Tin foil hat

{{short description|Hat and stereotype for conspiracy theorists}}

A tin foil hat is a hat made from one or more sheets of tin foil or aluminium foil, or a piece of conventional headgear lined with foil, often worn in the belief or hope that it shields the brain from threats such as electromagnetic fields, mind control, and mind reading. The notion of wearing homemade headgear for such protection has become a popular stereotype and byword for paranoia, persecutory delusions, and belief in pseudoscience and conspiracy theories.

"Tin foil" is a common misnomer for aluminium foil in English-speaking countries; packaging metal foil was formerly made out of tin before it was replaced with aluminium.{{cite web |title=Foil - metallurgy |url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/foil-metallurgy |website=Britannica.com |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=17 July 2016}}

Origin

Some people – "Tin Foil Hatters" – have a belief that such hats prevent mind control by governments, spies, mobsters, corporations, extraterrestrial, or paranormal beings that employ ESP or the microwave auditory effect. People in many countries who believe they are "targeted individuals", subject to government, corporate, or criminal spying or harassment, have developed websites, conference calls, and support meetings to discuss their concerns, including the idea of protective headgear.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/10/AR2007011001399_3.html|title=Mind Games|last=Weinberger|first=Sharon|date=14 January 2007|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=29 June 2015}} Vice Magazine wrote that the tin foil hat in popular culture "can be traced back in a very weird and prescient short story written in 1927 by Julian Huxley"{{cite web |title=A Brief Cultural History of the Tin Foil Hat |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/mgbk4b/a-brief-cultural-history-of-the-tin-foil-hat |website=Vice.com |date=6 March 2015 |access-date=9 March 2021}} titled "The Tissue-Culture King", wherein the main character uses a metal hat to prevent being mind controlled by the villain scientist.{{cite web |last1=Huxley |first1=Julian |title=The Tissue-Culture King |url=http://www.revolutionsf.com/fiction/tissue/ |access-date=9 March 2021}}{{cite journal |last=Huxley |first=Julian |title=The Tissue-Culture King |date=August 1927 |journal=Amazing Stories |quote=Well, we had discovered that metal was relatively impervious to the telepathic effect, and had prepared for ourselves a sort of tin pulpit, behind which we could stand while conducting experiments. This, combined with caps of metal foil, enormously reduced the effects on ourselves.}} Over time the term "tin foil hat" has become associated with paranoia and conspiracy theories.{{cite web|title=Hey Crazy – Get a New Hat |url=http://www.bostonist.com/archives/2005/11/15/hey_crazyget_a_new_hat.php |access-date=5 April 2007 |date=15 November 2005 |publisher=Bostonist |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070503051428/http://www.bostonist.com/archives/2005/11/15/hey_crazyget_a_new_hat.php |archive-date=3 May 2007 }}

Scientific basis

Effects of strong electromagnetic radiation on health have been documented for quite some time.{{cite journal |title=Neurophysiologic effects of Radiofrequency and Microwave Radiation |journal=Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine |volume=55 |issue=11 |first=W. R. |last=Adey |date=December 1979 |pages=1079–1093|pmid=295243 |pmc=1807758 }}{{cite news |url=http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article362557.ece |title=Electronic smog |work=The Independent |date=7 May 2006 |access-date=9 June 2009 |location=London |first=Geoffrey |last=Lean |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517030959/http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article362557.ece |archive-date=17 May 2008 |df=dmy-all }} The efficiency of a metal enclosure in blocking electromagnetic radiation depends on the thickness of the foil, as dictated by the "skin depth" of the conductor for a particular wave frequency range of the radiation. For half-millimetre-thick aluminum foil, radiation above about 20 kHz (i.e., including both AM and FM bands) would be partially blocked, although aluminum foil is not sold in this thickness, so numerous layers of foil would be required to achieve this effect.{{cite book |title=Classical Electrodynamics |first=John David |last=Jackson |publisher=Wiley Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-471-30932-1 }}

In 1962, Allan H. Frey discovered that the microwave auditory effect (i.e., the sounds induced by the reception of radio-frequency electromagnetic signals, heard as clicks and buzzes) can be blocked by a patch of wire mesh (rather than foil) placed above the temporal lobe.{{Cite journal|last=Frey|first=Allan H.|date=1962-07-01|title=Human auditory system response to modulated electromagnetic energy|url=http://jap.physiology.org/content/17/4/689|journal=Journal of Applied Physiology|language=en|volume=17|issue=4|pages=689–692|issn=8750-7587|pmid=13895081|doi=10.1152/jappl.1962.17.4.689|s2cid=12359057|access-date=25 May 2017|archive-date=16 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170916192444/http://jap.physiology.org/content/17/4/689|url-status=dead}}{{cite journal |doi=10.1002/bem.10163 |last1=Elder |first1=Joe A. |last2=Chou |first2=C.K. |year=2003 |title=Auditory response to pulsed radiofrequency energy |journal=Bioelectromagnetics |volume=24 |issue=S6 |pages=S162–73 |issn=0197-8462 |pmid=14628312|s2cid=9813447 |doi-access=free }}

In 2005, a tongue-in-cheek experimental study{{Cite web|last=Soniak|first=Matt|date=2012-09-28|title=Tin Foil Hats Actually Make it Easier for the Government to Track Your Thoughts|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/09/tin-foil-hats-actually-make-it-easier-for-the-government-to-track-your-thoughts/262998/|access-date=2020-08-04|website=The Atlantic|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|date=2005-02-17|title=On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study|url=http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100708230258/http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/|archive-date=2010-07-08}} by a group of MIT students found that tin foil hats do shield their wearers from radio waves over most of the tested spectrum, but amplified certain frequencies, around 2.6 GHz and 1.2 GHz.

In popular culture

In 2005, Bruce Perens reported on an encounter between Richard Stallman and security personnel at the UN World Summit on the Information Society, titled "Stallman Gets in Trouble with UN Security for Wearing a Tin-Foil Hat".{{cite web |url=http://perens.sourcelabs.com/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060427230237/http://perens.sourcelabs.com/ |archive-date=2006-04-27 |title=Friday, November 18: Richard Stallman Gets in Trouble with UN Security for Wearing a Tin-Foil Hat |date=2005-11-18}} The tin-foil hat in the title was figurative, as Stallman did not actually don a tin-foil hat, but instead wrapped an identification card containing a radio-frequency identification device in tin foil in protest against the intrusion on his privacy.

In a 2016 article, the musician and researcher Daniel Wilson writing in paranormal magazine Fortean Times noted an early allusion to an "insulative electrical contrivance encircling the head during thought" in the unusual 1909 non-fiction publication Atomic Consciousness{{cite book |title=Atomic Consciousness Abridgement |first=James |last=Bathurst |publisher=W. Manning, London |year=1909}} by self-proclaimed "seer" John Palfrey (aka "James Bathurst") who believed such headgear was not effective for his "retention of thoughts and ideas" against a supposed "telepathic impactive impingement".{{cite magazine |title=Atomic-Consciousness |magazine=Fortean Times |date=June 2016 |first=Daniel |last=Wilson}}

Tin foil hats have appeared in such films as Signs (2002),{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/5682464/area-51-raid-hat/ |title=Area 51 Raid But Make It Fashion: It Takes a Lot to Stand Out at Alien-Themed Festival But This Guy's Tin Foil Hat Is Working |last=Lang |first=Cady |date=September 20, 2019 |magazine=Time |access-date=March 10, 2020}} Noroi: The Curse (2005),{{cite web |url=https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/screens/2017-07-09/dvdanger-dont-knock-twice/ |title=DVDanger: Don't Knock Twice |last=Whittaker|first=Richard|date=July 9, 2017|work=The Austin Chronicle|access-date=April 14, 2020}} and Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009).{{cite web |url=https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/36153/futurama-into-the-wild-green-yonder/ |title=Futurama: Into The Wild Green Yonder|last=Miller III|first=Randy|date=February 1, 2009|website=DVD Talk|access-date=March 10, 2020}}

The 2019 HBO television series Watchmen features the character Wade Tillman/Looking Glass, a police officer who wears a mask made of reflective foil, and while off-duty, a cap lined in foil to protect his mind from alien psychic attacks.{{cite web |url=https://screenrant.com/watchmen-show-easter-eggs-episode-5/ |title=Watchmen: Biggest Comic Easter Eggs in Episode 5 |last=Erdmann |first=Kevin |date=November 18, 2019 |website=Screen Rant |access-date=March 10, 2020}}

In 2024, several teachers in Russia's Voronezh Oblast posed themselves with tin foil hats, due a prank by a Belarusian prankster Vladislav Bokhan, who posed as an official from United Russia. He sent an "order" to local schools asking teachers to hold a "Helmet of the Fatherland" workshop. The workshop contained instructions for making Tin foil hats as a "patriotic campaign" and to "defend themselves from the irradiation from NATO satellites".{{cite web|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/belarus-russia-teachers-tinfoil-hat-prank/33198362.html|title=Belarusian Artist Says Tinfoil Hat Prank Tests 'Fascistization' In Russian Society|date=November 11, 2024|website=Radio Free Europe}}