My topic that I am researching is conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories is a broad subject, so I knew that I would have to come up with keywords in order to find my sources. The first keyword I tried was “conspiracy theorist”. I chose this one to start with because much of what I would like to focus on in my paper is the sociological aspects of conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theorists are the individuals who believe and advocate for conspiracies, so by starting my research off by focusing on people, I got a lot of sociological sources for my paper. My next search term was “psychology AND conspiracy theories”. I used the word “and” so that I would get only psychologically based sources that are on conspiracy theories. By using this search term, I got some very good sources that deal with the psychological motivations that can cause people to believe in conspiracy theories.

The topic that I chose to focus on in my research is conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories are on the rise in today’s society and are starting to gain a following that has not been seen in a long time. To begin with, conspiracy theories are a branch of pseudo-science. These theories are essentially beliefs that a covert organization is responsible for an event. Some examples of wide-spread conspiracies are the 9/11 conspiracy theories and the belief in aliens. These theories can often times be completely out-of-the-box but will still gain support from believers. Conspiracy theories have far reaching consequences on our society that can effect every individual. Certain theories have led to American citizens not trusting the government that protects them. More than that, conspiracy theories have the power to create sub-societies of believers and non-believers. These sub-societies can lead to the American population to divide itself further than it already is.

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Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton