 carrying over 200 passengers
   has inexplicably
   gone lost at sea!
 What? I can't live in a world
 where planes just malfunction
 and disappear for no reason!
There's gotta be something
bigger behind it!
   When major events
   are truly random,
   it unnerves us.
And our cognitive biases
start to take over.
   We begin to see patterns,
   causes and effects,
  and shadowy actors
   where none exist.
Engine failure
is too simple.
Maybe it got sucked
into a black hole
put there by
the US government
working... with Elvis!
 And when we're afraid
the effect intensifies.
  Research suggests that when
people feel threatened
  or out of control,
they become more prone
  to conspiratorial thinking.
 And there's evidence
that's why both
   Republicans and Democrats
become more susceptible
to conspiracy theories
 when their party loses power.
