Whispers in the Echo Chamber

Jesse A. Fivecoate, a folklorist and sociocultural anthropologist with a PhD from Indiana University, studies the use of communal belief narratives that circulate within a group as a way of remembering and discussing episodes of conflict and crisis. He is a coeditor of Advancing Folkloristics. Andrea Kitta is a folklorist and a professor of multicultural and transnational literature in the Department of English at East Carolina University. She is the author of Vaccinations and Public Concern in History: Legend, Rumor, and Risk Perception and The Kiss of Death: Contamination, Contagion, and Folklore as well as a coeditor of Diagnosing Folklore: Perspectives on Health, Trauma, and Disability.

Acknowledgments Conspiracy Theory: A Folkloristic Introduction Part I. Folkloric Approaches 1 What History Tells Us about QAnon Bill Ellis 2 Interrogating "Conspiracism" and the Relationship between Historical and Contemporary Conspiracy David Guignion Theories 3 The SLAP Test and Conspiracy Theories about COVID-19, Bill Gates, and the Denver Airport Jeannie Banks Thomas 4 QAnon in Four Pieces: Toward a Folkloric Understanding of a Superconspiracy John Bodner Part II. (De)Constructing Conspiracy Theories 5 Worse Than the Disease: The Mask Cartoons of Ben Garrison Ian Brodie 6 Conspiracy Theories as a Form of Literature Lisa M. Ruch 7 Computational Methods for the Study of Conspiracy Theories Timothy R. Tangherlini, Shadi Shahsavari, Pavan Holur, and Vwani Roychowdhury Part III. Circulation and Political Contexts 8 Conspiracy Thinking as Political Boundary Work: COVID-19 Conspiracy Narratives in Iran Afsane Rezaei 9 I Tell My People the Truth: COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories and the Performance of Vernacular Authority in Religious Social Networks in Malawi Anika Wilson 10 When a Demonology Meets Live-Action Role-Play: QAnon and the Creation of a Social Media Witch Scare Sandra Grady 11 Can Narratives Counteract Conspiratorial Thinking? Darin DeWitt and Matthew D. Atkinson Contributors Index

"A substantial contribution that makes the important point that conspiracy theories are traditional and performative-a form of folk narrative. Showing these linkages gives this volume a particular power." - Gary Alan Fine, author of Tiny Publics: A Theory of Group Culture and Action "This book is a welcome addition, enlarging and deepening our understanding of conspiracy theories: accusatory, vernacular products, shaped by our new media, that worryingly provide the wrong answers even to the right questions." - Veronique Campion-Vincent, author of Organ Theft Legends