ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how conspiracy theories originate and why they cohere into pseudo-logical systems of understanding, producing a “Da Vinci Code effect,” in reference to the conspiratorial novel by American writer Dan Brown. The novel illustrates via fiction what a conspiracy theory is essentially about—a well-constructed falsehood that holds together believably because of the ingrained tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things, even when there are no such connections in reality. The illusion of envisioning a “big picture” by connecting the random dots goes under the name of apophenia, which is a major factor in the resistance to logical arguments against a well-crafted conspiracy theory.
