This person presents a strong case that conspiracy deniers have transferred an infantile trust and reliance in parents, which evolution has hard-wired into us, to governments and other powerful modern institutions.
Why do otherwise perfectly intelligent, thoughtful and rationally minded people baulk at the suggestion that sociopaths are conspiring to manipulate and deceive them? Conspiracy deniers place their trust “in the biggest, loudest, most present and undeniable force around, because instinct decrees that survival depends on it. And, in this great ‘world nursery’, the most omnipresent force is the network of institutions which consistently project an unearned image of power, calm, expertise, concern and stability.”
Off-Guardian: On the Psychology of the Conspiracy Denier