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Tragic occurrences contribute to the development of conspiracy ideas.
A catastrophic occurrence, according to John Cook, an expert on misinformation at George Mason University's Center for Climate Change Communication, creates a "particularly fertile breeding environment for conspiracy theories." He argues that when individuals feel threatened or are unable to completely comprehend a critical event, conspiracy theories might assist them in making sense of it. Consider the assassination of JFK. It was easy to picture "shadowy groups and agencies" managing things behind the scenes when the world felt terrifying and out of control. "Randomness is incredibly uncomfortable to people," Cook explained.