by William Marcellino (Author), Todd C. Helmus (Author), Joshua Kerrigan (Author) Conspiracy theories circulated online contribute to a shift in public discourse away from facts and analysis and can contribute to public harm. Using linguistic and rhetorical theory, RAND researchers conducted a modeling effort to improve machine-learning technology for detecting conspiracy theory language. This report describes the results of that effort and offers recommendations to counter the effects of online conspiracy theories. Number of Pages: 108 Dimensions: 0.22 x 9 x 6 IN Publication Date: June 30, 2021