Source materials: understanding conspiracy culture and climate scepticism
The following provides links to materials that have not only informed my understanding of conspiracy culture and climate scepticism, but will hopefully educate readers on this topic.
There is an extensive literature on this topic and I will be posting all the materials (and links to) I have read over the past several years. References to conspiracy culture in WtD posts will be supported by these materials. Materials are classified into the follow:
- Conspiracy theories
- Psychology and neuroscience
- Politics
- Sociology
Conspiracy theories
Academic papers
- Dances with Devils: How Apocalyptic and Millennialist Themes Influence Right Wing Scapegoating and Conspiracism, Chip Berlet.
- NASA faked the moon landing|Therefore (Climate) Science is a Hoax: An Anatomy of the Motivated Rejection of Science, Lewandowsky et.al
Books of interest
- A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society), Michæl Barkun
- Conspiracy Culture: From Kennedy to ‘The X-Files’, Dr Peter Knight
- Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture, Mark Fenster
- Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America, Professor Robert Alan Goldberg
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History Denial
- Denial: History Betrayed, Tony Taylor – explores the denial of historical events from the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust and the plight of Australia’s indigenous peoples.
Psychology and neuroscience
Academic papers
- Lacking Control Increases Illusory Pattern Perception, Whitson et.al – Science 3 October 2008: Vol. 322 no. 5898 pp. 115-117 DOI: 10.1126/science.1159845 (Pay wall article)
Articles of interest
- Superstition, Ritual And Conspiracies – Why We Sometimes See What We Want To Believe, Science 2.0 2/10/2008
- How do people reject climate science? John Cook – The Conversation 6 September 2012: explores the basics of “how” people reject science using the mechanism of cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias
- Why People Believe in Conspiracies: a skeptic’s take on the public’s fascination with disinformation, Michael Shermer – Scientific American, September 10 2009
Sociology
Articles of interest
Watching the Deniers 