University College Cork (UCC) has published new research on the best methods for counteracting conspiracy theories.
From false claims about stolen elections to myths about Covid vaccines, there has been a rise in conspiracy theories in recent years, fuelled by their spread on social media.
The UCC study compared different strategies to reduce conspiracy thinking and found that the best way to counteract these theories is for people to receive training in critical thinking skills.
Critical thinking is the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement.
The researchers found that many well-established interventions have either no effect or a negative effect on participants' ability to correctly reason about conspiracy theories.
These existing methods often encourage people to simply dismiss all conspiracies rather than discerning which information is likely to be true from the majority that is not.
The study has identified a new approach that improves people’s critical thinking and allows participants to distinguish between plausible and implausible conspiracy theories more effectively.
"Events like Watergate and Tuskegee Syphilis Study show us that sometimes conspiracies can happen," said Cian O’Mahony, UCC School of Applied Psychology and study lead researcher.
"It is important that we are not just teaching people to reject everything that is labelled as a conspiracy theory."
"Our study introduces a new approach that encourages careful judgment and cautions against automatic scepticism," Mr O'Mahony said.
"Our new intervention, which reminds people not to reject an idea just because it’s labelled a conspiracy, and discouraged blind scepticism, successfully helped participants better distinguish between plausible and implausible conspiracy theories," he added.
