The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, also known as 9/11, were the worst such attacks in history. Twenty-five years on, they have been thoroughly investigated and analyzed — yet many people still believe the conspiracy theories that swirl around the suicide attacks in the United States.
First, a reminder of the event itself. On September 11, 2001, the Islamist terrorist network al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger planes. Two were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. A third crashed into the Pentagon, just outside Washington, D.C., the headquarters of the US Department of Defense. The fourth airliner is believed to have been heading for the Capitol in Washington, the seat of the US Congress, but it crashed in rural Pennsylvania after passengers staged an intervention to prevent the hijackers from reaching their target. The suicide attackers killed almost 3,000 people that day, and injured thousands more. Live footage of the attacks was broadcast all around the world.
September 11 was an event that changed the world — not only in terms of terrorism, but also conspiracy theories.
“September 11 was a trigger point that led to so many things: debates in society as a whole that hadn’t happened before, security problems no one had had to deal with before,” historian Claus Oberhauser explained in an interview with fact checkers from BR-Faktenfuchs.
Daniel Jolley is a professor of social psychology at the University of Nottingham who researches the societal repercussions of conspiracy theories. He told DW that conspiracy theories often spring up around events like this. Even today, many people still wonder how it was possible for the most powerful country in the world to be so utterly blindsided — and some believe conspiracy narratives provide the answer.
20% of Americans believe the government was involved
According to a 2023 YouGov survey, one in five Americans believe the US government was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It’s a claim that has been circulating for decades. Jolley said it shows that many people mistrust institutions and “those in power.”
A conspiracy narrative that bolsters this myth is the claim that the twin towers and other World Trade Center buildings were brought down not by two passenger jets — or not by these alone — but with controlled explosions.
Not only does this allegation continue to spread on social media, it is also based on the assertions of a small number of scientists. For example, one of their arguments is that the horizontal clouds of smoke seen when the towers collapsed supposedly indicate controlled explosions in lower floors.
However, there is no evidence whatsoever that explosives or bombs were found at the site. Investigations like the one carried out by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) explain how the two passenger planes crashing into the twin towers caused them to catch fire and collapse. According to the NIST, videos of the attack support the scientific evidence.
Other analyses, like those done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) or the consultancy firm Weidlinger Associates, reached the same conclusion.
Why do people believe conspiracy theories?
Events like 9/11 can leave certain psychological needs unfulfilled, Jolley explained: “The needs being: to want to feel in control, to want to feel certain, to want to not feel anxious.”
Initially, especially with sudden, expected events like this, there are many unanswered questions and gaps in our knowledge. How did the attack happen? Who was behind it?
“These gaps in our knowledge are precisely what encourage conspiracy theories to spring up,” said Oberhauser. And then some people start to entertain the possibility that an even bigger conspiracy is behind it all.
Karen Douglas, a professor of social psychology at the University of Kent, confirmed this. “Anyone can fall into conspiracy theories if the circumstances are right,” she told DW.
However, Jolley added that it’s not the case that a person wakes up one day and suddenly distrusts the world. “Rather, this may have been a journey based on their life experience; for example, the adversities in their life,” he said. The way a person generally deals with crises is also relevant. An anxious person is more likely to succumb to conspiracy theories, he added.
Social networks in particular contribute to the rapid spread of myths. Social media already existed before September 11, 2001, but its big breakthrough came with Facebook in 2004. Apps like Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram and YouTube are now used by billions of people. They’re used to share false information and conspiracy narratives, and the platforms don’t always act swiftly to take them down.
“They become part of our everyday content, whether it’s on our phones, on TikTok, on other social media platforms, where we can kind of come down that rabbit hole very, very quickly,” said Jolley. “Going down a rabbit hole” means taking a very intense interest in a subject, clicking from one link to another, and “falling” ever deeper — like Alice in Wonderland.
Why are conspiracy theories problematic?
There are three main reasons why conspiracy theories are so dangerous.
- Conspiracy narratives hold out the promise of making people feel less anxious and more secure. But as Jolley explained, the opposite is more likely to be the case. This can result in even greater mistrust of the government, and of other people, resulting in social isolation.
- A conspiracy theory mixes reality and misinformation; and, unlike disinformation, it cannot easily be exposed as false as it is not based on clear statements that can be verified or disproved. The very essence of a conspiracy theory is the idea that a group of conspirators are acting in secret and the general public are not supposed to know anything about it.
- Conspiracy theories have consequences, and can influence how people act, said Douglas. “Conspiracy theories historically have been linked with prejudice, genocide, risky health behavior, climate denial, and more recently some disturbing behavior related to QAnon and COVID-19 conspiracy theories.”
One group has been a particular focus of conspiracy theories around 9/11: Jews. The myth that Jewish people were behind the attacks has been widely shared on social media. This claim can be traced to the antisemitic trope that “the Jews” are a collective supposedly seeking world domination or to control the world. There is no evidence whatsoever to support this conspiracy theory, either.
According to Jolley, certain groups — including Jews, Muslims and LGBTQ+ people — are often blamed for crimes they did not commit. Throughout history, Jews in particular have often been the focus of conspiracy myths, and this continues to this day. An example from Germany is that of the right-wing extremist who tried to storm a synagogue, then killed two people at a nearby kebab shop in Halle in 2019. He had been sharing antisemitic conspiracy theories online.
How can societies respond to conspiracy narratives?
In Germany, nongovernmental organizations like the Amadeu Antonio Foundation or the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) give advice on how to deal with friends or family who believe conspiracy theories. For example: Communicate with each other on equal terms, and conduct research together to find reliable information, and call out antisemitism, racism and other extreme positions, and make it clear that you oppose them. The historian Oberhauser stressed that people need to learn to go back to trusting facts and science.
This article, translated from German, was written as part of a collaboration with the ARD public broadcaster’s fact-checking network.
