Build a conspiracy theory from scratch.
The best way to learn to spot a conspiracy theory is to make one yourself.
Pick a real news story. On the next step you'll choose who's behind it and why. Then walk through the four moves real conspiracists use, with a debunk on every step.
- Hunt anomalies — turn coincidence into evidence of a secret plot.
- Fabricate connections — draw lines between unrelated dots until they look meaningful.
- Dismiss counter-evidence — if a fact disagrees, make the fact part of the cover-up.
- Discredit the critics — dismiss people who point out flaws in your theory.
Pick the event.
Choose whichever real-feeling headline your imagination will run wildest with. Don't overthink it.
US campus unearths 142-year-old observatory
Workers installing hammock poles on Michigan State University's campus in August 2023 unexpectedly unearthed the buried stone foundation of an old observatory. Built in 1881 and demolished in the 1920s, the small structure had been covered over for decades. Archaeologists and university staff identified the masonry as part of that 19th-century building, making it a notable historical find on a modern college lawn.
Naps Reflect Young Brain Development
During the 2020 lockdown, researchers at the University of East Anglia studied 463 infants aged about eight months to three years to examine nap habits and learning. They tested vocabulary and other cognitive measures and tracked how often and how long children slept. The study found that some children consolidated information during sleep and therefore napped less often, while others who had smaller vocabularies napped more frequently and for longer periods.
Lost continent discovered
Geoscientists have identified a largely submerged landmass called Zealandia, or Te Riu-a-Māui, that meets the criteria many researchers use for a continent. Covering about 1.89 million square miles (roughly 4.9 million square kilometres), Zealandia is mostly underwater — about 90–95 percent — and includes the visible islands of New Zealand and New Caledonia. Debate about its status grew over decades and many geologists accepted it as a continent in analyses published in recent years.
Pandemic led to varied changes
Research compiled by YouGov shows that the COVID-19 pandemic prompted different changes in daily routines around the world. In some places people slept more—Saudi Arabia, Brazil, China and Turkey reported increases—while Australians and Britons admitted to drinking more and residents of Mexico, Brazil and Spain reported cutting back on alcohol. Exercise rose in countries including China, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and the United States, and various nations reported shifts in diet quality.