World News

Conspiracy theories

Posted by: The Conversation Global

Date: Tuesday, 17 December 2019

 

Editor's note

Politics has arguably never been so polarised and undermined by lies. Efforts to address the rise of fake news and conspiracy theories have largely failed. So is there any hope for the truth and healing divides?

Research suggests there might be. The key is to understand what causes people to disregard the truth in the first place, not to try to educate them with facts. It’s not about ignorance, but rather people’s need to be accepted by a group – avoiding doing things that may get them excluded from it. This need is deeply rooted in evolution, often causing us to deny facts that contradict the group’s belief system.

Miriam Frankel

Co-host, To the moon and beyond Podcast

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