A recent Reddit post highlights a phenomenon that has been vexing people for centuries—smart people who believe the stupidest things. The answers to this popular r/AskReddit question reveal that no matter how educated someone is, they’re not immune to believing in the wildest conspiracy theories or suffering from bizarre knowledge gaps.
“What’s the stupidest thing the most intelligent person in your life believes?” asked u/dexicoma on May 7, 2025.
Many of these intelligent individuals hold beliefs rooted in religion or the political attitudes that surrounded them as they grew up. However, none of these excuses apply to all, including those who subscribe to Hollow Earth Theory.
Why do smart people believe stupid things?
Simple logic might lead you to assume that those who display high intelligence or who are highly educated wouldn’t fall prey to the fake moon landing conspiracy theory or believe that dinosaurs never existed. It’s common for people to think that folks with the least knowledge and mental training would be the only ones vulnerable to conspiratorial thinking.
As unnerving as it may be, that’s not true. Anybody can be drawn into conspiracy groups, cults, extremist religions, or believe falsehoods all on their own. According to the American Psychological Association, the real risk factors have to do with threat perception, internal motivations, and a sense of superiority bolstered by a feeling that others are generally hostile to them.
A meta-analysis of 170 studies and 158,000 participants looked at both motivations and personality traits to form a deeper understanding of this phenomenon.
“Conspiracy theorists are not all likely to be simple-minded, mentally unwell folks—a portrait which is routinely painted in popular culture,” said Emory University doctoral student Shauna Bowes. “Instead, many turn to conspiracy theories to fulfill deprived motivational needs and make sense of distress and impairment.”
20 of the smartest/stupidest people
Not every commenter on this Reddit post spoke on conspiracy theorists and those with false political beliefs. Some just thought that pineapples grew on palm trees. But between the more amusing stories, a clear pattern emerged.
1.
“My FIL has 5 college degrees and is a biologist. He mainly does an amazing job restoring nature (he did a lot of that in Yosemite),” said u/OhTheHueManatee. “He has an absurd amount of knowledge about all kinds of things. He got all his degrees before the internet was a thing so he knows how to do research wildly better than me. He is a stubborn as f*ck anti-vaxxer and has been for longer than I’ve known him.”
“At first I thought he may have some actual scientific insight about it so I asked him for info. Everything he sent me was blog posts with almost no sources to back up their claims. The few that did have sources they either misrepresented what the source said or the source was just another thing that was clearly full of sh*t.”
2.
“I’m a Caucasian female and was in my early 20s at this time,” wrote u/c0ldfrenchfries. “A super intelligent woman (Caucasian, around 40s) I am very close to was absolutely stunned when I told her I had a huge crush on a black gentleman, and he asked me out. She was at a loss for words and finally told me if we got married, it would be illegal.”
“I was speechless and so mad that I left because I thought she was joking. No, she was raised into fully believing (probably taught from a racist grandma I suspect) that it was illegal. Thank God she no longer believes that. What’s even more stunning is that her father was friends with a bunch of black musicians growing up and still adores them. I’ve never been so stunned at misinformation from somebody who was so educated.”
3.
“My dad has a background in economics and an advanced degree,” said u/Bangarang_1. “He believes that Kamala Harris having a 5-year economic plan was ‘the definition of communism.’”
“Not that her plan was communistic… No. The very act of having a plan that lasted longer than 1 term in presidential office was communism…”
4.
“My brother of all people believes that people that have A-, B- blood type has either alien blood or blood from the people of Atlantis mixed with their ancestors,” claimed u/peppy2ray. “If you have a + blood type you’re pure. I thought that he was joking with me when he was talking about that but no it was said in a very mater of fact kind of way. He is super smart but has some out there beliefs.”
5.
“I had a roommate in college who was a straight A student and taking a masters in physics,” recalled u/tweedpants2453. “He thought the moon landing was fake.”
6.
“I dunno about most intelligent in my life, but mom was an RN and still works in the health department fields, and got convinced the Covid vaccine would kill you or make you sicker than just getting Covid,” u/GeminiLife wrote.
7.
“My father-in-law has a mathematics degree (and is generally just very intelligent) and is a Holocaust denier,” u/villettegirl said.
8.
“Not sure if this has already been said, but my ex-step sister in law a GP (now in her 50’s) fully believes that humanity only started 6,000 years ago as fully formed humans and that dinosaurs and carbon dating is wrong, since man was the first animal created when God created the earth,” u/Fruston27 claimed, “obviously she’s a very religious Christian, but she’s also a well respected GP in a blue state.”
9.
“A well-respected anesthesiologist in the OR I work in pushes the pizzagate conspiracy theory and truly believes Michelle Obama is a man,” u/reallythomo said.
10.
“My adoptive father holds a master’s degree in engineering and owns several patents in the motion control industry, yet truly believes covid was just a hoax,” wrote u/Usual-Bag-3605. “Even me almost dying from it wasn’t enough to convince him that it was real. He said doctors were just keeping up the ruse and I probably just had the flu.”
11.
“Programmer up at work will argue to his death that Dinosaurs don’t and never did exist,” claimed u/WTFpe0ple.
12.
“Not the smartest, but in the top 5. Believes in government weather control (not cloud seeding, like they make hurricanes) and is anti vaccine,” said u/KP_Wrath.
13.
“My sister has two college degrees and believes in the hollow Earth theory,” wrote u/Blizzard_Buffalo.
14.
“My uncle is an IT technician and computer expert, but also thinks pineapples grow on palm trees,” said u/Heroic-Forger.
15.
“My wife speaks 3 languages and has 2 master degrees,” u/WhipMaDickBacknforth wrote. “She believes basketball makes you taller and has no idea about survivor bias even when it’s explained to her.”
16.
“The smartest person I know genuinely believes they can function on 3 hours of sleep and just coffee, like they’re some kind of enlightened goblin,” u/cloudmuseee claimed.
17.
“My wife is the smartest person I know, but she is constantly worrying about what I call mom-case scenarios,” wrote u/-im-your-huckleberry. “For example, she told me not to let our child walk down a street that was bordered by a wrought iron fence. Why? Because he might get impaled on the spear like points on top of the fence.”
18.
“Absolutely brilliant friend firmly believes that the average adult man could beat any given adult whitetail buck in an unarmed fight,” u/ElBurroEsparkilo claimed. “‘You could just grab it by the antlers and go dead weight, their legs are so skinny that would take it down and then you could just choke it out,’ he insists.”
19.
“I had a professor in the hard sciences that I did research with for years,” said u/Bennaisance.
“One day, we were talking about something being installed in the building for 5G infrastructure, and I think I asked her a question about conspiracy theorists who were afraid of 5G. To my surprise, she told me that they (her, her husband, and 2 kids) didn’t have wifi at their house bc the jury was still out about the effect of wifi frequencies on people, and they didn’t want to subject their kids to that.”
20.
“I haven’t spoken to them in years, but I played Dungeons and Dragons with a guy who was pretty close to graduating as a neurosurgeon,” recalled u/RulianTheRed. “Listening to them rant about how masculine men only pee while standing was interesting.”
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