What we in the US do have a large share of are apocalyptic conspiracy theories. This is in part due to the large proportion of the US which are evangelical Christians, among whom the "Left Behind" interpretation of Revelations is very popular. For those unfamiliar with that title, read the wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_BehindThough that's only a part of it.
The other important thing of note are studies on belief in conspiracy theories. If you believe a conspiracy theory, you are more likely to believe other conspiracy theories; even if they are logically contradictory with one another. So in a way, the religious 'end of the world' conspiracy preps those same people for belief in alien abductions, black helicopters, ect.
The other important part of it results from actual apocalyptic devices: nuclear weapons. For about half a century, the US was in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Half a century of propaganda and fear of the utter global annihilation of the human race; which as anyone living at the time was informed, could happen at any minute with a mere 15 minutes of warning. The propaganda and fear-mongering resulted in widespread belief that the other side wasn't just afraid of your weapons, but was actively seeking to destroy you and all you held dear. It wasn't necessarily a fully-fledged conspiracy theory yet, but it planted the seeds throughout the entire population; prepping them for belief in conspiracy theories and apocalyptic belief. That embedding of conspiracy into the public psyche is, in my opinion, the root cause for a large majority of the US's abundance of apocalyptic conspiracy theorists.
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Topic: Conspiracy Theories in America - A Product of Heritage and Culture? (Read 1546 times)