Page "Conspiracy theory" Paragraph 29

It is possible that certain basic human epistemic biases are projected onto the material under scrutiny.

According to one study, humans apply a rule of thumb by which we expect a significant event to have a significant cause.

The study offered subjects four versions of events, in which a foreign president was ( a ) successfully assassinated, ( b ) wounded but survived, ( c ) survived with wounds but died of a heart attack at a later date, and ( d ) was unharmed.

Subjects were significantly more likely to suspect conspiracy in the case of the major events — in which the president died — than in the other cases, despite all other evidence available to them being equal.

Connected with pareidolia, the genetic tendency of human beings to find patterns in coincidence, this allows the discovery of conspiracy in any significant event.