Will the latest report into the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, ruling out polonium 210 poisoning as the cause, let the controversy finally rest?
Hardly. The nature of conspiracy theories is that advocates will look at the evidence selectively to support their own hunch that some evil scheme was afoot.
Just consider the recent 50-year anniversary of President Kennedy’s death, where the debates about grassy knolls and second shooters rage as vociferously now as ever.
Or how the death of Princess Diana with Dodi Al Fayed, in a Paris tunnel was the work of MI6. Or how 9/11 was an inside job by the CIA. Or that the moon landings actually took place on a Hollywood set. Or ... Well, the list goes on.
Psychologists have sought to explain what in the human psyche leads some to believe preposterous theories in which global events are orchestrated by a shadowy cabal at the highest levels, be it the New World Order or Opus Dei or even shape-shifting aliens living among us.
They simply can’t accept that momentous tragedies can have the most mundane causes.