Absolutely. Fear and uncertainty are a huge part of many conspiracy theories. It’s actually quite human to be uncomfortable with uncertainty.

However, in the case of Conspiratorial Thinking (CT), that uncertainty just goes wild and the person in question will seek out unorthodox methods to cope with it. Even if the explanation is complete BS, it’s still more comforting than having no explanation at all. It’s comforting and appealing, but it does not solve the underlying problem, and that’s why people with CT have a hard time getting back to normal thinking.

The world is big, scary and full of complex interactions. If you can come up with a miserably flimsy excuse of an explanation that will at least calm you down, you’re absolutely going to hold on to it. Humans are pretty bad at tolerating uncertainty, and some people will feel absolutely devastated in the face of global economic turmoil and political unrest. Some people will go to great lengths to mitigate uncertainty, and resorting to CT isn’t even the most extreme example of this behavior.