Puzzles are Fun

August 21, 2026

By Jay Trucker

After I finished my first draft of this website, I realized that I didn't devote any space to an important element of conspiratorial thinking--the fun of it all.

The "social trust" section of this website provides detail about our collective "loss of agency," or feeling that we do not as individuals have much control of our lives. Personally, I have noticed the decrease in social trust among people I interact with and have in plenty of ways adopted a lower social trust than I'd had in the past, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, when our differences came into sharp focus.

I think that the parts of conspiratorial thinking worth interrogating and working to remedy are by-and-large the focus of this website. But it's worth noting that for many people, sharing conspiracies is just good old-fashioned fun, amplified in our now highly connected world.

Conspiracies are a mystery. Like a tv show or movie, solving that mystery gives people the chance to practice and show off their critical thinking skills.

Some conspiracies were made for a laugh. The 2017 "Birds Aren't Real" conspiracy was a parody created to mock people invested in real conspiracies like Q'Anon.

Other conspiracies, like the 2011 Avril Lavigne body double theory, are something of a social experiment. A good conspiracy has a kernel of verifiable truth, and the Lavigne theory traded on the reality that the pop star's appearance differed in 2011 from her appearance when her debut record was released in 2002.

Lavigne was a teenager when her debut record came out. In 2011, she was 27. It's of course not a real surprise that a 27 year-old's appearance differs from their high school yearbook photo. Maybe it's more of a surprise to teenagers themselves?

This Lavigne theory also claimed her songs contained had hidden messages about the switcheroo. Some of the fun of the theory is trying to apply song lyrics to the notion that Lavigne had been replaced by a look-alike. In this way, it's not much different from the reams of text and video focused on decoding Taylor Swift lyrics. Decoding the mystery can be a way to connect with other fans and talk about your favorite songs.

But mostly, I think this type of theory is a "made ya look" situation. It can be just as fun to hear a friend or parent in a moment of suspended disbelief reply to it with "really?"

"No. Not really. Made ya look."

Gotchas and gossip and aren't new. They're ancient, and they are part of what make us human. Even decoding real tragedies like the deaths of Princess Diana or JonBenet Ramsey can be enjoyable.

There's a reason Law & Order has outlived all other network series. We like solving dark mysteries. They're a puzzle, and we get bragging rights if we finish the puzzle first. It's fun to guess whether Captain Benson has the right suspect in the holding cell. Only when people put too much value into these puzzles do they become a problem

What I mean is, listening to a corporate pop album's lyrics is more fun when there's a mystery within it and solving crime is baked into the appeal of watching a crime show. It's only problematic when the focus is on our own lives rather than a song or tv show.

When we accept conspiracies with real stakes, we're trying to solve for a mystery within our own lives, and that's when conspiracy theories turn our lives into an unwinnable game. So don't do that.

See ya l8er, boi.

Contact

Jay Trucker, Ph.D.

Email

jtrucker@ccbcmd.edu

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