Conspiracy Myths (1) - Why read this post

 

Conspiracy Myths

Why read this post:

If you have to deal with conspiracy myth spreaders, right wing populists or extremists, this article may give you some insights into what methods they use in order to influence people, and how you can protect yourself and others from falling prey to their attacks.

Because the entire matter is quite complex, I split it into several blog posts.

In order to cover this subject, I have used the following sources that describe how to deal with intentionally disseminated false statements, and how to uncover illogical (and otherwise silly) argumentation.

The Debunking Handbook 2020. Lewandowsky, S., Cook, J., Ecker, U. K. H., Albarracín, D., Amazeen, M. A., Kendeou, P., Lombardi, D., Newman, E. J., Pennycook, G., Porter, E. Rand, D. G., Rapp, D. N., Reifler, J., Roozenbeek, J., Schmid, P., Seifert, C. M., Sinatra, G. M., Swire-Thompson, B., van der Linden, S., Vraga, E. K., Wood, T. J., Zaragoza, M. S. (2020). The Debunking Handbook 2020. Available at https://sks.to/db2020 / DOI:10.17910/b7.1182

      Lewandowsky, S., & Cook, J. (2020). The Conspiracy Theory Handbook. Available at http://sks.to/conspiracy

64  Fehlschlüsse in Argumenten (64 Fallacies in Argumentation): Logische und rhetorische Irrwege erkennen und vermeiden / Albert Mößmer / Paperback and Kindle E-Book (2014). It explains the most common fallacies when people engage in presenting and spreading their ‘valuable insights’ in order to convince the audience of their reasoning. Logical fallacies include: the equivocation, the false Scot, the red herring, the pseudo causality, the straw man argument, raising the bar or moving the goalposts,  and many more.

I think it is worthwhile to have a closer look at some of these ‘constructs’ as they can help us uncover the loopholes of their argumentations. Understanding (at least some of) the following fallacies may be helpful when dealing with conspiracy myths, while some others are just for amusement (though they have some merit).

 

But this book is not just about fallacies, it’s also about intentional use of rhetorical means in order to manipulate the ‘audience’. Therefore, the book also covers ‘ad hominem attacks’, directed to opponents in order to disparage them.

 

Why people may be attracted to conspiracy myths

There are some factors that may lead to the acceptance of conspiracy myths:

If someone feels helpless and cannot change a situation, a conspiracy myth helps them to name culprits and satisfies their hunger for explanations (Lady Di was murdered by the MI5).

If someone feels as a victim of organized persecution (from government, science, officials), they regard themselves as bold opponents, i.e., they are both victim and hero.

Some people exercise ‘overriding suspicion’, i.e., all official explanations are necessarily wrong, because government and industry always have nefarious intentions. So, they lean towards conspiracy myths



Misinformation

Misinformation (or Disinformation) means: giving false information, provided for whatever reason, e.g., by accident, unintentionally, due to lack of knowledge, or (worst) by intentionally disseminating false statements, e.g., Fake News.

Mis/Dis-information can stick in people’s mind for quite some time (continued influence effect) This is especially true if such information is presented in a way that gets stored in our memory by using meme-like pictures, songs, animations, graphics, emotional language and the like.

Social media help spread such myths. Echo chambers keep followers biased.




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