Sociological thinking does not mean believing in the existence of conspiracies, which have never ceased to exist in reality. Sociological thinking is the tendency to see conspiracies everywhere and to believe that conspiracies are the key to everything, or almost everything, that happens in the world.

The prominent French philosopher and historian of ideas, Pierre-André Taguieff, analyzes in this book, with acuity and humor, the conspiracy theories that are spread through oral tradition, the internet, public dialogue, Hollywood movies, and populist politics.

World history is full of real conspiracies that have either succeeded or failed miserably. However, it is also full of hypothetical or fictional conspiracies attributed to specific minorities or to power (governments, secret services, etc.), conspiracies that are believed to be true and certain.

In a world full of uncertainties and fears, the proliferation of conspiracy theories, as well as their rapid spread among large segments of the population, constitute a noteworthy phenomenon for research and are beneficial in multiple ways for every democratic citizen to understand their functioning. Conspiracy theories, however irrational they may be, have the advantage of "explaining" events and providing a simple and coherent picture of the world, in which nothing seems random anymore, but everything, even the most terrifying, is explainable.