Ted Goertzel

Ted George Goertzel (born November 20, 1942)^[1] is an emeritus professor in the Sociology Department at Rutgers University–Camden. He is the author and co-author of books and articles spanning from social economy, politics, and conspiracy theories. He is the father of Ben Goertzel, with whom he co-authored the 1995 book Linus Pauling: A Life in Science and Politics.^[2][3]

Ted Goertzel
Goertzel (left) with Dave Thomas, Bob Blaskiewicz and Scott Lilienfeld at the CSICon 2011 conspiracy theories panel
Born	(1942-11-20) November 20, 1942 (age 82)
Education	Antioch College (B.A., 1964), Washington University in St. Louis (M.A., 1966; Ph.D., 1970)
Known for	Research on conspiracy theories
Children	2
Scientific career
Fields	Sociology
Institutions	Rutgers University–Camden
Thesis	Brazilian student attitudes towards politics and education (1970)

Conspiracy theories

As a social scientist, Goertzel studied conspiracy theories and conspiracy thinking in depth. One of his first studies on the subject started in 1992 with a telephone survey of 348 randomly chosen residents in southwestern New Jersey.^[4] The survey was of 10 conspiracy theories circulating at that time. He concluded that anomie, insecurity, and lack of trust in people are positively correlated to conspiratorial thinking.^[4][5][6] Moreover, people who believe in a conspiracy theory are more likely to believe in more than one.^[5]

He is therefore considered an expert on rumors, including the Zika conspiracy theories,^[7] ebola,^[8] and Moon landing conspiracies.^[9]

Books

• Brazil’s Lula: Rise and Fall of an Icon. Amazon Kindle Books 2018.
• Presidential Leadership in the Americas Since Independence, by Guy Burton and Ted Goertzel. Lexington Publishers, October 2016
• The End of the Beginning: Life, Society and Economy on the Brink of the Singularity. Ben Goertzel and Ted Goertzel, editors. Kindle Books 2014
• The Drama of Brazilian Politics: From 1814-2015. Ted Goertzel and Paulo Roberto de Almeida, editors.
• Brazil's Lula: The Most Popular Politician on Earth. Brown Walker Publishers, 2011.
• Cradles of Eminence: Second Edition. Scottsdale, Arizona: Great Potential Press, 2003. By Victor and Mildred Goertzel, updated by Ted George Goertzel and Ariel M.W. Hansen.
• Fernando Henrique Cardoso: Reinventing Democracy in Brazil. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1999.
• Linus Pauling: A Life in Science and Politics. With Ben Goertzel, Mildred Goertzel and Victor Goertzel. New York: Basic Books, 1995.
• Turncoats and True Believers: The Dynamics of Political Belief and Disillusionment. Buffalo: Prometheus Press, 1992.
• Sociology: Class, Consciousness and Contradictions. With Albert Szymanski. New York: D. VanNostrand, 1979.
• Three Hundred Eminent Personalities: A Psychosocial Analysis of the Famous. With Ariel Felton, Mildred Goertzel and Victor Goertzel. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1978.
• Political Society. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1976.