Conspiracy Theories, says political scientist and author Joseph E. Uscinski, will inevitably appear in "complex human societies," as he calls them. But conspiracy theories have never been as ubiquitous as they are now, partially fueled by people like Donald Trump and Alex Jones (so says Uscinski). The rise in conspiracy theories can be attributed to a number of things, including an increasing distrust in the media and in the institution of government as a whole. To that end, each chapter aims to, according to Uscinski, answer three questions: 1) Why do so many people believe in conspiracy theories? 2) What are the effects of such theories when they take hold in the public? 3) What can or should be done about the phenomenon?
Although Conspiracy Theories and the People Who Believe Them isn't as well known as other books that discuss conspiracy theories, it has received only moderately positive reviews. A UK Book reviewer, for example, wrote in their review that "While Conspiracy Theories is an interesting, expansive study of conspiracy theories, it is ultimately incomplete. It is akin to a book on revolutions that only studies revolutions that never got off the ground. A successful conspiracy theory is one that is no longer treated as a conspiracy theory at all, but is rather accepted as the truth: one that moves from the minority to the majority, capturing the epistemological authorities."
