How do people become entangled in conspiracy theories and other shared delusions? This question has long been the province of novelists, but recently psychologists and social scientists have applied the tools of their disciplines to shed light on this vexing question. This talk will survey their findings so far about the psychological and social factors that lead people to embrace dogmatic delusions, and to double down on them in the face of contrary evidence. We will discuss the personality characteristics and life history that incline people to rigid beliefs. We’ll consider the everyday personal delusions that most of us hold. We’ll discuss the social process of converting and committing to a shared delusion. Finally we’ll briefly consider the psychology of reasoning and what conditions make people more amenable to changing their minds.
Dr. Mark Reimers is a quantitative neuroscientist, researching how dynamic brain activity gives rise to thoughts and feelings. Dr. Reimers has worked at the US National Institutes of Health, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics and at Michigan State University. His broader aim is to ground our understanding of feeling and thought in brain dynamics and biology. Dr. Reimers was the leader of the Richmond Humanists in Virginia for five years, and the leader of the UU Forum in Lansing, MI for six years; he speaks frequently at humanist and science outreach events in Michigan and online. He is trying to weave together brain science with humanist aspirations.