This is a really interesting article about conspiracy theories from today's @Nature newsletter -  https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03130-6?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=ba763e25a3-briefing-dy-20201110&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-ba763e25a3-43741917 But it misses a key point, I think.

It identifies defensiveness, feelings of powerlessness, anxiety, isolation and alienation as creating susceptibility to conspiratorial thinking. But it looks at it through the lens of society being a series of individuals.

In doing so, it reflects what I think is a key shortcoming of this kind of research and perhaps of psychology research more broadly. And that is, that people -- you and me and your neighbours -- are socially constituted and not merely individuals.

The article fails to recognise the larger - deeply political - issue that having vast numbers of people feeling uncertain and alienated is a feature of societies in the thrall of market fundamentalism.