He, in turn, wielding national policy, hired teachers to teach his kingdom’s young girls and engaged coaches to field women’s soccer teams. In the course of things, the two young girls grew up to occupy offices along the airy colonnade in the kingdom’s research institute. Conspiracy Theories Are Not Bedtime StoriesHere’s a short list of popular conspiracy theories currently circulating. British social psychologists Andrew Denovan and his colleagues, who study adherence to conspiracy theories, have recently noted baleful effects of “threat-based information processing.” Conspiracy theorizing, the social scientists observe, tends to ascribe unfolding events to “coordinated, purposeful, and covert actions of powerful actors.”