IN THE MEDIA

In the Media Index

• How conspiracy theories get street cred
• New book relates history of Madame Tussaud's
• Historian on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time
• New searchable media database - find out which of your colleagues has been making the news

How conspiracy theories get street cred

Royal Holloway psychologist Patrick Leman hit the national papers when he presented his research at The British Psychological Society's Annual Conference in Bournemouth in March.

All the daily broadsheets reported on his research into the credibility of conspiracy theories - and the Independent used the work as the basis for their leader. Dr Leman's findings suggest that their current popularity might be due, in part, to the use of a rule of thumb that major events are due to major causes.

Dr Leman presented 64 participants with one of four vignettes in which the president of a fictional country was either; shot and killed, shot but survived, missed and survived or missed but dies from an unrelated cause. When there was a 'major event' - the president died - people reading the vignettes were significantly more likely to believe that a conspiracy lay behind the attack.

According to Dr Leman, "When there is a major event, people search for an explanation. There appears to be a general psychological tendency for people to think that a major or significant event must have been caused by something similarly major, significant or powerful. However, often the explanations offered don't meet the criteria of 'major' - for instance, the death of a major public figure by a mad gunman acting alone or a tragic accident. Hence people often prefer to believe in conspiracy theories that do provide a major cause".

A further finding was that people who felt that conspiracy theories often explained real life events were more likely to mistrust the facts as presented in the vignettes. However, those who did not believe in conspiracy theories tended to regard reported facts as relatively accurate. Dr Leman said: "If people become distanced from institutions of power and State, they are more likely to distrust official accounts. This, alongside the bias toward attributing major causes to major events, makes the spread of conspiracy theories more likely."

Dr Leman, who joined Royal Holloway from Goldsmith's in September, gave interviews to ten local and regional radio stations including BBC Radio Wales, Three Counties Radio and BBC Radio WM.

New book relates history of Madame Tussaud's

Madame Tussaud and the History of Waxworks, the latest book by Pam Pilbeam, Professor of French History in the Department of History, has received widespread media coverage since its publication by Hambledon and London in January.

The success of Madame Tussaud's, from its beginnings in Paris before the French Revolution to its prolonged fame as a popular tourist attraction in London, bears out the fascination of waxworks. Yet Marie Tussaud was by no means the inventor of wax figures or their only exhibitor. Wax heads and models had been used since Roman times and were used for saints' statues by the Catholic Church and for anatomical teaching. There were also many rival shows, often travelling from town to town, as Tussaud's did for its first thirty years in England.

Professor Pilbeam sees Madame Tussaud herself and her exhibition as part of the wider history of wax modelling and of popular entertainment. Tussaud's catered for the public's fascination with monarchy, whether Henry VIII and his wives or Queen Victoria, as well as for their love of history, acting as an accessible and enjoyable museum (but also providing the perennial fascination of the Chamber of Horrors).

Professor Pilbeam signs copies of her book at Madame Tussaud's in January, at an event attended by 100 people in spite of the snow storm. Another book signing is planned by Madame Tussaud's over Easter.

The book was reviewed in the Sunday Telegraph, Daily Telegraph, Camden New Journal, Hampstead and Highgate Express, The Mail on Sunday (Book of the Week), Sunday Times, Economist, Evening Standard, Literary Review, L'Histoire and the Independent.

Professor Pilbeam was interviewed by Jenny Murray on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, by David Prever on LBC and by Robert Elms on BBC Radio London. Professor Pilbeam was commissioned to write articles on the subject by Business History, History Today and the Times Higher Educational Supplement.

Professor Pilbeam has given many talks on the subject in UK, France and North America and a film is in the pipeline. She was keynote speaker at French Historical Studies annual conference in Toronto last April and will be keynote speaker at the Dix Neuviemistes conference in Sheffield in September.

Historian on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time

Dr Helen Grahame of the Department of History joins Melvyn Bragg on In Our Time, BBC Radio 4 on Thursday 10 April to talk about the Spanish Civil War (1936-9). She and her fellow panellists - Paul Preston of the LSE and Marvy Vincent of the University of Sheffield - will be discussing the causes and consequences of the Civil War, including the ensuing Francoist repression and the recent return of Republican memory. The programme is broadcast from 9am to 9.45am and repeated in abridged form at 9.30pm-10.00pm on the same day.

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