The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories

Presented by Zelda Gilbert, Retired professor of psychology

May 4, 2024, 1:30pm

Central Library
Barbara M. Donnellan Auditorium
1015 North Quincy Street
Arlington, VA [map] [directions]
(Virginia Square-GMU Metro station)
FREE admission – Everyone welcome, members and non-members

 Also a YouTube Live Event with Q and A 

NCASVideo YouTube Channel:

https://youtu.be/Du5JWbvSAjc  (corrected URL)

Dr. Gilbert will discuss how the tools of modern psychology can be used to explore the prevalence, motivations, and content of historical and contemporary conspiracy theories. This will include conspiracy theories concerning such things as Lincoln’s assassination, chemtrails, the destruction of the battleship Maine, election fraud, and space lasers from orbit. Concepts such as existential, epistemic and socio-psychological motivations will be defined and applied to various theories, providing the audience with the tools to do their own analyses. Finally, audience members will be invited to create and evaluate their own conspiracy theories.

Zelda Gilbert is a retired professor of psychology with over 40 years experience in higher education. She currently lectures on  political psychology, conspiracy theories, and other topics, mostly for the continuing education Silver Frogs program at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. She completed a doctorate in counseling psychology at the University of Kentucky and studied political psychology at UCLA.