People’s first instinct when engaging with conspiracy believers is often to try and debunk their ideas with factual and authoritative information.
However, direct confrontation rarely works. Conspiracy theories are persuasive, often playing on people’s feelings and sense of identity. Even if debunking conspiracy theories was effective, it’s difficult to keep up with how quickly they appear and how widespread they travel. A study showed that during 2015 and 2016, the number of propagators of Zika virus conspiracy theories on Twitter twice outnumbered debunkers.
