New Information Is Feeding Epstein Conspiracy Theories |
New information about Epstein is increasing, not decreasing, the level of conspiracy theorizing.
Disinformation campaigns and conspiracy theories weave true and false claims into an overall narrative.
Factchecking a single piece of information and showing it's false does not undermine the full narrative.
We will have conspiracy theories about Epstein resurfacing for years if not decades.
First, let me be clear: There was an Epstein conspiracy. He and Ghislaine Maxwell did traffic children. And plenty of well-connected people were aware of multiple aspects of Epstein’s behavior and crimes. While a lot of additional information about Epstein has been released in the last few months, the new information isn’t decreasing the level of conspiracy theorizing. Instead, Epstein conspiracy theories are growing and multiplying. The new information isn’t water putting out the conspiracy fires. Instead it is more like adding gasoline to the conspiracy theory fire.
Epstein Conspiracy Theories
There are a multitude of conspiracy theories about Epstein. There are conspiracy theories concerning people who may have been involved in the trafficking. There are other conspiracy theories concerning different possible roles of Epstein, including how much he was involved in politics, and whether he was a spy for Russia or some other country.
As more information is released, even old conspiracy theories are reappearing. Since he wrote about having pizza with some men, it has provided new life to the old “Pizzagate” conspiracy. I’ve not only seen claims about how he died but also suggestions that he isn’t dead. Claims that a dead person is actually alive and in hiding is a classic conspiracy theory. Many of these old ideas just don’t die, even when confronted with evidence.
Conspiracy Theories Grow With Additional Information
Since we now have more information, shouldn’t some of these conspiracy theories fade away and die? Apparently not.
Conspiracy theories and disinformation campaigns certainly spread quickly in a vacuum. Rumors run fast as we wait for reliable news to be released (Spiro & Starbird, 2024; Starbird et al., 2013). But eventually, more reliable information becomes available. This is why you shouldn’t trust or re-post the first things you see during a crisis. Wait for more reliable information.
But as new and accurate information is gradually revealed, we might hope that conspiracy theories will die. But conspiracy theories and disinformation campaigns often grow. Why?
Defining Disinformation Campaigns and Conspiracy Theories as Narratives
To understand why Epstein conspiracy theories are growing and spreading, we need a better understanding of false beliefs. Conspiracy theories and disinformation campaigns are not single bits of information. Instead, they are underlying narratives. A narrative provides organization for the bits of information (Hyman, 2025; Starbird, 2023; Tomson, Starbird, Bayar, Grass, & Spiro, 2025). Disinformation campaigns and conspiracy theories weave true and false claims into a narrative, or underlying description.
Academics use a variety of terms to describe these underlying descriptions that allow us to understand complex information: narratives, frames, and schemas. But no matter what term we use, these underlying descriptions allow us to quickly process and remember new pieces of information (see for example, research by John Bransford and his colleagues, as well as recent applications of this research by Brashier & Marsh, 2020). For conspiracy theories and disinformation campaigns, some of the pieces of information will be true, and some will be false. But all can be woven into the underlying narrative, supporting the basic claim (Hyman, 2025; Starbird, 2023).
This is also why factchecking, while important, is not enough to defeat a conspiracy theory or disinformation campaign. Factchecking and pointing out that a single piece of information is false does not undermine the full narrative. There are a lot of other details that have been woven into the narrative. And new details are constantly being added. You can’t fact check and discredit information as quickly as new false details are added. You will always lose that race (see the image in the sidebar).
The Release of New Epstein Files
The torrent of new Epstein information released over the last few months has certainly added a variety of details. Those details can be easily woven into whichever narrative you already believe about Epstein and his crimes.
The slow and incomplete release of information is making things worse by feeding the Epstein conspiracy theories. Given the amount of material, you could argue that a slow and incomplete release is to be expected. We should also expect some errors in redactions.
But missing details also get woven into conspiracy theories. Almost all conspiracy theories emphasize that the truth is being hidden from the general public. With the Epstein files, the names of several powerful people have apparently been redacted. Additionally, people are convinced that the released files are incomplete – that there is substantially more information to be released.
Epstein Conspiracy as a Zombie Idea
I suspect that no matter how much information is released, we will have conspiracy theories about Epstein resurfacing for years if not decades. This will be a set of ideas that will not die. Zombie ideas are somewhat immune to new evidence (see How to Kill a Zombie Idea). They keep coming back around. I also now suspect that the slow and incomplete release of information feeds the Zombies. People believe that more information is being kept from them. Each time more is released, this confirms the belief that the truth is still hidden.
Bransford, J. D., Barclay, J. R., & Franks, J. J. (1972). Sentence memory: A constructive versus interpretive approach. Cognitive psychology, 3(2), 193-209.
Bransford, J. D., & Franks, J. J. (1971). The abstraction of linguistic ideas. Cognitive psychology, 2(4), 331-350.
Bransford, J. D., & Johnson, M. K. (1972). Contextual prerequisites for understanding: Some investigations of comprehension and recall. Journal of verbal learning and verbal behavior, 11(6), 717-726.
Brashier, N. M., & Marsh, E. J. (2020). Judging truth. Annual review of psychology, 71, 499-515.
Hyman, I. E., Jr., (2025, November). How to Win a Disinformation War. Paper presented at the meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Denver, CO. https://osf.io/sfuwt/files/8kxdw
Spiro, E. S., & Starbird, K. (2024). Rumors Have Rules. American Scientist, 112(2), 116-119.
Starbird, K. (2023). Facts, frames, and (mis)interpretations: Understanding rumors as collective sensemaking. https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/12/06/rumors-collective-sensemaking-kate-starbird/
Starbird, K., Maddock, J., Orand, M., Achterman, P., & Mason, R. M. (2014). Rumors, false flags, and digital vigilantes: Misinformation on twitter after the 2013 Boston marathon bombing. IConference 2014 proceedings.
Tomson, D. L., Starbird, K., Bayar, M. C., Grass, M., & Spiro, E. (2025). Being Sensemakers: A Framework for University-Based Rapid Research of Elections, Crisis Events, and Beyond. https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/items/f02ab840-5df1-4bc6-89fe-739d29a3f744