there, we can better understand why they find this evidence so compelling, as well as the psychological role it plays in their belief forming processes. This account also has practical implications for combatting the spread of online conspiracy theories.

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Section: Conspiracist Narratives and The Theory Consumersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Gaps In Existing Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Capturing the conspiracist’s imagination

Munro

2023

Philos Stud

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“…For popular discussions, seeGraziosi (2021),Siddharth and Murphy (2021), andSmith (2021); for discussion amongst philosophers, seeIchino (2022),Smith (2022),Buzzell and Rini (2023),Clarke (2023),Munro (2023),Levy (forthcoming), and Ganapini (forthcoming); for a small sampling of academic discussion in areas outside philosophy, seeRosenblum and Muirhead (2019),Packer and Stoneman (2021), McIntosh (2022), andBeyer and Herrberg (2023). One issue I'll set aside concerns whether Esotericists genuinely believe their conspiracy theories.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One issue I'll set aside concerns whether Esotericists genuinely believe their conspiracy theories. Some philosophers have recently argued that many instead merely imagine or pretend(Ichino 2022;Munro 2023; Levy forthcoming; Ganapini forthcoming). This issue is somewhat orthogonal to my purposes, given that I'm mainly focused on differences in the kind of evidence to which each sort of conspiracy theorist appeals.…”

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confidence: 99%