Conspiracy Theory:
1. Produces a conclusion that is contrary to the dominant or official narrative
2. Involves a conspiracy (group of people working on a plan in secret)
3. Involves sinister motivations.
Problems:
*Empirically shown to demotivate true believers (shifts their locus of control away from themselves)
*"The roads to Rome fallacy" - just because all road lead somewhere doesn't mean they all lead to the same place (all data can be twisted into evidence for their conclusion)
*Unfalsifiable - if falsifying data is evidence that "they are trying to suppress the truth", then falsification is able to be twisted into evidence for the theory
*Occam's razor hijacking - While coincidence could be the most simple answer, by viewing coincidence as impossibly unlikely, one inverts Occam's razor to view a non-coincidence as the most simple answer.
*Overactive agency detection - When you see movement in the bushes, do you assume there is a predatory agent in the bushes, or do you assume it is the wind? By being wired to always see agents, even when agents are not there, one is predisposed to see agency behind coincidence.