Research by Dr Michael Wood and Dr Karen Douglas has found that people who argue in favour of conspiracy theories use different persuasive strategies from those who argue against them.
Results from the study, which analysed online comment sections of over 2000 news articles from the latter half of 2011 that relate to the collapse of the World Trade Center, showed that anti-conspiracy comments most often argued in favour of their own explanation of the incident. The researchers argue that this reflects a psychological difference between people who support conspiracy theories and people who support official accounts.
For further details see the press release or read the article online.