A Conspiracy Theorist Theory

[aggienaut]

   One of my friends keeps sharing memes downplaying the seriousness of coronavirus and/or sometimes outright conspiracy theories. What's weird is this friend is one of the most empathetic people I know. He'll know you're having a bad day before you do an he'll be asking you about it in a very caring way. He'll know if a passing stranger is having a bad day and be genuinely bummed about it. So why these posts?

   And I have other facebook friends who also post these kinds of things, but they're generally people who are generally predisposed to conspiracy theories and/or less empathetic political views. So what could my empathetic friend have in common with them??


   It is commonly known that a "sociopath" is someone completely lacking empathy, and I've read elsewhere that people can generally only truly care about 7 people. I propose that there's actually a lot more shades of grey in both these numbers. That there's the empathy you feel for the people you directly know, and the empathy you feel for the people you don't know. Whether or not you care about 7 people, I think for some people people they don't know aren't real people. This isn't because the person is necessarily evil, my friend is the nicest goodest person I know, but it's a sort of form of object permanence or abstraction that he just can't wrap his brain around.

   I actually came at this theory not from an empathy angle but another. I was thinking about how could you possibly believe these crazy schemes that involve vast multi-organizational government conspiracies, and it occurred to me that they could only make sense if you don't think of everyone presumably involved in putting it on as people but as some sort of cartoonish evil minions. I know people are basically self interested; I know on an organizational level organizations are definitely self interested; but I also know there's just know way you could get thousands of humans to work together on a sinister conspiracy such as making airliners disappear or faking a virus without loads of them betraying the whole thing, because they're humans.

   If I might contrast myself with my friend, I don't really consider myself particularly empathetic. One person I know tells me about their bad day I'll say "that sucks dude" and try to look sincere because it's expected and it probably does objectively suck, but I probably won't lose sleep over it so to speak. But I remember when this whole pandemic began, and before it effected me in any way, I remember I was feeling really genuinely depressed and down, which is really unlike myself. I rather propose that in contrast to my friend, the abstract millions I don't know are very real to me and if something bad is happening to a great deal of people I feel it -- but conversely, and possibly as a direct consequence, one person's bad day pales in the scheme of things.

   But a lack of being able to think about people they don't know as real people can explain so much about conspiracy theorists, racism, and why these people usually espouse the less empathetic side of politics. But again, even otherwise good people can apparently be afflicted by this apparent lack of stranger realness. Hmm I need a good word for this theory.


PS: in response to the meme he posted, I wrote back that "all available information indicates that if left unchecked covidia _would_ overtake all those other causes of death, and to suggest that because social distancing is working it needn't be taken seriously is preposterous"

***Edit: it's been pointed out that the chart uses data from extremely early in the whole situation. Current data even on low reporting days (weekends) still tops the chart, and at it's height the numbers were around 8,000 deaths per day, more than double the top of this chart. See this animated chart for how things progressed.

Comments

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Not sure when that meme was created but it must have been at the very dawn of the pandemic. Right now and for the past long while, deaths have been in the many MANY thousands per day.

I do think you're right though...so many people consider that people they don't know personally aren't real. And that goes a long way towards explaining a lot of the more dire issues in the world.

[siobhan63.livejournal.com]

It says in the graphic that the data is correct as of March 9 2020, so yeah... just a wee bit out of date...

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Ah! Didn't notice that. Thank you!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I totally didn't notice that either!!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I totally didn't notice that. Even the numbers from low days currently would top that chart! About to update this post with some graphics indicating that!

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

It seems like a very childish way of seeing the world from where I sit. I'm too far in the other direction... I get so overwhelmed by the collective misery right now that I struggle to focus on my own challenges and blessings adequately.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I really want to emphasize that he's not a bad person and/or doing it on purpose. I think if you showed him pictures of people effected or possibly names and brief descriptions he'd care very much about them but I think he just doesn't comprehend "5,000 people died today" for example, as 5,000 living breathing people, it's just a stat. But in the more extreme version where it applies to racists and proponents of non-empathetic politics (my new favorite euphemism for conservatism ;) ), they can actually see the person being for example interviewed but still not register them as a "person" on the same level as someone they know.

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

No I didn't mean to suggest that he was, and in retrospect that sounded really judgy. Maybe people's brains just won't let them grasp the enormity of something like this, so it remains abstract, IDK.

Am I missing something? There doesn't seem to be cancer on that bottom chart.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I noticed tuberculosis isn't on the bottom chart either. I'm not sure why that is, but still it represents how coronavirus rapidly overtook other major causes of death in the time frame in question

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

Makes sense. It just seems like cancer would be #2 but I see it says "various"... doesn't imply that these are all major causes of death.

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

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[nick-101.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how people keep falling for lies.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

It really is. I have one other friend who is always sharing conspiracy theories and I roll my eyes so much at his posts.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

"people can only genuinely care about 7 people"
Just when I thought I'd already heard the biggest crock of bullshit I'd ever heard, along comes a new one.

[siobhan63.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not really, but it's not explained exactly right in the post. It's the Dunbar number, and here's a decent explanation of the concept:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191001-dunbars-number-why-we-can-only-maintain-150-relationships

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, that's the one! Thanks for the share. Interesting to re-read I had forgotten about the different levels of connection and their respective capacity. Interesting!

[newwaytowrite.livejournal.com]

Is it possible your friend can feel for the people in his immediate vicinity or people on his radar but not for something as large as humanity? Is the thought of this worldwide pandemic is just too dire for him to fully accept?

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I've thought of that possibility as well, that he's mentally blocking it out. But really I think it is something akin to "object permanence" he's a very simple guy, not quite exactly a genius but nice and means well, but the way he talks about these things I think the death figures are "just a number" to him. Like, probably if you showed him a picture of a specific person he'd feel sad, even if he didn't know them, possibly even if you gave them names and described them, but I think he just can't equate something like the words "5,000 deaths" with what he'd feel for one person x 5,000.

[ani-mama.livejournal.com]

Husband has a friend like this. He really is a lovely guy, and he is not stupid...he put my new computer together for me, and updates my portfolio website. But every week he has some new conspiracy theory. His life is not going that well though, and I think having "insider knowledge" makes him feel special. So we just nod and change the subject.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, I think there was even a study proving the desire to have "inside knowledge" had something to do with it? Personally, I cynically believe so many people are misguided that I feel special by sharing the knowledge put forth by top experts ;) But yeah I think there's surely a few different reasons why people become susceptible to conspiracy theories.

[hopefulspirit.livejournal.com]

I've had several people post the same sort of thing. It's amazing how thousands of people are dying each day and yet they're convinced it's a hoax. One of my coworkers said something to that effect at one point, and how the flu has killed more people than covid. I pointed out that the numbers he mentioned for the flu were over the course of an entire year, not just the two months (at that time) that we'd been dealing with coronavirus. When put in that perspective he changed his tune a little, but unless/until he's directly affected, or one of his family members are, he will still think it's all blown completely out of proportion.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Good point! Just this moment Ii had shared something on facebook that said "coronavirus is 49 times more deadly than the flu" and one of my republican friends commented attacking the methodology, concluding "If we took flu deaths and divided it by actual number of confirmed positive flu tests, the death rate for flu would be orders of magnitude greater." and I'm just like, while he has the semblance of a point (the statistics for flu and for coronavirus are calculated in different ways because a lot more is known about flu rates and there's less testing, while coronavirus is still relatively unknown and the data comes directly from the currently-extensive testing), the plain reality that one can clearly see unless one is dismissing all stats from all organizations is that that coronavirus is very clearly killing people at a phenomenal and scary rate!!

[wpadmirer.livejournal.com]

People believe what they want to believe. You can't make people think.

[loveshanny.livejournal.com]

People will believe its a hoax or conspiracy for now. Until someone they care or love dies from it. Then they will notice.

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[(Anonymous)]

I've thought of that possibility as well, that he's mentally blocking it out. But really I think it is something akin to "object permanence" he's a very simple guy, not quite exactly a genius but nice and means well, but the way he talks about these things I think the death figures are "just a number (https://weabersinc.com/)" to him.

[picosgemeos.livejournal.com]

People's mental well-being, and fragility, can't be underestimated. Perhaps your friend lacks compassion, despite being "a good guy", but this whole world-event may have triggered fears in him which he's unaware of - as it has done in countless people - leaving him susceptible to believing the illogical.