Conspiracy Theories, Cognitive Biases, and Historical Case Studies

Vocabulary flashcards covering conspiracy theories, logical fallacies, cognitive biases, historical panics, and U.S. immigration and civil rights policy.

Conspiracy theories

Explanations claiming that people or organizations secretly coordinated to cause an event, usually for a harmful purpose.

Conspiracy thinking

A general tendency to interpret significant events as the work of powerful hidden groups.

Critical Thinking

Carefully evaluating evidence, sources, assumptions, and alternative explanations.

Cognitive Bias

A systematic tendency in thinking that can distort judgment.

Implicit Bias

Automatic associations that influence perception without conscious awareness.

Anchoring Bias

Giving excessive weight to the first information encountered.

In-Groups

Groups people identify with and consider "us."

Out-Groups

Groups perceived as outside one's own community: "them."

Strawman

Distorting someone's argument and attacking that weaker version.

Red Herring

Introducing an irrelevant issue that distracts from the argument.

Moving the Goalposts

Changing the standard of proof after the original requirement has been met.

Whataboutism

Responding to criticism by pointing to someone else's wrongdoing or hypocrisy without addressing the original issue.

Ad Hominem Attacks

Attacking a person instead of their argument.

Appeal to Tradition

Claiming something is right because it has long been practiced.

Appeal to Emotion

Using feelings as a substitute for relevant evidence.

Appeal to Fear

Using frightening possibilities or exaggerated threats to secure agreement.

Moral Panic

Widespread, disproportionate fear that a group or behavior threatens society's values or safety.

Circular Reasoning

Assuming the conclusion in the reasoning used to prove it.

Cherry-picking

Selecting supporting evidence while ignoring contradictory evidence.

Personal Incredulity

Treating inability to understand an explanation as proof that it is false.

Bandwagon Fallacy

Treating popularity as proof of truth.

The Illusory Truth Effect

Repetition makes statements feel more believable through familiarity.

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

Assuming that because one event followed another, the first caused the second: "after this, therefore because of this."

Anecdotal Evidence

Personal stories or isolated observations that describe real experiences but cannot alone establish broad conclusions.

The Salem Witch Trials

Witchcraft accusations and prosecutions in Massachusetts in 1692–1693 driven by religious fear, conformity, social conflict, and unreliable evidence.

Tituba

An enslaved woman in Samuel Parris's household whose coerced confession helped expand witchcraft suspicions.

Paranoia

Intense suspicion that others intend harm, such as fear that hidden wrongdoing could bring punishment upon an entire community.

Xenophobia

Fear of or hostility toward people perceived as foreign.

Witch Hunt

A campaign against alleged enemies driven by suspicion, pressure, and unreliable evidence.

White Magic

Magic supposedly used for beneficial or protective purposes, including attempts to identify harmful witchcraft.

Witch Cake

A folk-magic test involving rye meal mixed with afflicted people's urine and fed to a dog to supposedly identify a witch.

Touch Test

A test in which an afflicted person's fit stopping after the accused touched them was interpreted as guilt.

Samuel Willard

A Boston minister who questioned the proceedings and unreliable witchcraft evidence during the Salem trials.

The Great Replacement Theory

A racist conspiracy theory alleging that elites deliberately replace white populations through immigration and demographic change.

1790 Immigration Act

The Naturalization Act of 1790, which restricted naturalization to free white persons meeting residency and character requirements.

Ellis Island

Major federal immigration inspection station in New York Harbor, operating from 1892 to 1954.

The Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882

Federal legislation that suspended Chinese labor immigration and reinforced exclusion from naturalization.

The Passing of the Great Race

Madison Grant's racist, eugenic book (1916) claiming a superior "Nordic" population faced decline through immigration and racial mixing.

The Immigration Act of 1922

Refers to the 1921 Emergency Quota Act extended in 1922, which generally limited each nationality's annual admissions to 3% of its foreign-born population in the 1910 census.

The Cable Act, 1922

Law that made married women's citizenship more independent of their husbands while retaining discriminatory exceptions.

The Immigration Act of 1924

The Johnson-Reed Act, which tightened national-origins quotas using a 2% formula based on the 1890 census and excluded immigrants ineligible for citizenship.

Refugee Act, 1980

Law that standardized refugee admissions and asylum procedures and aligned the refugee definition with international standards.

MS St. Louis

Ship carrying mostly Jewish refugees in 1939 that failed to secure refuge in Cuba or entry into the United States and returned to Europe.

Refugee

Someone outside their country unable or unwilling to return because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.

Asylum Seeking

Requesting protection after reaching a country or its border.

The Bracero Program, 1942–1964

U.S.–Mexico temporary contract labor program, especially for agricultural work.

Operation Wetback, 1954

Mass immigration enforcement and removal campaign targeting Mexicans under Eisenhower.

Reform & Control Act, 1986

The Immigration Reform and Control Act, which combined legalization for qualifying unauthorized immigrants with employer sanctions and increased enforcement.

Operation Gatekeeper, 1994

Clinton-era initiative increasing enforcement around San Diego through personnel, barriers, and technology.

The Secure Fence Act, 2006

Act authorized under George W. Bush that expanded border fencing and related security measures.

The Order of the Illuminati

Actual secret society founded in Bavaria in 1776 and suppressed in the 1780s.

The Eye of Providence

Symbol representing divine watchfulness, often shown as an eye within a triangle.

Patternicity

Perceiving meaningful patterns in random or ambiguous information.

Adam Weishaupt

Law professor who founded the Bavarian Illuminati.

Scientific Revolution

Transformation of scientific inquiry emphasizing observation, experimentation, and mathematics.

The French Revolution

Political and social upheaval beginning in 1789 that challenged monarchy and established hierarchy.

Augustin Barruel

Cleric and writer who blamed the French Revolution on a conspiracy involving Enlightenment thinkers, Freemasons, and Illuminati.

Jedidiah Morse

American minister who circulated warnings that the Illuminati threatened Christianity and government.

Freemasons

Members of a fraternal organization with lodges and rituals.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, 1903

Antisemitic forgery claiming to reveal Jewish plans for world domination.

Henry Ford

Automobile industrialist whose publishing enterprise spread antisemitic claims.

The Dearborn Independent

Ford's newspaper, which circulated antisemitic material including allegations drawing on the Protocols.

The Ursuline Convent Riots

Event in 1834 where an anti-Catholic mob burned an Ursuline convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Bay Charter, 1692

Royal charter issued in 1691 and implemented in 1692 whose religious protections excluded Catholics.

Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk

An 1836 anti-Catholic publication presenting discredited allegations about sexual abuse and murder in a Montreal convent.

Lyman Beecher

Protestant minister whose A Plea for the West presented Protestant institutions as essential to liberty and portrayed Catholic influence as threatening.

Lynching

Extrajudicial killing by a mob.

Spectacle Lynching

Publicly staged lynching involving spectators and sometimes torture, photographs, or souvenirs.

Abel Meerpol

Correct name Abel Meeropol; wrote the poem that became "Strange Fruit," famously performed by Billie Holiday.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett

Investigative journalist and anti-lynching activist who exposed racial and economic motives and challenged justifications for mob violence.

Tameka Hobbs

Historian whose work examines lynching and racial violence, particularly in Florida.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice

Equal Justice Initiative memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, honoring racial terror lynching victims.

Bryan Stevenson

Lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative.

The Emmett Till Antilynching Act, 2022

Established a federal lynching offense within the federal hate-crime framework.

Robert Prager

German immigrant lynched in Collinsville, Illinois, in 1918.

Leo Frank

Jewish factory superintendent convicted of Mary Phagan's murder in 1913 and lynched in 1915 after commutation of his sentence.

Confirmation Bias

Favoring evidence that supports existing beliefs while filtering out unwanted information.

Correlation versus Causation

An association between two variables does not establish that one causes the other.

Spectral Evidence

Testimony claiming an accused person's spirit or apparition caused harm.

Eugenics

A discredited movement seeking to control reproduction according to supposedly desirable hereditary traits.

Racial Determinism

The false belief that racial ancestry determines intelligence, character, ability, or social worth.

Nativism

Favoring established inhabitants over immigrants, often through hostility or exclusion.

Dehumanization

Portraying people as less than fully human or less deserving of rights.