Uprootin the Beliefs
For the last month I've been working on a presentation. Updates will be a little more frequent from now on.
I've just finished writing my presentation for the CFI (Center for Inquiry) that I'm going to give on Friday on conspiracy theories. I close with advise on what a person can do to prevent themselves from turning into a conspiracy theorist: think logically, apply Occam's razor, and generalize the theory to the world at large. It's not a full proof system, but it's at least a start. I do not go into how to uproot the theories in other people, that's a much more difficult process considering the number of psychological guards that every person has against finding out something they believe is wrong.
First, our brain regularly shuts out this kind of proof. Especially when we attach our beliefs to our individual sense of identity. With these kinds beliefs it's not merely something that we believe it is something that we are. The deeper a person is in conspiracy thinking the more that it is a defining aspect of their personality. In order to take a person out of it, you would have to convince them not that their idea was wrong but that their personality was wrong. This is, I think, obviously going to be difficult.
What's the solution then? Is it merely hopeless?
No, it just has to be understood that tossing counter-evidence at a person isn't going to work. In a perfect world, it should. I believe the Earth is flat, someone shows me a globe, and then I drop the belief entirely. However, that's not the usual exchange. The person doesn't believe in flat earth, they are a flat earther. While the change in language is very slight, it is an important change. Everything that props up the flat earth theory also props up their idea of who they are.
A 9/11 truther who likes to scream the mantra "jet fuel doesn't burn that hot" doesn't want to be told the science about why it doesn't have to burn that hot. Short answer: steel loses structural integrity about half way to its melting point, which along with uneven heating of the I-beams caused them to warp and buckle. They want to scream, "I know a secret thing that I figured out and the rest of the people have not." Conspiracists believe they are special in that they believe the conspiracy.
It is difficult with them because more often than not they chose to be conspiracy theorists. Unlike a religious person who was born into a religion based on location and family, the conspiracist had to find their information on their own. They had to look at historical event or fact of the world, and then find the alternative explanation/fact, then assent to it. They have the mental feeling of accomplishment backing up their belief. I would liken it to those who believe they were "born again."
There a few similarities between the religious believer and the conspiracy theorist. They are both non-scientific, non-fact, worldviews based on belief and a rejection of experts. They are both incredibly hard to remove from the individual. Both groups are quite vocal when criticized and more aggressive in social media. And they'll both ridicule the other except when it overlaps. In each case it takes patience and subtlety to deal with them.
I've just finished writing my presentation for the CFI (Center for Inquiry) that I'm going to give on Friday on conspiracy theories. I close with advise on what a person can do to prevent themselves from turning into a conspiracy theorist: think logically, apply Occam's razor, and generalize the theory to the world at large. It's not a full proof system, but it's at least a start. I do not go into how to uproot the theories in other people, that's a much more difficult process considering the number of psychological guards that every person has against finding out something they believe is wrong.
First, our brain regularly shuts out this kind of proof. Especially when we attach our beliefs to our individual sense of identity. With these kinds beliefs it's not merely something that we believe it is something that we are. The deeper a person is in conspiracy thinking the more that it is a defining aspect of their personality. In order to take a person out of it, you would have to convince them not that their idea was wrong but that their personality was wrong. This is, I think, obviously going to be difficult.
What's the solution then? Is it merely hopeless?
No, it just has to be understood that tossing counter-evidence at a person isn't going to work. In a perfect world, it should. I believe the Earth is flat, someone shows me a globe, and then I drop the belief entirely. However, that's not the usual exchange. The person doesn't believe in flat earth, they are a flat earther. While the change in language is very slight, it is an important change. Everything that props up the flat earth theory also props up their idea of who they are.
A 9/11 truther who likes to scream the mantra "jet fuel doesn't burn that hot" doesn't want to be told the science about why it doesn't have to burn that hot. Short answer: steel loses structural integrity about half way to its melting point, which along with uneven heating of the I-beams caused them to warp and buckle. They want to scream, "I know a secret thing that I figured out and the rest of the people have not." Conspiracists believe they are special in that they believe the conspiracy.
It is difficult with them because more often than not they chose to be conspiracy theorists. Unlike a religious person who was born into a religion based on location and family, the conspiracist had to find their information on their own. They had to look at historical event or fact of the world, and then find the alternative explanation/fact, then assent to it. They have the mental feeling of accomplishment backing up their belief. I would liken it to those who believe they were "born again."
There a few similarities between the religious believer and the conspiracy theorist. They are both non-scientific, non-fact, worldviews based on belief and a rejection of experts. They are both incredibly hard to remove from the individual. Both groups are quite vocal when criticized and more aggressive in social media. And they'll both ridicule the other except when it overlaps. In each case it takes patience and subtlety to deal with them.
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