•  67
    Researchers have argued that believing in conspiracy theories is dangerous and harmful, both for the individual and the community. In the philosophical debate, the divide is between the generalists, who argue that conspiracy theories are prima facie problematic, and the particularists, who argue that since conspiracies do occur, we ought to take conspiracy theories seriously, and consider them on merit. Much of the empirical research has focused on correlations between conspiracy belief and pers…Read more
  •  52
    The search query filter bubble: effect of user ideology on political leaning of search results through query selection (2nd ed.)
    with A. G. Ekström, Guy Madison, and Erik J. Olsson
    Information, Communication and Society 1 1-17. 2023.
    It is commonly assumed that personalization technologies used by Google for the purpose of tailoring search results for individual users create filter bubbles, which reinforce users’ political views. Surprisingly, empirical evidence for a personalization-induced filter bubble has not been forthcoming. Here, we investigate whether filter bubbles may result instead from a searcher’s choice of search queries. In the first experiment, participants rated the left-right leaning of 48 queries (search s…Read more
  •  173
    Considering the recent explosion of literature across disciplines on the study of conspiracy theories and conspiracy belief, the question of what is interesting about studying conspiracy theories might seem self-evident. Perhaps it is the very thing researchers are set to answer. Either way, what is not clear is that scholars, when they use the term ‘conspiracy theory’, are in fact interested in the same phenomenon; often conflating conspiracy theories with belief in conspiracy. Studying conspir…Read more
  •  175
    The question of the rationality of conspiratorial belief ¬divides philosophers into mainly two camps. The particularists believe that each conspiracy theory ought to be examined on its own merits. The generalist, by contrast, argues that there is something inherently suspect about conspiracy theories that makes belief in them irrational. Recent empirical findings indicate that conspiratorial thinking is commonplace among ordinary people, which has naturally shifted attention to the particularist…Read more
  •  293
    Who is a Conspiracy Theorist?
    Social Epistemology 38 (4): 454-463. 2023.
    The simplest and most natural definition of the term ‘conspiracy theory’ leads us to the conclusion that we are all conspiracy theorists. Yet, I claim that most of us would not self-identify as such. In this paper I call this the problem of self-identification. Since virtually everyone emerges as a conspiracy theorist, the term is essentially theoretically fruitless. It would be like defining intelligence in a way that makes everyone intelligent. This raises the problem for theoretical fruitfuln…Read more