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97 free Conspiracy Theories trivia questions with answers — pop culture quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
48 free conspiracy trivia questions with answers, covering the theories everyone has heard of and the real conspiracies that make people believe them. The famous ones are all here: the faked moon landing, the JFK assassination, Area 51 and Roswell, the Illuminati, chemtrails, the New World Order, Paul is dead, Pizzagate, QAnon and the Denver airport. The second half is where it gets interesting. Some of these questions are about documented, declassified conspiracies: MKUltra, Operation Northwoods, the Tuskegee study, the Gulf of Tonkin, Watergate's Deep Throat. Others are hoaxes with a traceable origin, like the Protocols forgery, the Philadelphia Experiment, the Majestic 12 papers the FBI called bogus, and the German city that jokingly does not exist. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia before publishing and each question links to its source, so you can settle arguments afterwards. Difficulty runs from easy to hard, and nothing here endorses a theory: the questions are about who claimed what, when, and how it was debunked.
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Q 01Conspiracy theories claim NASA staged the Moon landings. Which human spaceflight program achieved them for real?
Apollo
Apollo was NASA's third human spaceflight program and the one that landed the first humans on the Moon; hoax theories claim some or all of it was staged.
Q 02Which US President's assassination in Dallas in November 1963 spawned enduring conspiracy theories?
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas on November 22, 1963; the Warren Commission's lone-gunman finding on Lee Harvey Oswald never silenced theories blaming the CIA or organized crime.
Q 03Which ancient idea of Earth's shape has made a social-media comeback since the 2010s?
Flat Earth
Greek astronomy settled the matter over two millennia ago, yet flat-Earth societies and unaffiliated online believers have grown since the 2010s.
Q 04Which secretive US Air Force base in Nevada anchors UFO folklore?
Area 51
Area 51 sits inside the Nevada Test and Training Range; the intense secrecy around it is exactly what feeds the UFO folklore.
Q 05Which 18th-century Bavarian secret society is often falsely linked to a global-domination plot?
Illuminati
The original Illuminati was an Enlightenment-era secret society founded in Bavaria in 1776, which was eventually suppressed. Modern conspiracy theories often incorrectly connect them to a powerful, secretive elite aiming for global control.
Q 06Which musician is the subject of a hoax theory that he died in 1966 and was replaced by a look-alike?
Paul McCartney
The 'Paul is Dead' urban legend claims that Paul McCartney of The Beatles died in a car crash in 1966 and was secretly replaced. Proponents often cite alleged clues in album art and song lyrics.
Q 07Which major US airport draws theories about secret bunkers and symbolic murals?
Denver
Denver International Airport's lore says its tunnels lead to survival bunkers for the rich, military bases, or homes for aliens or lizard people; the real tunnel network is far smaller than claimed.
Q 08Alaska's HAARP research programme is often falsely accused of controlling what global phenomenon?
The weather
HAARP is a scientific research program studying the ionosphere. However, it has been the subject of conspiracy theories claiming it can control the weather, cause earthquakes, or even manipulate minds.
Q 09What term describes belief in a secret elite plotting a totalitarian global government?
New World Order
The New World Order theory holds that a secretive elite is steering the world toward a totalitarian one-world government; it surged in the 1990s after George H. W. Bush used the phrase in 1990 and 1991 speeches.
Q 10Which cryptozoological creature reputedly lurks in a deep Scottish Highland lake?
Loch Ness Monster
The Loch Ness Monster is a mythical creature said to reside in Loch Ness, Scotland. While many alleged sightings and photographs have been debunked as hoaxes, belief in 'Nessie' persists.
Q 11Which CIA program, begun in 1953, dosed unwitting subjects with LSD in mind-control experiments?
Project MKUltra
Project MKUltra, begun in 1953 under Sidney Gottlieb, dosed unwitting US and Canadian subjects with LSD and used hypnosis and sensory deprivation; its files were largely destroyed in 1973 and it was exposed by the 1975 Church Committee.
Q 12The 1947 incident near Roswell, New Mexico, is famously associated with theories of what kind of crash?
Alien spacecraft
Roswell lore holds that an alien spacecraft crashed in 1947; the debris was from a Project Mogul balloon train built to detect Soviet nuclear tests, and the Army's 'weather balloon' line covered that secret program.
Q 13What false 2016 conspiracy theory linked a D.C. pizza restaurant to child sex trafficking?
Q 21Which public health measure, first tried in Grand Rapids in 1945, do theorists call mind control?
Water fluoridation
Water fluoridation, the controlled addition of fluoride to a public water supply to reduce tooth decay, has been the subject of conspiracy theories claiming it is a communist plot, a form of mass medication, or a mind control tactic.
Q 22The 1980s-90s 'Satanic Panic' spread claims of ritual what, notably at the McMartin preschool?
Child abuse
The 'Satanic Panic' was a moral panic that spread across the United States in the 1980s and 1990s, fueled by unsubstantiated claims of widespread Satanic ritual abuse of children.
Q 23What term describes the belief that unelected officials secretly steer government policy?
Pizzagate
Pizzagate emerged during the 2016 election, falsely claiming Washington's Comet Ping Pong pizzeria hid a child-trafficking ring tied to Democrats; in December 2016 a believer fired a rifle inside the restaurant.
Q 14Which off-the-record conference, held annually since 1954, is cited by theorists as globalist plotting?
Bilderberg Meeting
The Bilderberg Meeting is an annual, off-the-record forum established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. Its secrecy and influential attendees make it a target of conspiracy theories about a globalist agenda.
Q 15Shared false memories that differ from documented history, like a misremembered book title, are called the what effect?
Mandela
The Mandela Effect, named by Fiona Broome after many people falsely recalled Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s, describes shared false memories; 'Berenstein' for the Berenstain Bears is the classic example.
Q 16Which theory says Charlemagne and roughly 300 years of the Early Middle Ages are made up?
Phantom Time Hypothesis
Heribert Illig's 1991 claim: Otto III and Pope Sylvester II faked AD 614–911 (some 300 years, Charlemagne included) so their reigns would land on the round year 1000.
Q 17Which singer is frequently claimed by conspiracy theorists to be alive and in hiding despite his official death?
Elvis Presley
Despite his official death in 1977, Elvis Presley has been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories claiming he faked his death and is still alive, often citing alleged sightings.
Q 18Which airliner’s March 2014 disappearance with 239 aboard still feeds conspiracy theories?
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
Flight 370 vanished on 8 March 2014 flying Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard; with no definitive answer, theories filled the gap.
Q 19Which 2017-born theory says a Satan-worshipping cabal controls the US and fights Trump?
QAnon
QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory originating in 2017, centred on the false belief that a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles runs a global child sex-trafficking ring and is secretly fighting Donald Trump.
Q 20Which director is falsely rumored to have secretly filmed a staged moon landing for NASA?
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick had just made 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), which fed the rumor that he staged Apollo footage; the 2002 mockumentary Dark Side of the Moon spread it further.
Deep state
'Deep state' describes a supposed network of career officials and security agencies steering policy regardless of elections; a 2017 ABC News/Washington Post poll found 48% of Americans believed one exists.
Q 24What is the controversial COVID-19 hypothesis that the virus escaped from a laboratory called?
Lab leak theory
The COVID-19 'lab leak theory' is a controversial hypothesis proposing that the SARS-CoV-2 virus originated from a laboratory incident, rather than natural zoonotic transmission, sparking significant debate and investigation.
Q 25Which US President was the target of the 'birther' conspiracy theory?
Barack Obama
Barack Obama, the first Black US president, was born in Hawaii; in 2011 Donald Trump became the theory's leading proponent and claimed credit for pressuring the government to publish the birth certificate.
Q 26In what year were the Georgia Guidestones destroyed by an explosive device?
2022
Commissioned in 1979 by a man using the pseudonym Robert C. Christian, the monument was blown up on the morning of July 6, 2022, and the county removed the remains later that same day.
Q 27What term describes the belief that the US government was secretly involved in the September 11 attacks?
Inside job
The '9/11 inside job' conspiracy theory posits that the September 11, 2001, attacks were either orchestrated or allowed to happen by elements within the U.S. government, contrary to the official narrative.
Q 28Which US Air Force study of UFO sightings, run from 1952 to 1969, concluded that most reports were misidentified objects or natural phenomena?
Project Blue Book
Project Blue Book, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, ran from 1952 to 1969 and was closed after the Condon Report judged further UFO study unlikely to yield major scientific discoveries.
Q 29Disappearances in what western Atlantic region have fuelled paranormal and alien-abduction theories?
Bermuda Triangle
The Bermuda Triangle is a loosely defined region roughly bounded by Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico, where a number of ships and aircraft are said to have vanished under mysterious circumstances.
Q 30Which rapper, declared dead in 1996, is the subject of theories that he faked his death?
Tupac Shakur
Despite his official death in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996, many fans and conspiracy theorists believe Tupac Shakur faked his death and is still alive.