Mr. Brotherton puts it. Relatedly, "biased assimilation" causes us to "interpret ambiguous events in light of what we already believe." Discussing Richard Hofstadter's 1964 essay "The Paranoid Style in American Politics," Mr. Brotherton accepts Hofstadter's characterization of proponents of politically motivated

ain why cycles of populism and conspiracy thinking seem to rise and fall together. Conspiracy thinking is at once a cause and a consequence of what Richard Hofstadter in 1964 famously described as "the paranoid style" in American politics. But do not make the mistake of thinking that conspiracy theories are scrib