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Last week the rapper B.o.B . Are you surprised that this idea is in the 21st century?

I was surprised and delighted: I love hip hop and conspiracy theories, and this combines both. The psychology that underlies this kind of thinking is fascinating, but I never thought flat Earth theory would get much attention.

It seems a surprising idea to get behind, when the evidence from space photos and other things seems incontrovertible鈥�

The belief that Earth isn鈥檛 spherical is one of those things that, at first glance, is easy to write off. But when you look closer, it entails complex arguments about how gravity exists if Earth is a flat disc, and how there must be a conspiracy by NASA or other authorities to hide the fact that Earth is flat.

What leads people to believe in conspiracies?

It is reasonable to think that conspiracies occur, because sometimes they do. Belief in conspiracy theories shouldn鈥檛 be seen as a strange quirk that few people have. Surveys show that many people in the US believe that there was some kind of conspiracy behind the 9/11 attacks, or at least that the US government is not telling the whole story. Our brains also have cognitive biases that make us prone to seeing conspiracies, real or imagined.

What cognitive biases lead to a belief in conspiracy theories?

When something big happens we tend to assume that something big must have caused it. This is the proportionality bias. Then there鈥檚 intentionality bias, which means that when something ambiguous happens, we assume that it was intended. When Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared 鈥� a very ambiguous event as no one knows what happened 鈥� we assume that someone planned it this way. Our personality type also affects whether we believe in things like the flat Earth theory.

How does personality affect our beliefs?

People who believe conspiracy theories tend to distrust received wisdom and the things that people in authority tell us. And our built-in confirmation bias means we look for evidence that supports our beliefs. All of us do this. We also suffer from the 鈥渋llusion of understanding鈥�, a tendency to overestimate our knowledge of how things work. This could lead flat-Earthers to think that NASA is misrepresenting evidence.

So you think we should have more empathy for conspiracy theorists and flat-Earthers?

All of our beliefs are more weird than we would like to think. Conspiracy theories are seen as contrary to the Enlightenment, to scientific values. But the Enlightenment was all about not trusting received wisdom, and thinking for yourself. It made sense to reject the religious doctrine that prevailed at the time, to distrust what you were told. It is inherently rational to question received wisdom, even if you disagree with the conclusion that some people reach.

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淲hy believe in a flat Earth?鈥�