The downside to debunking conspiracies
During my time researching at Media Lab Bayern, I conducted interviews with over 20 people from Europe, the US and Israel with relatives who believe in COVID-19 conspiracy theories. One thing they all had in common was that their relationships had substantially deteriorated as a result of the beliefs held by their relatives and friends.
The people I interviewed had tried out various ways of communicating, which made it clear that having better arguments don’t necessarily improve the chances of changing someone's opinion. Many of the people I spoke to had experienced defensive, and even aggressive behavior, when they had previously tried to confront their counterpart with arguments and facts. You can find a few examples below (*names have been changed):
- Anna* from Amsterdam discusses the situation with her boyfriend: “Confronting him with facts just made things worse. He would get defensive.”
- Linda* from Berlin on her father: “It only got worse when I responded with facts and arguments. For example: Directly saying something isn’t true, that facts aren't correct, personally attacking someone, criticizing theories or saying that what he believes in is nonsense.”
- Tom* from Tel Aviv on the situation with his friend: “He makes fun of theories.”
I was able to detect a common pattern for the successful approaches. The people I interviewed reported back to me on what went well:
“Pointing out gaps or inconsistencies in their logic, being friendly” explained Adam from the US. Tom from Tel Aviv added: “Debunking false information by asking questions such as ‘Are you sure about that?’ or ‘Sounds a little bit like a conspiracy theory to me’.” Paul from Berlin reported some success by doing the following: “Showing empathy, sharing your personal experiences, not trying to change their opinion from the outset.”