Conspiracy theory criticism

Cover of "Foreign Conspiracy Against the Liberties of the United States" by Samuel F.B. Morse, 1835 edition.

A conspiracy theory is an explanatory or speculative hypothesis that suggests that two or more persons, a group, or an organization of having caused and/or covered up, through secret planning and deliberate action, an event or situation which is typically taken to be illegal or harmful.

Conspiracy theory criticism

“ A note on terminology: in this essay, "conspiracy theory" and "conspiracy culture" refer to thinking about actual conspiracies; "conspiracy theory criticism" refers to second-level thinking about conspiracy theory. ” — Andrew Strombeck, Whose Conspiracy Theory?

Reading list

• Brotherton, Rob (2015), Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories, Bloomsbury, ISBN 1472915615

• Barkun, Michael (2013), A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America (2nd ed.), University of California Press, ISBN 0520276825

• Dean, Jodi (1998), Aliens in America : conspiracy cultures from outerspace to cyberspace, Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, ISBN 0801434637

• Fenster, Mark (1999), Conspiracy Theories : Secrecy and Power in American Culture, Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, ISBN 081663243X

• Knight, Peter (2000), Conspiracy culture : American paranoia from Kennedy to the X-files, New York: Routledge, ISBN 0415189780

• Knight, Peter, ed. (2002), Conspiracy nation : the politics of paranoia in postwar America, New York: New York University Press, ISBN 0814747361

• Melley, Timothy (2000), Empire of Conspiracy : the Culture of Paranoia in Postwar America, Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, ISBN 0801486068

• O'Donnell, Patrick (2000), Latent destinies : cultural paranoia and contemporary U.S. Narrative, Durham: Duke Univ. Press, ISBN 082232587X

Book reviews

• Review of Mark Fenster's Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture by Bart Beatty in Canadian Journal of Communication, Vol 24, No 4 (1999)

Resources

• The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories (academic blog)
• google:"conspiracist+ideation"
• Unhappy people tend to become conspiracy believers (user essay)