Power point about conspiracy theories. What is a conspiracy? How to create your own urban myths.

1. What Do These Images Make You
Think Of?
Does Anything Worry You About
Them? Why?

2. Objectives!
◊ To understand what a ‘conspiracy’ is
◊ To explore how we can be persuaded to reach
our personal points of view
◊ To examine the advantages and
disadvantages of having different opinions

3. What Is A Conspiracy…?
How do we decide what to believe?
How can you tell if someone is lying?
Listen For A Pause: Missed beats are when the liar is trying to think
of a story
Eye Contact: Liars find it hard to look people in the eye
Pupils: The pupils tend to dilate when someone lying
Details: The stories told will lack detail or too much detail to try and
compensate for their lie. Being asked to repeat a story can result in
the liar tripping over their own lies
Protesting: Repeating lines such as ‘To be honest’ is a way for liars to
try and convince other people they are speaking the truth
Unpleasantness: Liars are less cooperative, friendly or pleasant than
truth tellers
Voice: The voice tends become more high pitched as a lie is told
Body Language: A liars body language tends to be defensive, e.g.
having arms crossed or they have a tendency to fidget and not stand
or sit still
One reason liars tend to succeed is that the listeners don’t really want to hear the truth…

4. What A Conspiracy...?
Choose one of the images on the sheet and create
a two minute presentation explain it to the rest of
the class
You need to include:
Date
Location
Key Characters
Evidence
Facts
Two Theories
Do YOU Believe?

5. Urban Myths!
Look at the conspiracy pictures on the
‘Do You Believe?’ sheet
discuss it with another student near you:
Why do some people believe,
Why some people don’t believe,
Whether you believe it and why/why not

6. Creating Your Own Urban Myth!
In your groups you need to create your own Urban Myth to try and convince the class
with.
You need to include:
An interview with key characters (Who witnessed it)
Where and when it was witnessed
Evidence/Eye witness accounts
Key facts
Theories trying to explain it
A booklet explaining to tourists what they may witness and what to do if they are able to
capture some evidence
Merchandise

7. What Do You Believe In?
In your groups try to find five
beliefs you don't share
Does it matter that we have
different beliefs?
What are the advantages and
disadvantages of having
different beliefs?

8. How do we judge what is true?
What tools do we have to help us?
Why is it important to listen to other people?