![]() ![]() Conspiratorial thinking or conspiracist ideation has become a prominent feature of current U.S. But among the general public, just how prevalent are such beliefs? On a nationally representative survey, we asked whether people agreed, disagreed, or were unsure about these conspiracy claims-and for comparison, asked similar questions about some basic scientific facts, such as whether Earth is billions of years old.Īcceptance or openness to conspiracy beliefs was significantly higher among certain subgroups, including Millennials and supporters of ex-president Trump. Is the Earth really flat? Did NASA fake the Moon landings? Do COVID-19 vaccinations implant people with microchips for tracking? These and other pseudo-scientific conspiracy claims get wide exposure on social media such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, where they are avidly shared by believers and trolls, giving an impression to some people that support for such claims is growing. The curvature becomes more readily apparent above 50,000 feet passengers on the now-grounded supersonic Concorde jet were often treated to a view of the curved horizon while flying at 60,000 feet.Although agreement with conspiracy claims was low overall, it was significantly higher among two subgroups: Millennials, and supporters of ex-president Trump. According to a 2008 paper in the journal Applied Optics, the Earth's curve becomes subtly visible at an altitude of around 35,000 feet, as long as the observer has at least a 60 degree field of view (which may be difficult from a passenger plane window). If you get lucky enough to get an unobscured view of the horizon and a high enough commercial flight, you might even be able to make out the curvature of the Earth with the naked eye. You won't have to retrace your steps to land where you started. Anyone can circumnavigate the globe nowadays there are even travel firms, like AirTreks, that specialize in multi-stop, round-the-world routes. This one should cost you considerably less than $1 million, though you will have to drop a few thousand dollars. ![]()
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