Learn this from the Rochdale debacle: society faces peril when smart people believe dumb things | Gaby Hinsliff

Azhar Ali's parroting of anti-Israel conspiracy theories is not a warning just for Labour - there's a lesson in it for everyone

What kind of idiot falls for a conspiracy theory? Somebody gullible, you might imagine: at best someone vulnerable or mentally unwell, and at worst someone actively malicious. But mostly, to be blunt, not perfectly normal people like you and me. We are too rational, we tell ourselves smugly, to fall for some old guff about lizard people running the world, or Bill Gates wanting to microchip everyone, or the royal family secretly bumping off Diana, Princess of Wales. We go where the evidence takes us, follow the news closely, exercise our own judgment.

The bad news for those of us who like to think we're immune, however, is that, according to the kind of research we probably pride ourselves on reading, intelligent people who consider themselves open-minded and curious enough to work things out for themselves can be surprisingly vulnerable to some strains of conspiracist thinking - at least where these tap into existing fears or prejudices. Which brings us to the festering mess of the Rochdale byelection, and its broader implications for British political parties.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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