Conspiracy theories, according to research, are believed by about 80 percent of people. Not the fringe. Not the outliers. Most people. The interesting part is what looking at the actual list does to the word conspiracy.

Planned obsolescence showed up on the list. So did the idea that women's clothing skips pockets deliberately because fashion designers have a deal with purse companies. One of those involves a phone that recently needed to clear storage just to install an update that never required that before. The other one starts to feel less like a theory the more you sit with it.

Superstition is supernatural. Conspiracy involves institutions and people with something to gain. The list of things filed under conspiracy and the list of things that quietly turned out to be real have been trading places for a while now.

Topics: conspiracy theories, planned obsolescence, superstition vs conspiracy, online review trust, institutional trust, belief research

Originally aired on 2026-03-18