Psychology shows that faced with uncertainty, we always desperately try to recognize patterns and explanations. And the more uncertainty, the more we seek patterns. This explains a lot of conspiracy theories: they are just a way for people to find order in the uncertain.
Conspiracy theories flourish after each event that appears to be significantly out of sync with the normal: 9/11 attacks, the strange disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 etc. Everything we can’t explain directly, which appears to be weird in the order of things, is susceptible to a conspiracy theory.
Because complexity increases in our world, unexpected major events are also due to happen more frequently, and be even more out of sync with the average. Therefore, we can expect that more conspiracy theories will also come up as people struggle to find sense to what happens to them and the world.
There will be more conspiracy theories and believers because it is so hard to apprehend that complex systems sometimes show behavior significantly out of sync with the normal and average. Before believing in conspiracy, pause for a moment to ask yourself whether it would not just be the normal behavior of our complex world.
