Wed Feb 27, 2019 8:27 pm
#1677886
I want to discuss the psychology and Science surrounding conspiracy theories and will do so by citing some examples some of which are political or Brexit related. However, they are used merely as a springboard.... Please can we try not to get this thread locked by wandering back to our favourite subjects Thanks.
So.... Brexit. Nearly all informed commentators believe that a no-deal Brexit will be very bad for the whole of the UK and NI in particular. The Government published a paper setting out those risks. Despite this, there are many people, some highly intelligent who simply deny any evidence put in front of them.
Similarly, Tommy Robinson was in the news yesterday. To some he's a far right extremist, but his followers refuse to believe that preferring to believe that any anti-Robinson comment is part of a greater conspiracy. Trump has a similar (in his case sizeable) devoted following that deny anything bad said about him.
Finally, despite overwhelming scientific evidence, there are still those who believe that vaccines contain mercury and are therefore poisonous, or cause autism (they don't.... that story was a demonstrable medical fraud) or are otherwise bad.
In all those cases, the evidence and science are clear and demonstrable, but the nay-sayers just flatly deny it. Consequently, throwing yet more evidence or science at them will have no effect.
So the question is, what do you do? I guess rather than a scientific or evidence based approach, we need to use a psychological approach. What approach might that be?
How do we do that when Twitter and Facebook (and other places) are allowing these people to stoke their own fires and confirm their (we would say) mistaken beliefs.
So.... Brexit. Nearly all informed commentators believe that a no-deal Brexit will be very bad for the whole of the UK and NI in particular. The Government published a paper setting out those risks. Despite this, there are many people, some highly intelligent who simply deny any evidence put in front of them.
Similarly, Tommy Robinson was in the news yesterday. To some he's a far right extremist, but his followers refuse to believe that preferring to believe that any anti-Robinson comment is part of a greater conspiracy. Trump has a similar (in his case sizeable) devoted following that deny anything bad said about him.
Finally, despite overwhelming scientific evidence, there are still those who believe that vaccines contain mercury and are therefore poisonous, or cause autism (they don't.... that story was a demonstrable medical fraud) or are otherwise bad.
In all those cases, the evidence and science are clear and demonstrable, but the nay-sayers just flatly deny it. Consequently, throwing yet more evidence or science at them will have no effect.
So the question is, what do you do? I guess rather than a scientific or evidence based approach, we need to use a psychological approach. What approach might that be?
How do we do that when Twitter and Facebook (and other places) are allowing these people to stoke their own fires and confirm their (we would say) mistaken beliefs.
Paul
The forum seems to have stopped logging me out at random intervals. Perhaps they like me after all? (Thanks for fixing it) Our pleasure!
The forum seems to have stopped logging me out at random intervals. Perhaps they like me after all? (Thanks for fixing it) Our pleasure!