Counteracting Conspiracy Theories

Interesting little article released a few months ago here:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-can-you-fight-conspiracy-theories/

What follows are some interesting snippets.

Conspiracy Theories Can Be Undermined with These Strategies, New Analysis Shows

When someone falls down a conspiracy rabbit hole, there are very few proved ways to pull them out, according to a new analysis.

The study is a review of research on attempts to counteract conspiratorial thinking, and it finds that common strategies that involve counterarguments and fact-checking largely fail to change people’s beliefs. The most promising ways to combat conspiratorial thinking seem to involve prevention, either warning people ahead of time about a particular conspiracy theory or explicitly teaching them how to spot shoddy evidence.
...
“There are so many different definitions and specifications of what is a conspiracy belief and a conspiracy mindset that it’s very difficult to aggregate this data in any way that permits generalization."
...
Studies often blur the lines between conspiracy theory, disinformation and misinformation... Misinformation is simply inaccurate information, while disinformation is deliberately misleading. Conspiracy beliefs, as O’Mahony and his colleagues define them, include any beliefs that encompass malicious actors engaging in a secret plot that explains an important event. Such beliefs are not necessarily false—real conspiracies do happen—but erroneous conspiracy theories abound, from the idea that the moon landing was faked to the notion that COVID vaccines are causing mass death that authorities are covering up.
...
There were a few categories of interventions. One consisted of priming studies, which used an unrelated task to shift someone’s mindset. For instance, participants might be asked to read a passage in a hard-to-read font, which requires more work to take in information and prompts an analytic mindset. Then researchers might present the participants with a conspiracy theory to see if this task decreases belief. These studies suggested that priming mostly worked, but it generally had only small effects. Another strategy of arguing against conspiracy theories with facts also showed only very small to small effects. The least effective arguments involved appealing to a believer’s sense of empathy or mocking them for their beliefs.
...
More promising were inoculation studies, which warned people ahead of time that they might see a conspiracy theory and gave them an argument against it. These had medium to large impacts on decreasing conspiracy belief. Inoculation can backfire, however. One study found that if a conspiracy peddler warned against an inoculation approach, that inoculation would no longer work. Politicians use this “inoculate against inoculation” strategy in the real world, says Joseph Uscinski, a political scientist... For example, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has taken to accompanying his arguments that teachers are indoctrinating students with a “woke” agenda with phrases such as “Anyone that tells you it’s not happening is lying to you.”
...
The best opportunity to avoid conspiratorial thinking may be the most labor-intensive. [O]ne of the largest effects came from a study that involved a three-month university class aimed at distinguishing science from pseudoscience. For the study, three instructors taught students critical thinking skills needed to understand common human mistakes of perception and logic. The result was a reduction in conspiracy beliefs.

Just a bit more, as the last post is already rather long.

If it’s hard to change entrenched conspiracy beliefs, the silver lining is that it’s also hard to make people believe in conspiracies, contrary to popular conception, Uscinski says. In 2022 he and his colleagues published research in PLOS ONE that found no evidence that conspiracy beliefs are growing, despite their visibility on social media. Changing entrenched beliefs of any kind is challenging, Uscinski says, especially if those beliefs are closely tied to someone’s worldview. “Sometimes people pick the beliefs that they want, and they do what they want because of who they are,” he adds.

For individuals interested in challenging conspiracy thinking, the authors of the new review provide some tips:

1) Don’t appeal to emotion. The research suggests that emotional strategies don’t work to budge belief.

2) Don’t get sucked into factual arguments. Debates over the facts of a conspiracy theory or the consequences of believing in a particular conspiracy also fail to make much difference, the authors found.

3) Focus on prevention. The best strategies seem to involve helping people recognize unreliable information and untrustworthy sources before they’re exposed to a specific belief.

4) Support education and analysis. Putting people into an analytic mindset and explicitly teaching them how to evaluate information appears most protective against conspiracy rabbit holes.

Interesting!

I have noticed that mocking,
facts and arguments don’t seem to change a conspiratal mindset.

So, I basically just end up mocking and screaming. Online.

In real life, I’ll connect with the person and keep asking questions, adding to the theory, until it becomes too preposterous even for them. And then, staying connected, down chunk it.
Obviously only when it’s someone I need to work with. Anyone else… mockery is, by far, more fun.

@shavixmir said
Interesting!

I have noticed that mocking,
facts and arguments don’t seem to change a conspiratal mindset.

So, I basically just end up mocking and screaming. Online.

In real life, I’ll connect with the person and keep asking questions, adding to the theory, until it becomes too preposterous even for them. And then, staying connected, down chunk it.
Obviously only when it’s someone I need to work with. Anyone else… mockery is, by far, more fun.

@soothfast said
Yes! Though not mentioned in the article, I have heard that one way that sometimes works to drag someone back to reality is to do it gently, in small increments, while making a personal connection and engaging in small talk. A kind of under-the-radar Socratic method that gets someone to realize, more or less on their own, the fallacies of their thinking on a subject.

@soothfast said
Yes! Though not mentioned in the article, I have heard that one way that sometimes works to drag someone back to reality is to do it gently, in small increments, while making a personal connection and engaging in small talk. A kind of under-the-radar Socratic method that gets someone to realize, more or less on their own, the fallacies of their thinking on a subject.

@metal-brain said
Mueller did not find any evidence to support the conspiracy theory that Russia colluded with Trump to steal the election from Hillary Clinton. Why do people still believe it?

@shavixmir said
I'm sure it's as simple as that.

https://time.com/5610317/mueller-report-myths-breakdown/

Oh. Wow. No it isn't.
Whodda thunk it?

@metal-brain said
So you are defending the conspiracy theory. Thanks for proving me right.

@shavixmir said
You have great difficulty with reading comprehension, don't you?

@metal-brain said
Every conspiracy theorist posts a link they think helps them prove a conspiracy theory true. That is the most common thing in the world.

@metal-brain said
Every conspiracy theorist posts a link they think helps them prove a conspiracy theory true. That is the most common thing in the world.

@shavixmir
That conspiracy theory has been debunked long ago. You just want to cling to the false assertions made by the guy that botched the anthrax investigation by incompetently prosecuted an innocent man which cost the FBI a lot of money when Hatfill sued the FBI.

https://thegrayzone.com/2020/05/11/bombshell-crowdstrike-admits-no-evidence-russia-stole-emails-from-dnc-server/

And even though Mueller incompetently prosecuted an innocent man which cost the FBI a lot of money when Hatfill sued the FBI, he was praises by almost al of congress for being such a professional and respected person. SICKENING!

@soothfast said
Interesting little article released a few months ago here:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-can-you-fight-conspiracy-theories/

What follows are some interesting snippets.

Conspiracy Theories Can Be Undermined with These Strategies, New Analysis Shows

When someone falls down a conspiracy rabbit hole, there are very few proved ways to pull ...[text shortened]... on human mistakes of perception and logic. The result was a reduction in conspiracy beliefs.

@metal-brain said
@shavixmir
That conspiracy theory has been debunked long ago. You just want to cling to the false assertions made by the guy that botched the anthrax investigation by incompetently prosecuted an innocent man which cost the FBI a lot of money when Hatfill sued the FBI.

https://thegrayzone.com/2020/05/11/bombshell-crowdstrike-admits-no-evidence-russia-stole-emails-from- ...[text shortened]... was praises by almost al of congress for being such a professional and respected person. SICKENING!