Decoding the Language of Conspiracy

Conspiracy theories aren't a sign of poor judgement or personality flaws. Constructed from a shared language, they actually offer a means for someone to try and make sense of an uncertain or stressful event.

That's according to Henrich Greve, Professor of Entrepreneurship at INSEAD, speaking on this episode about his new book, co-authored with Stanford University's Huggy Rao: Ctrl+Alt+Doubt: Decoding the Language of Online Conspiracy Talk.

Greve explains why anyone can end up believing in conspiracy theories, how "gateway" theories work like gateway drugs, why the calmest, most rational-sounding posts spread the furthest, and why people often hold several contradictory theories at once as a kind of psychological safety net.

The conversation also covers real-world harms, from vaccine hesitancy and the return of measles to South Africa's HIV denialism and the January 6th Capitol attack, before turning to what actually works, and what doesn't, in slowing the spread of harmful conspiracies.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction: why conspiracy theories spread faster than ever
02:03 Why the book was written, and what past research got wrong
06:36 Defining a conspiracy theory, and how widespread they are
11:23 Reframing believers as problem solvers, not "dupes"
15:00 How the conspiracy "toolkit" is learned and spreads
21:03 The language of conspiracy talk: calm words, hashtags and community
24:23 Why people believe multiple, even contradictory, theories
26:56 Real-world harms: vaccines, violence and the return of measles
30:28 Conspiracy theories at state level: South Africa, Russia, January 6th
34:04 What actually works, and doesn't, in limiting the spread
40:34 Closing thoughts and where to find the book

Read the related INSEAD Knowledge article.