"They found, perhaps surprisingly, that believers are more likely to be cynical about the world in general and politics in particular. Conspiracy theories also seem to be more compelling to those with low self-worth, especially with regard to their sense of agency in the world at large. Conspiracy theories appear to be a way of reacting to uncertainty and powerlessness. "
The main reason that people develop and "buy into" conspiracy theories is because conspiracies exist and the social arts of collusion, deception and the detection of collusion and deception have been selected for. The people who are most cynical are most likely to entertain theories about people conspiring but the source of their cynicism may be their experiences with conspiracies. On the other hand, naive people tend not to credit conspiracies even when they are staring them in the face, perhaps because it makes them feel too uncomfortable to admit the possibility.
Academics are generally in the naive set simply because of their environment and the types of people who become academic. They often display more traits along the autistic spectrum (socially awkward and more interested in facts than fictions - as such they often don't see the point in lies and other deceptive activities). Academia can get quite rough but it's almost always pitched battles between individuals and teams out in the open rather than covert back stabbings and rumour-mongering. Academics can be so averse to the idea that vicious conspiracies happen that they may
misdiagnose people with first hand knowledge of conspiracies as delusional.
The worlds of politics and gang crime are much more fertile grounds for conspiracies. People who can't detect them and divert/undermine or join them don't get that far.
Being able to conspire and being able to detect conspiracy are two human traits but they tend to come to the fore when times are hard. During the good times there is little to gain from conspiracy that can't be gained from open cooperation. When times are lean the potential benefit of conspiracy increases but so does the potential costs of not spotting them.
Of course, conspiracy theories should never be tolerated because allowing conspiracy theories could lead to the undoing of those involved in conspiracies. The idea that 12 lunch buddies were setting the global interbank interest rates for he benefit of themselves and their friends would be a conspiracy theory but now it is merely a scandal. That's merely a relabeling since the same theory continues to explain the LIBOR before as after it was discovered (just like Newtons theory of gravity still is a good way to describe how bodies move in a gravitational field).
On the other hand, "Elvis is still alive" is NOT a conspiracy theory. Missiles hit the Pentagon is also not a conspiracy theory, it is a hypothesis about an event and not a well founded one in my opinion but it implies that some sort of conspiracy
would have had to exist - though it doesn't of it self say what that conspiracy would have been or how it would have worked. The idea that 19 guys and financiers and handlers were able to hijack several planes and fly 75% of them into important buildings IS a conspiracy theory. Muddying what is and is not a conspiracy is ALSO part of an agenda in my opinion though not necessarily a coordinated one.
