Author Archives: F. E. Guerra-Pujol

Alternative title: Conspiracy theories, discourse, and power Note: This is my ninth blog post in a multi-part series on conspiracy theories I sincerely apologize in advance for this blog post. Personally, I am not a big fan of sociology or … Continue reading →

Note: This is my eighth blog post in a multi-part series on conspiracy theories What if conspiracy theories were in reality a type of cultural replicator or “meme” in the Richard Dawkins’ sense of the term? Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist … Continue reading →

Note: This is the seventh blog post in a multi-part series on conspiracy theories Is there a fruitful way of studying conspiracy theories, one that is not ad hoc or that doesn’t pre-judge conspiracy believers as somehow mentally defective? Thus … Continue reading →

Note: This is the sixth blog post in a multi-part series Why do so many people fall for far-fetched conspiracy theories? In my previous post I introduced Franz Neumann’s theory of successful conspiracy theories, which appears in his classic essay … Continue reading →

Alternative Title: Why do we like to believe in conspiracy theories? Note: This is the fifth blog post in a multi-part series When are conspiracy theories real? Last week, in my previous set of blog posts, I presented (and rebutted) … Continue reading →

Alternative Title: Douthat’s Achilles’ Heel (Note: This is the fourth blog post in a multi-part series.) When are conspiracies real? We have been reviewing Ross Douthat’s recent New York Times column on this question, “A Better Way to Think about … Continue reading →

Note: This is the third blog post in a four part series. When are conspiracies real? We have been reviewing a recent New York Times column on this question, “A Better Way to Think about Conspiracies,” in which Ross Douthat … Continue reading →

Note: This is the second blog post in a four part series. As I mentioned in my previous post, Ross Douthat’s recent NY Times column on conspiracy thinking, “A Better Way to Think about Conspiracies,” formulates a four-part test for … Continue reading →

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Ross Douthat, an influential columnist for The New York Times, recently wrote a fascinating essay titled “A Better Way to Think about Conspiracies.” As it happens, I have always been puzzled by one of the most … Continue reading →

I shall close this series of Bayesian blog posts with a confession. Ex ante, before I began building my Bayesian model of the litigation process, I had taken a dim view of the legal game. Given the complexity and ambiguity … Continue reading →