Conspiracy

Early one morning seven years ago, a masked man entered a home in South Los Angeles armed with a metal pipe and a gun.He beat the homeowner with the pipe and fired a shot into a wall before fleeing. A woman who was inside the house held a towel to homeowner’s head and called 911. “He’s bleeding!” she said, sounding panicked.The violence in those early hours of April 30, 2016, might have gone unnoticed by the general public but for two twists.The first was the woman who called 911 was Ashley Butts, daughter of James…

Credit: CC0 Public Domain New research has shown that having positive contact with people from diverse groups can reduce the development of harmful intergroup conspiracy beliefs. Experts from the University of Nottingham's School of Psychology, in collaboration with the University of East Anglia, found that among British…

A new review adds to growing evidence that there are many complex reasons why people believe in conspiracy theories, contrary to the cliché that it's a lack of knowledge."Conspiracy theorists are not all likely to be simple-minded, mentally unwell folks – a portrait which is routinely painted in popular culture," says Emory University clinical psychologist Shauna Bowes. "Instead, many turn to conspiracy theories to fulfill deprived motivational needs and make sense of distress and impairment."While we all experience…

Nobody expected Sean Gunn to find himself at the center of one of the earliest storms to emerge during the joint strike action that’s got both actors and writers on the picket lines, but it’s probably best to expect the unexpected seeing as the entire industry has just been turned upside down. The Marvel Cinematic Universe veteran went to town on Netflix over the lack of royalties he receives from his time on Gilmore Girls, which has proven itself to be one of the streaming service’s most consistently bingeable hits ever…

Somehow, market manipulation feels good in a place like this. So might Nicole Kidman say in her iconic advertisement for AMC Theatres — if it had been scripted by the cinema chain’s hardcore investors, that is. Ever since an internet mob rescued the company from the brink of bankruptcy in 2021 by snatching up shares in a coordinated buying frenzy, this group has grown entrenched, defensive and somewhat paranoid that large Wall Street firms are illegally colluding to crash the stock. But this week, their niche…

Opening Tuesday’s House subcommittee hearing on the origin of the COVID virus, the panel’s chairman, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), promised an impartial inquiry. “This is not an attack on science,” he said. “And it’s not an attack on an individual.”He and his GOP colleagues proceeded over nearly three hours to accuse Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — one of the most respected such scientists in the world — of having masterminded the creation of the virus,…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeMission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning director Chris McQuarrie has recalled asking Tom Cruise what the “weirdest story” he’d ever heard about himself was.Cruise has been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories over the years thanks, in part, to his ties with the mysterious and controversial Church of Scientology.In an interview about the 61-year-old action star for The Times,…

via Marvel Studios Hollywood is a lot like politics in that it gives terrible people power, causes weirdoes to get praise they do not deserve and its annals are filled with conspiracy theories. Superman actor George Reeves did not really kill himself, Pia Zadora’s Golden Globe award was bought by the film’s backer and now, some are coming around to Taika Waititi deliberately killing Thor: Love and Thunder. As discussed in a now-deleted post on the r/MarvelStudios subreddit, one bold thinking individual pitched…

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain In "Politics, Lies and Conspiracy Theories," Marcel Danesi Ph.D., a professor of semiotics and linguistic anthropology at the University of Toronto, Canada, analyzes the speeches of dictators including Mussolini, Stalin, Putin and Hitler, as well as prominent hate groups. His research finds there…

A study published by the American Psychological Association in the Psychological Bulletin reveals that conspiracy theories are commonly believed by individuals who possess certain personality traits and motivations. The research found that people with traits such as antagonism and paranoia, and those who feel superior to others, tend to be drawn to such theories. Contrary to popular belief, the need for closure or a sense of control were not the strongest motivators; rather, individuals were more likely to believe in…