Seven traits of conspiratorial thinking are encoded in the CONSPIRE acronym

Evidence

To help people spot the conspiracy effect in everyday life, my colleagues Stephan Lewandowsky, John Cook, Ullrich Ecker and I like to use a guideline that ties everything we’ve just learned about the conspirat orial worldview together into the ‘seven traits of conspiratorial thinking’, using ‘CONSPIRE’ as an acronym – which stands for Contradictory, Overriding suspicion, Nefarious intent, Something must be wrong, Persecuted victim, Immunity to evidence, and Re-interpreting randomness. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 209

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the seven CONSPIRE traits, the chapter’s diagnostic framework for spotting conspiratorial thinking.