Open your kitchen drawer and take out some tin foil.
Twirl it into a cone maybe even double-wrap it and put it on your noggin.
Do you feel safer yet?
Screenshot: MIT Media Laboratory
The tin foil hat is perhaps the most iconic headgear for conspiracy theorists.
To some, its a way to block a centralized powers electromagnetic waves from entering your brain.
Where does this myth come from, and is there any actual science to it?
The authors of the study.Screenshot: MIT Media Laboratory
It was Julian, however, who was possibly the first to mention wrapping your cranium in foil.
He ultimately starts practicing mass mind control, eventually using it on the tribes king to coordinate his escape.
But how does Hascombe avoid having his mind controlled?
The different hat styles tested in the tongue and cheek MIT study.Screenshot: MIT Media Laboratory
Even though tin foil hat is the expression, most people use aluminum foil these days.
Aluminum was thinner, lighter, and ultimately better for wrapping food.
Brain protection, however, doesnt seem to have been a factor in the switch though.
So, Uh, Does It Work?
Could a hat of foil block electromagnetic waves from touching your brain?
The idea is that the metal acts as aFaraday cage, which blocks certain wavelengths from passing through.
The use of aluminum helmets has been a common guerrilla tactic against the governments invasive tactics[1].
In addition, none of the three helmets we analyzed provided significant attenuation to most frequency bands.
Nevertheless, they wrote that tin foil hats were ineffective at blocking most wavelengths.
They genuinely did test three helmet types: The Classical, The Fez, and the Centurion.
The 2.6 Ghz band coincides with mobile phone technology.
Though not affiliated by government, these bands are at the hands of multinational corporations.
It first popped up on Slashdot, which he describes as the Hacker News of its day.
Years later,The Atlanticwrote up the study.
So, you know, its definitely real all the popular conspiracies people buy into.
As Dr. Michelle Dickensonpoints out, Faraday cages need to fully surround the items they protect.
Why Its Pervasive
Since 1926, conspiracy theories have only grown more intense throughout society.
The internet is great at propping up conspiracies like this.
Message rooms and Facebook groups become echo chambers for outlandish ideas.
They all center around a collective distrust of what the media and government say.
The electromagnetic waves radiating from those conspiracy channels seem to be doing more harm than anything else.
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Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey, too.
