🎧 Flat Earth, Conspiracies & How Our Brain Tricks Us (Part 2)

Please remember to follow, like and share!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatonearth_podcast?igsh=Y3MwbjkyNjgwcjVy
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1Fa7FsnQku/

Sources

YouGov, 2018. Most flat earthers consider themselves very religious

Psychology of conspiratorial mind study:
Bowes, Shauna & Costello, Thomas & Tasimi, Arber. (2023). The Conspiratorial Mind: A Meta-Analytic Review of Motivational and Personological Correlates. Psychological Bulletin. 149. 259-293. 10.1037/bul0000392.

The Conspiratorial Mind: A Meta-Analytic Review of Motivational and Personological Correlates

YouTube video of Professor Dave Explains: https://youtu.be/h0H-amOti_o?si=yxxwBDu1gpLw-g8Z

"You are not so smart" Podcast episode 299 - Debunkbot: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6aWubjGqJeWXAXZXy831eR?si=YCvR0xYITFKkAPP90X92rw

Debunkbot study:

Thomas H. Costello et al. ,Durably reducing conspiracy beliefs through dialogues with AI.Science385,eadq1814(2024).DOI:10.1126/science.adq1814
Durably reducing conspiracy beliefs through dialogues with AI | Science

Debunkbot: DebunkBot | Conspiracies

In Part 2 of What on Earth, we move beyond Flat Earth itself and into something even more fascinating: how our brain works - and why conspiracy theories can feel so convincing.

We start with a simple but uncomfortable idea: could anyone fall for conspiracy thinking? From there, we explore the psychology behind it - and what makes certain explanations so appealing, even when they don’t hold up scientifically.

We talk about cognitive biases like confirmation bias and the Dunning–Kruger effect, and how confidence can sometimes be mistaken for expertise. Along the way, we break down how scientific thinking actually works - from observations and hypotheses to experiments and theories - and why evidence matters more than intuition.

We also touch on an important nuance: not every conspiracy is false. History has shown us real examples that were later confirmed. But the key difference is evidence - and how we evaluate it.

This episode is part psychology, part science, and part understanding how we make sense of the world - especially when things feel uncertain or complex.

So grab your favorite mug ☕ (we definitely did), and join us as we unpack how belief, bias, and evidence collide.

🎙️ Listen now on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts
✨ Stay curious and keep asking yourself… What on Earth?!