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Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out To Be True - Yahoo

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Some "crazy" conspiracy theories turned out to be documented fact — and that history reveals exactly why our brains struggle to separate signal from noise.

Proportionality BiasBackfire EffectEpistemic VigilanceSignal Detection Theory
Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out To Be True - Yahoo

Theory Briefing

  • Real government programs like MKULTRA were once dismissed as paranoid fantasy, validating a handful of fringe theories retrospectively.
  • The backfire effect means true conspiracies being confirmed rarely corrects broader conspiratorial thinking — it tends to amplify it.
  • Proportionality bias leads people to expect small causes for small events and grand plots for big ones, distorting which theories gain traction.