http://karws.gso.uri.edu/jfk/conspiracy_theory/the_paranoid_mentality/Rational_thinker_versus_paranoid.html
Presented with the same evidence for a mystery, the rational thinker and the paranoid respond very differently.
The rational thinker | The paranoid |
| 1. Checks the evidence carefully and doesn’t rely on uncertain evidence | 1. Grabs onto a few pieces of evidence and defends them inflexibly. |
| 2. Doesn’t care which evidence he must let go. | 2. Seemingly irrationally seizes onto something and won’t let go. |
| 3. Seeks a realistic answer in simple and familiar processes. | 3. Invokes complex, unrealistic scenarios controlled by powerful forces behind the scenes. |
| 4. Accepts only what he can critically assess (falsifiable ideas). | 4. Deals in explanations that can never be critically assessed (unfalsifiable theories). |
| 5. Is willing to live with unresolved explanations for long periods. | 5. Demands quick, even immediate explanations. |
| 6. Accepts the roles of chance and human foibles. | 6. Invents scenarios when nothing ever goes wrong. |
| 7. Uses same rational approach in the rest of his life. | 7. Approaches many other “events” in the same irrational, paranoid way. (i.e., both people are consistent across their lives.) |
| 8. Finds empowering explanations. | 8. Feels powerless before these huge forces (victims). |
| 9. Accepts all demonstrated evidence. | 9. Will not face evidence that destroys his theory. |
| 10. Is willing to live with some fraction of unexplained or contradictory evidence. | 10. Insists on fitting everything into his explanation, often by explaining difficult items as further evidence of conspiracy. |
| 11. Tries to keep everything in proportion. | 11. Often seizes single pieces of evidence and blows them out of proportion. |
| 12. Will change ideas a new evidence emerges. | 12. Sticks to preconceived notion regardless of new evidence. |
| 13. Open, flexible, empowered, strong. | 13. Preconceived, rigid, victimlike, cowardly. |
