WEBVTT

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Yes. We are on the bed.

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You could call it an homage
to old YouTube.

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I call it...

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comfortable for my butt.

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Conspiracy theories.

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So as somebody who's lost, like, 
many a night

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tumbling down Wikipedia
rabbit holes,

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I- I love a good conspiracy theory.

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It's like, "Ooh, aliens!"

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"Ooh, how do people make
such big triangles?"

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I think that that it's just fun

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imagining the world
to be more interesting

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than what I was taught.

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But then something weird happened?

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A couple weeks ago,
I found myself

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in the middle of
a conspiracy theory.

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And then, all of the fun
was replaced with just...

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pure confusion.

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The conspiracy itself is, like,
weird and fun and innocuous.

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However, what I really
cared about is, like,

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how do you get to that point?

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How do you start seeing signs
that were never there to begin with.

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That's what I want to know.

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And I also want to, like, disprove
this whole conspiracy theory

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'cause it's whack.

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However, as the person
in, in the middle of all of this,

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I can imagine why I'd be
seen as unreliable.

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So...

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...I'm calling on a friend!

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Uhh, I don't know how to put this.
How do you put this?

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People think that I am
part of the Illuminati.

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Uh-

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Well, are you?

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[laughs]

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This is just one of the comments,

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but I think it really
summarizes the issue.

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"I find this channel to
be highly disingenuous-"

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"-Corporate product masked
to have the appearance of

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an independently run YouTube channel."
"There's no way a single person is that skilled

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at animation, editing, presenting, research-"
"Everything is too professional for that-"

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"There's no way this girl
is the one who did this"

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"A production company put this video
together with you just as a host."

NOTE Paragraph

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So now- Now...
Now what?

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Why am I calling you? Right?

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Yeah. I'm, like, "How do you
want me to prove this?"

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I am wondering if you could explain
to me and the viewers of this video,

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how could somebody see
something so mundane

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that's just, like, a part
of my life, I guess.

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How could someone see that
and think, like, "There must be more."

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I'm interested. I'm fascinated.

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'Cause I'm, like...

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I'm not only interested in your
conspiracy, as interesting as it is.

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I think conspiracies have a, have a
knack for, especially nowadays,

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to just....

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just ruin people's lives,
you know?

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I'm gonna solve this mystery.
♪ Scooby-dooby-doo ♪

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We don't have the copyright on that.

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We're going to investigate
this conundrum. I'm-I'm-

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You're doubling down on it, I see.

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Hello, I'm Taha.

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I'm apparently Sabrina's
only British friend.

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I've been given free reign
over this part of the video,

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so, welcome to my chaos.

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Sabrina's asked me to get into
the mind of a Sabrina Cruz truther

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and figure out what's going on.

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Okay, hold on.

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It needs pictures.

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Let's read some conspiracy theories.

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"This is a fake channel

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A propaganda channel paid by others.

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Why the spotty uploads?"

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Maybe because it's-
it's just one person?

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I love this one.

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"Who do you work for?

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We all know this isn't your channel.
Whose script are you reading?"

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"I think she works for the government."

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Oh. This is the best one.

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"Her main channel is crash course
with 10 million subs."

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John and Hank Green,
eat your heart out.

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Okay, so basically,

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people think that Sabrina
doesn't make her own videos,

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that she's a presenter,
that maybe she works for the government.

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How did people get here?

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Let's figure it out.

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Okay. So, here's what I found out.

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There are loads of ways to define
conspiracy theories,

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but they all kind of boil down
to the same thing.

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It's basically the belief that
a group of people

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are secretly working together
to do something bad.

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But here's the thing:

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When we talk about conspiracy theories,

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we aren't talking about every time
anyone has ever got together

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to secretly do bad things.

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So what are people talking about
when they say "conspiracy theory"?

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Or when they talk about conspiracy
theories on the internet?

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They talk about a specific type
of conspiracy theory.

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It's the type of conspiracy theory that
Sabrina is in the middle of right now.

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These conspiracy theories
seem to be unlikely by design.

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Here's the really interesting thing that I found.

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These theories have pretty distinctive
features that you can spot

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and these features make them
not only unlikely to be true

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but also difficult to argue against.

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These features are that
they are speculative,

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based on educated, or,
not-so-educated guesswork

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rather than solid evidence.

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The rationale being that
if a conspiracy was successful

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then it wouldn't have left a trace.

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They can become contrarian.

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They form in opposition to the
obvious or official explanation.

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Conspiracy theories will dismiss
this explanation, citing

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"That's what they want you to think."

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Because of this, theories
can become esoteric.

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If the obvious explanation isn't true,
then the theory is based on speculation.

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The conspiracy theory can run wild.

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Explanations can become increasingly
detached from reality.

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Theories are also amateurish.

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Now, that isn't a comment on
a theorist's intelligence.

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That's a comment on how qualified
these theorists are.

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In most cases, they don't have
the relevant expertise

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to be conclusively analyzing evidence.

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Even when they do,
they're in the small minority

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and the professional consensus
doesn't agree with them.

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And is it more likely that
all experts are lying

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or that most informed and qualified people
are coming to the same conclusion.

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Conspiracies can also become premodern.

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These conspiracies believe that
incredibly complex events

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can be controlled by a small number
of people acting in secret.

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Nothing is a coincidence
or a series of uncorrelated events,

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but a coordinated conspiracy.

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And lastly, these conspiracies
are self-sealing.

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What this means is that

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the conspiracy is difficult
to argue against.

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If a conspiracy is based on speculation,

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it dismisses the obvious explanation
in favor of a more obscure one.

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if it ignores expert consensus

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and believes that a small group of people
can control complex events,

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any explanation against the conspiracy
is just "what they want you to think."

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Now, that doesn't mean that every time
you hear the words "conspiracy theory"

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you should just dismiss it.

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Because we know that throughout history,
there are well-documented conspiracies.

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I find this really interesting concept

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that distinguish between
conspiracy theory and conspiracy fact.

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Essentially, when you have
a bunch of solid evidence

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that supports the fact
that a conspiracy occurred,

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you can consider it fact.

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But it isn't sensible to believe
conspiracy theories,

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the ones that tick all of the boxes
that make them unbelievable.

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And not unbelievable in a way like,
"Oh, that's unbelievable!"

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In a way that's like,
"I don't believe you."

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And even if conspiracy theories
aren't true,

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they still have a function.

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Not a good function,
but still a function.

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So, what is it?

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People believe conspiracies

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that reinforce their
political or ideological bias.

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Nobody's believing a conspiracy theory

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that goes against what they think
the world is like.

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We see patterns and theories that
reinforce our ideology

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and we're happy to get onboard.

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In this way, conspiracy theories
are a type of ideological propaganda.

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By spreading the theory, you also end up
spreading your own world view.

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In order to believe a theory,

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you have to believe that
the world is a certain way.

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So, by convincing people
of your conspiracy theory,

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you are also implicitly convincing them
that the world is the way

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that you believe it to be.

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Okay. So, in the process of
researching this video,

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I ended up going down a lot
of conspiracy theory rabbit holes.

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Some of them I obviously know were untrue,
but others I thought,

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"Maybe they could be true?"

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That was kind of scary to me.

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And I wanted to find out what it was
about conspiracy theories

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that made them so... attractive.

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And that's when I got into the
psychology of conspiracy theories.

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There are 2 key psychological phenomenon
that drive a natural inclination

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towards conspiracy theories.

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First is "pattern perception".

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We're bad at recognizing randomness.

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Instead, we are more likely to see
a pattern when there is none.

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And, secondly, is "agency detection".

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We tend to think that events occur
due to agents acting intentionally,

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rather than recognizing neutral
or coincidental occurrences.

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These 2 phenomena are compounded
by cognitive biases

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that make conspiracy theories believable.

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These include "proportionality bias,"

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which leads to thinking that
the cause of an event

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has to be as big as its consequences.

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When the explanation is not as grand
as the event itself,

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people can find it difficult to believe.

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This means we assume things happen
on purpose rather than by accident.

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When the conspiracy explains
how something was intentional,

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believing that it was an accident
becomes difficult.

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"Confirmation bias" means that
once we believe a conspiracy,

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we tend to only pay attention to
evidence that supports our conclusion.

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So, now I know why my brain
thinks the way it does.

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But doesn't necessarily change the fact

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that I still felt like those
conspiracy theories were true.

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So, now what?

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Here is where it gets interesting.

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One of the books I ended up
reading for this video...

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was written by a professor

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that I had last year at university.

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So, I just asked him.

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This is Quassim Cassam,

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a professor of Philosophy
at the Universtiy of Warwick.

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His main research interests are knowledge,

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perception,

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intellectual vices, and

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conspiracy theories.

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I also owe him an essay.

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So, yeah, my sort of, like,
initial question

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that I didn't know how to
tackle myself was just...

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how do you think about
being healthily skeptical

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versus, sort of, 
unnecessarily conspiratorial?

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[Quassim:] Right

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I think that lots of people

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that believe conspiracy theories,

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think that it's a good way to 
express their skepticism

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and lack of trust in government 
and authority.

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My own view is that, is that, well,

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of course it's a very good thing

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to hold an establishment to account.

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And it's very helpful

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when journalists and whistle-blowers
come up with evidence.

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I mean, I have to concede

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that- that- that the sources that 
I regard as trustworthy

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are of course sources that, 
to some extent,

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tell me the things I want to hear.

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It's very easy to get
sucked into the vortex,

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you know, so questions
you ask yourself,

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you know, with respect to your
own favorite conspiracy theory,

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is that, well, what would
convince you that your theory

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is false?

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It- would anything convince you?
That your theory is false?

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If the answer is that, well, actually,
what anybody else comes up with,

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you're going to state your guards, 
you're going to continue to say

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there was a conspiracy,
well then, then that's the point

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at which you really need to kind of,
you know, pull yourself out, you know.

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But human beings are fallable, right.
We all make mistakes, you know,

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We're all subject to biases
of all various kinds and wishful thinking.

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The recommendation that I would make is:
just be aware of that.

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Be aware of these failings of people,
of human beings in general,

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including ourselves.

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Hello! Different angle.

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Yeah, basically, I was so stressed trying
to interview my professor

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and sound intellectual that I completely
forgot to record my thoughts,

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straight after my interview.

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I, I just lay down and took a nap.
So, yeah.

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I, I feel like I, I have a pretty
good idea of how conspiracy theories

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are formed, how conspiracy theorists think
about them, and,

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and why we think about them

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and I feel like I understand
what's going on in Sabrina's

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comment section.

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So, I guess the final thing to do
is to call Sabrina back and, and

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tell her everything we found out.

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[phone line ringing]

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Hello! How's it going?

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[Sabrina] Hello! I-

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[Taha] What's it like being
part of the government?

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[Sabrina] oh, are we doubling down on that?
Is that what ended up happening?

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You're just now a conspiracy theorist?

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[Taha] The, the fact is, that, like,
people do, throughout history,

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conspire to do bad things.

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It's not like that's unheard of.

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But some of those things are like,
verifiably true.

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Like they're-there's documented evidence,
there's whistle-blowers,

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Those can't be, like, put in the same
bucket as a conspiracy theory

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in the traditional sense.

00:11:15.375 --> 00:11:17.035
You know, it's important to
make that distinction.

00:11:17.035 --> 00:11:19.743
And then once you get into sort of 
the world of conspiracy theories,

00:11:19.743 --> 00:11:22.452
it's just a never-ending bucket of chaos.

00:11:22.452 --> 00:11:26.200
The thing that I discovered, which,
you're going to find very comforting,

00:11:26.200 --> 00:11:29.062
so, if you're a hardcore
conspiracy theorist,

00:11:29.062 --> 00:11:32.981
there's basically nothing you can
say to them that they will, will take

00:11:32.981 --> 00:11:36.286
on board because if you say anything
against any of the conspiracies

00:11:36.286 --> 00:11:38.993
they believe, they'll just say
"that's what they want you to think."

00:11:38.993 --> 00:11:39.633
[Sabrina] that's great. [laughs]

00:11:39.633 --> 00:11:44.017
[Taha:] essentially, for whatever reason,
it's more comfortable for them

00:11:44.017 --> 00:11:46.739
and their- the way they think
about the world

00:11:46.739 --> 00:11:50.784
to believe that you are, sort of,
like, part of the Illuminati.

00:11:50.784 --> 00:11:53.380
You know, a government mole,
than it is to just believe

00:11:53.380 --> 00:11:55.854
that you are a talented person.

00:11:55.854 --> 00:11:57.573
And, like, what are you
supposed to do with that?

00:11:57.573 --> 00:12:01.666
My, my lecturer, he did talk about
sort of, like, being conspiracy curious.

00:12:01.666 --> 00:12:06.730
He really emphasized the idea that,
um, a wise man porportions his

00:12:07.511 --> 00:12:09.521
beliefs to the evidence.

00:12:09.521 --> 00:12:13.058
And, what he meant by that was 
essentially, you know, is there evidence

00:12:13.058 --> 00:12:16.082
that I can, you know, rely on,
to

00:12:16.082 --> 00:12:18.846
conclude the things that I wanna conclude?

00:12:18.846 --> 00:12:21.501
Most people, like myself, are just
conspiracy curious.

00:12:21.501 --> 00:12:26.334
And now that I understand how conspiracies
come about, I can really quickly spot

00:12:26.334 --> 00:12:28.966
when I'm falling into these biases.

00:12:29.160 --> 00:12:33.800
So, just by learning about them, 
it's, like, really opened my eye into all

00:12:33.800 --> 00:12:37.175
of these ways that I can be biased,
and all of these ways that I am vulnerable

00:12:37.175 --> 00:12:38.741
to the conspiracy thinking.

00:12:38.741 --> 00:12:40.331
[Sabrina:] Well that's a good lesson.

00:12:40.331 --> 00:12:41.530
[Taha:] Thumbs up!

00:12:41.530 --> 00:12:43.276
[Sabrina:] Thanks, friend.

00:12:43.276 --> 00:12:46.143
Oh, my phone landed on my ankle
and it hurts so bad.

00:12:46.143 --> 00:12:49.150
That call was exactly what I expected,

00:12:49.150 --> 00:12:51.279
and exactly what I didn't wanna hear.

00:12:51.279 --> 00:12:56.040
I think what freaked me out the most is
just, like, how easy it seems to be to

00:12:56.040 --> 00:12:58.014
fall for conspiracy theories.

00:12:58.014 --> 00:13:00.765
And to think that our brain, like,
develops these tricks,

00:13:00.765 --> 00:13:03.336
presumably to help us survive, is now

00:13:03.336 --> 00:13:05.872
something we need to 
actively fight against.

00:13:05.872 --> 00:13:09.198
But you can't fight against it too hard,
or else you might become extremely skeptical.

00:13:09.555 --> 00:13:11.745
And believe in nothing.

00:13:11.745 --> 00:13:13.104
It's just so hard.

00:13:13.104 --> 00:13:15.928
And maybe the easiest thing to do,
at least in my case,

00:13:16.176 --> 00:13:19.938
in my very innocuous little
conspiracy theory case,

00:13:20.601 --> 00:13:21.301
is...

00:13:21.301 --> 00:13:23.528
to make them...

00:13:23.528 --> 00:13:24.767
true!

00:13:24.767 --> 00:13:26.999
Duh duh duh!
What could she possibly mean?

00:13:26.999 --> 00:13:28.271
I'll explain next week.

00:13:28.271 --> 00:13:30.727
But either way, have a lovely day!

00:13:30.727 --> 00:13:34.353
Please don't become a conspiracy theorist.
Take care of yourself

00:13:34.353 --> 00:13:35.503
and your little brain.

00:13:35.503 --> 00:13:39.717
Bye!