How to help friends and family dig out of a conspiracy theory black hole
MIT Technology Review and Prof. Sander van der Linden of the University of Cambridge provide suggestions for helping to bridge the communication gap among friends and family when experiencing social media fueled conspiracy theory thinking, which involves listening and empathy skills, discussing motivations and social media manipulation, building topic consensus, sharing personal stories, and providing social support.
MIT Technology Review
Someone I know became a conspiracy theorist seemingly overnight.
It was during the pandemic, and out of nowhere, they suddenly started posting daily on Facebook about the dangers of covid vaccines and masks, warning of an attempt to control us and keep us in our places. The government had planned it all; it was part of a wider plot by a group of shadowy pedophile elites who ran the world. The World Economic Forum was involved in some way, and Bill Gates, natch. The claims seemed to get wilder by the day. I didn’t always follow.
As a science and technology journalist, I felt that my duty was to respond. So I did, occasionally posting long debunking responses to their posts. I thought facts alone (uncertain as they were at the time) would help me win the argument. But all I got was derision. I was so naive, apparently. I eventually blocked this person for the sake of my own mental health.
Over the years since, I’ve often wondered: Could I have helped more? Are there things I could have done differently to talk them back down and help them see sense?
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