Any student of history will tell you conspiracies have existed for thousands of years, in fact judaism/christianty is a conspiracy. Why do you think the jesus myth was created? Why do you think gods were created? It is not about what you know, but rather what it is you do not.

The United States of America was created upon a Conspiracy!!

I agree there exists some nut conspiracies out there, but any person who only believes what he/she is taught without researching for themselves is a fool.

I wouldn't put too much trust in this "study". They're making a very broad correlation. Also, what do they consider a "conspiracy theory"? Who decides what a conspiracy theory is? The problem with labeling any criticism as conspiracy theory is basically discouraging critical thinking and discussion and going against what they say they are trying to fight. The term conspiracy theory should be stricken from the language altogether because it's nothing but ridicule. I think some people have some far out there evaluations on some issues, but proving them wrong is the way to go about it and not calling them a conspiracy theorist. There are some "conspiracy theories" that have ample evidence to suggest there is truth to them. For one example, if people think everything they told us about JFK was true then I have a bridge to sell you. There are people who distrust our government because they admit they will lie to us about almost everything, but then they won't believe that the Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up plots to kill American citizens in "terrorist" acts to go to war with Cuba. Decades later, the papers get declassified and people still ignore them and ridicule people who talk about it saying that our government would NEVER do something like that. Why? Because the U.S. is a beacon of good? Tell that to all the countries we've been bombing and invading. Or the countries that the U.S. loans money to for decades knowing they can't pay it back in turn having them beholden to U.S. interests. The list of dirt that the U.S. does is endless, yet the people who call others conspiracy theorists ignore it. The FBI, CIA, NSA, etc.........all proven to be criminal enterprises, yet people take their word for everything no matter what. Where is the "cognitive error" for those people?

Certainly, laws of physics set boundaries for what can and cannot happen but there is a lot of randomness within that structure. I wish the article had elaborated more on what conspiracy theories they are talking about. Yes, there are nonsense theories, but a person would be quite naive to think that there are no conspiracies afoot.

Well it’s too bad I was raised in a 7th Day Adventist.

So then, the Lincoln assassination was NOT a conspiracy?

Noses were not created as a place to hang spectacles, but they do point downward to keep rain out. Things are as they are for reasons. Things do happen for reasons, probably not because of divine decree however.

This type of thinking is anathema to scientific reasoning, and especially to evolutionary theory, and was famously mocked by Voltaire, whose character Pangloss believed that 'noses were made to wear spectacles.'