One of the hallmarks of conspiracy theories is that those involved must keep silent about it. After all, it’s not much of a conspiracy if people in the know share their knowledge. But this leads to a thorny problem for believers: How could these conspiracies remain intact year after year and decade after decade? Is it plausible that the world’s governments have successfully colluded over the past half-century (across multiple presidents and administrations) to hide evidence of alien contact? Is it reasonable to think that oil companies have successfully prevented the public from learning about engines that run on air or water? In this Internet age, could these secrets really remain hidden?
Many conspiracy theories claim that those involved in the coverup have gone out of their way to announce and describe their evil plans to the world.
A new study published January 26, 2016, in the online open-access journal PLoS ONE (see http://tinyurl.com/ z5ps7ke) examined how likely it would be that a given conspiracy of silence could be maintained over time. The study, by David Robert Grimes of the University of Oxford, notes: