.jpg)
Atin foil hat is ahat made from one or more sheets oftin foil oraluminium foil, or a piece of conventional headgear lined with foil, often worn in the belief or hope that it shields thebrain from threats such aselectromagnetic fields,mind control, andmind reading. The notion of wearing homemade headgear for such protection has become a popular stereotype and byword forparanoia,persecutory delusions, and belief inpseudoscience andconspiracy theories.
"Tin foil" is a commonmisnomer foraluminium foil in English-speaking countries; packaging metal foil was formerly made out oftin before it was replaced with aluminium.[1]
Some people – "Tin Foil Hatters" – have a belief that such hats preventmind control by governments, spies, mobsters, corporations, extraterrestrial, or paranormal beings that employESP or themicrowave 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.[2]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 byJulian Huxley"[3] titledThe Tissue-Culture King, wherein the main character uses a metal hat to prevent being mind controlled by the villain scientist.[4][5] Over time the termtin foil hat has become associated withparanoia andconspiracy theories.[6]
Effects of strong electromagnetic radiation on health have been documented for quite some time.[7][8] 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 bothAM andFM 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.[9]
Allan H. Frey discovered in 1962 that themicrowave 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 ofwire mesh (rather than foil) placed above thetemporal lobe.[10][11] Atongue-in-cheek experimental study by a group of MIT students in 2005 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.[12][13]
Daniel Wilson wrote in a 2016 article in paranormal magazineFortean Times noted an early allusion to an "insulative electrical contrivance encircling the head during thought" in the unusual 1909non-fiction publicationAtomic Consciousness[14] 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".[15]
Tin foil hats have appeared in such films asSigns (2002),[16]Noroi: The Curse (2005),[17] andFuturama: Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009).[18] The 2019HBO television seriesWatchmen 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.[19]
American comedy musician"Weird Al" Yankovic referenced the concept in his 2014 songFoil, a parody of the songRoyals byLorde. Yankovic begins the parody by discussing the merit of the use of aluminum foil for its uses for food preservation, before abruptly segueing into a discussion about various conspiracy theories and the necessity of protection using a tin foil hat.[20]
Several teachers inRussia'sVoronezh Oblast reportedly posed in pictures with tin foil hats in 2024, due a prank by a Belarusian prankster Vladislav Bokhan, who posed as an official fromUnited Russia. He sent an "order" to local schools asking teachers to hold a "Helmet of the Fatherland" workshop, which contained instructions for making tin foil hats as a "patriotic campaign" and to "defend themselves from the irradiation from NATO satellites". The local branch of the RussianMinistry of Education commended the teachers for demonstrating "patriotic spirit, strong dedication, and a creative approach to any task", despite it being a prank.[21][22]
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.
Media related toTin foil hats at Wikimedia Commons
The dictionary definition oftinfoil hat at Wiktionary