34. #Pizzagate: Why do people believe conspiracy theories?

Back in 2016 the pizza restaurant owner James Alefantis began to receive a large number of abusive messages on social media. Confused and afraid, he goes online and to his horror discovers dozens of bogus articles describing how the basement of his pizza joint is being used to traffic and molest children. The architect of this so-called “child sex ring”, the fake articles conclude, is presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her inner circle. Later that year, Edgar Welch burts into the restaurant armed with guns. He fires several shots into a cabinet where he believes the children are being kept.

In this episode of Bad People, criminal psychologist Dr Julia Shaw and comedian Sofie Hagen discuss the mental gymnastics required to believe in conspiracy theories and how such beliefs can lead to violence. Welsch committed a crime that landed him in prison and left the community traumatised, but he thought he was saving children, so does that make him a bad person? We discover that Welsch is not a special case, on the contrary, conspiracy beliefs are very common and we are all vulnerable to their potentially harmful influence.

This episode includes audio from an interview with Hillary Clinton at the Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, CBS Evening News, Fresh Air with Dave Davies from NPR, CNN and BBC World Service.

Presenters: Dr Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen Producer: Louisa Field Assistant Producer: Simona Rata Music: Matt Chandler Editor: Rami Tzabar Academic Consultants for The Open University: Lara Frumkin and James Munro Commissioning Assistant Producer: Adam Eland Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins

Bad People is produced in partnership with The Open University and is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds.

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