{"title":"Is it pathological to believe conspiracy theories?","authors":"Lisa Bortolotti","doi":"10.1177/13634615231187243","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>According to a naturalist conception of what counts as a disorder, conspiracy beliefs are pathological beliefs if they are the outcome of a cognitive dysfunction. In this article, I take issue with the view that it is pathological to believe a conspiracy theory. After reviewing several approaches to the aetiology of conspiracy beliefs, I find that no approach compels us to view conspiracy beliefs as the outcome of a dysfunction: a speaker's conspiracy beliefs can appear as implausible and unshakeable to an interpreter, but in a naturalist framework it is not pathological for the speaker to adopt and maintain such beliefs.</p>","PeriodicalId":47864,"journal":{"name":"Transcultural Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"749-755"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11629588/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Transcultural Psychiatry","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13634615231187243","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/8/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ANTHROPOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
According to a naturalist conception of what counts as a disorder, conspiracy beliefs are pathological beliefs if they are the outcome of a cognitive dysfunction. In this article, I take issue with the view that it is pathological to believe a conspiracy theory. After reviewing several approaches to the aetiology of conspiracy beliefs, I find that no approach compels us to view conspiracy beliefs as the outcome of a dysfunction: a speaker's conspiracy beliefs can appear as implausible and unshakeable to an interpreter, but in a naturalist framework it is not pathological for the speaker to adopt and maintain such beliefs.
期刊介绍：
Transcultural Psychiatry is a fully peer reviewed international journal that publishes original research and review articles on cultural psychiatry and mental health. Cultural psychiatry is concerned with the social and cultural determinants of psychopathology and psychosocial treatments of the range of mental and behavioural problems in individuals, families and human groups. In addition to the clinical research methods of psychiatry, it draws from the disciplines of psychiatric epidemiology, medical anthropology and cross-cultural psychology.
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