Why are Covid conspiracies so appealing?

The recent decision by several European countries to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine will have thrown petrol on the bonfire of conspiracies surrounding the pandemic. These range from believing that vaccines contain microchips so that Bill Gates can track you, to believing that the virus is a global conspiracy to allow governments to introduce new draconian measures to control their populations. Why are so many conspiracy theories thriving today and what do they tell us about ourselves?

During my time serving in Iraq I heard lots of conspiracy theories. Many concerned exaggerated capabilities of the equipment we had, such as the belief that night-vision goggles and even Army-issued sunglasses gave the troops X-ray vision. One of the more bizarre theories started circulating when large, carnivorous honey badgers appeared near Basra in 2007, killing livestock and frightening the locals. The theory that the coalition had released the badgers took hold to the point that a military spokesman had to categorically confirm, ‘we have not released man-eating badgers into the area’.