“Why people latch on to conspiracy theories, according to science.”

Emily Thorson, assistant professor of political science in the Maxwell School, was quoted in the National Geographic story “Why people latch on to conspiracy theories, according to science.” Thorson, who studies political psychology and misinformation, says that it’s hard for people to be dissuaded from believing in something once they have convinced themselves it is true. Thorson calls this belied echoes, which is an “obsessive, emotional response to information that can linger even after we know it’s false.”