If you want to dispel conspiracy and denial over elections, vaccines and COVID, start with close family/friends, and go in through the heart
As shown by our site categories like ‘Personal Development’ or entry points like ‘Create The Feel’ or ‘Equipped for my Future’, we are constantly interested in how our subjective/inner lives are the drivers of our outer, civic and political lives.
Our various reactions to the pandemic, or investments in/revulsions towards Trump or Brexit, would indicate that our interest is worthwhile. But we’re always looking for “tools and tips”, practical ways to engage in these emotional and visceral politics, than just another academic overview.
Above is a May 2020 TED talk, and below is a tweet-thread posted in the last few days, from Dr. Danna Young, an Associate Professor of Communication & Political Science at the University of Delaware.
Yes, academic… but as you’ll see from the TEDtalk, she has a skill for popular discourse - she’s talking about the map between openness/liberalism and order & certainty/conservatism, “how both sets of traits are crucial to any society -- and how our differences are being dangerously exploited to divide us”.
In the thread below, Danna provides a remedy for this, updated for our Trump-believing, vaccine-denying, QAnon-following times;
Thread continues:
One of the things we are wrestling with in the misinformation/conspiracy theory research is that counter-information ("corrective info," EMPIRICALLY TRUE FACTUAL EVIDENCE) has VERY LITTLE effect on people's beliefs, when those beliefs are rooted in political/social identity.
In other words, for many of these folks, the evidence, the science, the facts... really don't matter.
For example, if your parents trust Trump and they distrust science/media/courts as institutions, and they identify with people/groups who think of themselves as "in the know" and "have the real truth," then using information and argumentation and evidence is unlikely to move them.
This is so so frustrating.
It's crazy-making.
It's worse than banging your head against the wall.
HOWEVER, it's not a lost cause.
Lots of these folks are deeply distrusting of institutions and elites (except Trump cause he plays into ALLLL of this and pretends he's ONE of them. Typical populist demagogue shit... Follow and read @jenmercieca for how he does this).
They have been told that elites and politicians and journalists all disrespect them. They have deep rooted animuses (racial, class etc...) that have been exploited by right wing media and politicians who regularly remind them they are being maligned (see: "Cancel Culture")
This all feeds into their need to believe in alternative narratives and conspiracy theories because the mainstream press, and mainstream institutions are out to get them (or keep them down). So, any information or evidence that comes from or through these institutions is suspect.
Therefore, the only real inroads that can be made are through emotional connections with loving, trusted contacts rooted NOT in information but in emotional connection and inquiry.
I know. People rolls their eyes when I say this. Yes. It's fucking hard.
I'm not talking about engaging lovingly with the crazy dude at the gas station who's telling you to take off your mask cause COVID is a hoax. I'm talking about your friends and family who have been lost to this elite-driven (read: Trump) conspiratopia.
Since psychological reactance is HUGE with folks who feel disrespected and maligned, the key is to establish the conditions to allow them to let guards down.
Psychological reactance is a combination of anger and active counter-argumentation to incoming information. It's a nightmare for persuasion campaigns.
So the key is to diffuse that process before it starts.
In health communication, campaign developers often do this by embedding information in stories and soap operas...
With interpersonal relationships, the key is to capitalize on the love and trust that exists between individual people. In my experience, playing dumb and neutral and open-hearted goes a long way here.
And before you yell at me that we shouldn't have to do this - yeah, no shit. But apparently we do if we want relationships with these folks and we want to keep our loved ones to exist in the reality-based community.
Example: Imagine a parent who doesn't want to get vaccinated because they believe all sorts of crazy stuff about the vaccine. Imagine this was your response:
"I totally understand your concerns. The world is upside down and it's hard to know what information to trust. Ultimately, it's your decision. I would just hate to see you unable to participate in your old favourite activities or unable to see friends because you don't get vaccinated."
It also might help to tap into possible other trusted elite sources. Do they trust their own doctor/general practitioners? Often times even conspiracy theorists trust THEIR OWN doctors.
Maybe try something like, "I hear you. These are scary times. Have you asked Doctor XX what he/she thinks you should do? Maybe ask the doctor if they themselves got vaccinated..."
Maybe you should also tap into NOT empirical scientific evidence, but powerful emotional and visual cues: "I have friends who are nurses and doctors who were so overwhelmed with gratitude when getting the vaccine that they wept. They see it as something that will really save lives."
Asking broader questions can help, too, always prefaced with a line that serves as an emotional "welcome mat”:
"I understand you're angry. If I were in your shoes I would be mad, too. But what if the people working to make you angry have something to gain from your anger?"
The racial component to all of this is the hardest part. I don't claim to know the answers here. My only suggestion is that proud people do not want to be someone else's pawn. And exploiting white Americans' fear of black and brown bodies is the oldest play in the book...
Again: wide-eyed, curious, playing dumb. "Why does Tucker Carlson say immigrants make America "dirtier," mom?" [Substitute Nigel Farage, if you like… ed]
"Mom, did you know Carlson/Farage makes XX million a year?" (again. Wide-eyed. No judgment.)
Suggestion: when dealing with social/cultural conservative folks, don't say "I read that ...Tucker Carlson makes $6 million a year." or "I saw an article that say that..." Because then the response is "you probably read it in the fake news." Present it as TRUTH, not as evidence.
Another piece of this puzzle that I find helpful comes from some wonderful work by @RKellyGarrett and Brian Weeks. Some folks are more likely to draw conclusions about the world best on their GUT. What FEELS right. Not on empirical evidence, but on intuition...
These folks are more likely to hold misperceptions and to belief in conspiracy theories. rkellygarrett.com/epistemic-beli…
Based on research into the psychology of social/cultural conservatism, it would seem that these gut-driven processors are also more likely to be high in need for closure and prone to heuristic decision-making... which clusters on the side of social/cultural conservatives.
So, of COURSE data and facts and empirical evidence is going to be ineffectual. It's about what "FEELS RIGHT." and what "FEELS WRONG." Which means these beliefs are guided by values, social identity, and cues in their environment that SIGNAL to them what is true.
Values.
Social identity.
Signals.
Emotions.
Because of the world they are in right now the most salient constructs within each of these categories is likely:
Values: traditionalism & nationalism
Social identity: MAGA conservative Republican Real American
Signals: from Trump, OANN, FOX, Newsmax
Emotions: Anger, resentment
So to reclaim these beloved friends and family, it's about diluting these forces with new ones (or old ones):
Values: family & friendship
Social identity: mother, sister, father, friend
Signals: from loving non-judging loved ones
Emotions: love, caring, respect
This isn't easy. It won't happen overnight. And no, we don't WANT to do this because it's exhausting and it sucks. I know. But if we throw our hands up, what happens then?
We just watch as these folks drift off into an abyss that has been manufactured to exploit their intuitions and emotions for someone else's power and profit?... in ways that result in harmful/deadly outcomes for THEM and for DEMOCRACY?
I didn't think so.
ps: If you read this and think I'm saying you have to invest in your relationship with your hateful, racist, homophobic uncle... uh no. This is for those folks who are struggling to connect with beloved family members who have fallen down a right-wing rabbit hole in last few years.
Original thread here. Dr. Young has also written Irony and Outrage: The Polarized Landscape of Rage, Fear, and Laughter in the United States (OUP, 2020).