The Funnel of Misbelief

Conspiracy Theories Can Seduce Us When We Are Stressed and Unattached

A Duke University professor was hospitalized with an injury. Then, someone made a video of him in his hospital bed and posted it on the internet. That’s odd, for sure — not what usually happens in the hospital. But over time, things got even weirder.

According to the professor, the video “described how my injury got me to hate healthy people, how that got me to join Bill Gates and the Illuminati in creating the COVID pandemic. It also caused me to attempt to try and kill as many healthy people as possible using the virus and the vaccines, to control people.”

All of it was false, every bit of it. But some people believed it. An acquaintance even emailed him and asked, “What happened to you?”

The experience led Professor Dan Ariely to write a book called Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things. The book is a very personal exploration of misinformation and conspiracy theories, and what causes people to be seduced by them and fall into distrust.

He talks about “The Funnel of Misbelief,” which explains our society’s loss of trust. People fall into the funnel when they are stressed and have a deep need for understanding. They go deeper when they lose their social attachments and begin to feel ostracized. The result is a group of rational people believing irrational things, such as the story of a professor creating the COVID pandemic in order to “kill as many healthy people as possible.”

When the apostle Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians, he was addressing the citizens of a powerful city in the Roman Empire. Corinth was a wealthy center of commerce in Greece, and it was full of cultured and educated people who were stressed by politics and economic challenges. Much as we are.

On top of this, many of these men and women were feeling spiritual emptiness. Some were joining groups called “mystery religions,” which included secret ceremonies in which a person would be joined to a pagan god or goddess. Very popular in Corinth was a drama about the death of Adonis, a celebration of his resurrection, and an invitation to share his triumph.

Paul knew that these secret ceremonies were irrational, and he worried that the Corinthians would fall into the Funnel of Misbelief. Because they were stressed and had a deep need for understanding, they were vulnerable to the mystery religions. Paul wrote his letter to remind them of the power of Jesus to fill the empty places in their lives with new and unexpected life. He was offering them the truth, not a myth.

“Now I want you to understand,” writes Paul, “the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved” (1 Corinthians 15:1-2). Here, Paul reminds them of the good news of the resurrection of Jesus, which he had previously shared with them. He wants them to “hold firmly” to this message, and not to be distracted by theories about the resurrection of Adonis.

“For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received,” says Paul: “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures” (vv. 3-4). Paul wants them to know that the story of Jesus is not a myth, but it is connected to something much bigger than himself. Christ died for our sins “in accordance with the scriptures,” and he was raised from the dead “in accordance with the scriptures.”

None of this is irrational, according to Paul. It is not out of left field, like the accusation that Bill Gates and the Illuminati were involved in the creation of COVID. No, the promise of forgiveness and new life is something that fits what God has been doing all through history, as reported in the scriptures.

This is good information, not misinformation.

Being aware that people fall for conspiracy theories when they are feeling unattached and ostracized, Paul tries to strengthen their social cohesion. He writes that Jesus “appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, [and then] to more than five hundred brothers and sisters” (vv. 5-6).

“Our society relies a lot on trust,” says Dan Ariely. “It’s like fish in water. Fish don’t notice the water … because it’s all around them. Trust is the same. Trust is all around us. Because of that, we don’t often notice how big and important its effect is on our behavior. … But the reality is that people who go down the Funnel of Misbelief lose trust and they pay a price — and we, as a society, pay a price.”

Paul knows how much the Christian community relies on trust. That is why he reminds the Corinthians that Jesus appeared to people that they know about and trust, from Cephas to five hundred brothers and sisters. He goes on to say, “Then [Jesus] appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” (vv. 7-8).

Not that Paul is bragging. “I am the least of the apostles,” he says, “unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (v. 9). Paul does not want the Corinthians to trust him because he is a religious expert or a sinless saint or a super-apostle, but simply because the Lord has worked through him in a powerful way. “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain,” he says (v. 10).

For Paul, everything good and trustworthy comes not from himself, but from the grace of God. Although Paul is “unfit to be called an apostle,” his message is true because God is graceful to him. God shows favor to Paul, even though he does not deserve this grace. God gives him the gift of God’s own self, freely and unconditionally. It is by the grace of God that Paul is what he is. And because of this, his message can be trusted.

We need to hear this message today, because we are very much like the people of Corinth. Many of us are feeling stressed and spiritually empty, and we are losing our social attachments. Today, according to a recent study, “more than one-third of adults aged 45 and older feel lonely, and nearly one-fourth of adults aged 65 and older are considered to be socially isolated.” Loss of social attachments can cause us to tumble into the Funnel of Misbelief.

In a world of misinformation and conspiracy theories, the resurrection is a trustworthy story. It leads us to life, not death. It is based on scripture, not on internet speculation. It is grounded in the eyewitness accounts of a reliable community of Christians. It comes from the grace of God, the one who loves us and wants us all to experience forgiveness and new life. And it is best experienced through social attachments in the Christian community.

So, going to church will not only lower your stress and improve your spirituality. It will keep you from falling into the Funnel of Misbelief.