Fake News, Rumors, Folk Theories: A Neglect of Language

This chapter situates conspiracy theories alongside their conceptual cousins—fake news, rumors, and folk theories—and argues that research on all four has systematically neglected language. While these phenomena differ in form and intent, they share a reliance on culturally plausible narratives that resonate with widely held assumptions and emotional concerns. Reviewing classic and contemporary research, the chapter shows how falsehoods become consequential only when they align with existing folk theories and spread through conversational processes resembling rumor transmission rather than one-way diffusion. Conspiracy theories are distinctive in their demand for complete explanations, drawing on common folk-theoretical modes of reasoning about motives, histories, and enabling conditions. Their persuasive power lies in blending factual elements with speculative connections that feel linguistically coherent and culturally familiar. Despite the shift from oral transmission to fast-paced written interaction on social media, existing scholarship largely overlooks how language structures these processes. The chapter identifies this omission as a critical gap and motivates a language-centered analysis of online conspiracy theorizing.