First of all, conspiracy theories aren’t theories. They are more like fantasies – conspiracy fantasies.  And they are not theories in our scientific understanding. In short, a proper scientific theory is an explanation of an aspect of the natural or social world that has been repeatedly tested, and verified in accordance with scientific methods relying on accepted protocols of observations, measurement, and a critical evaluation of the findings produced. None of this is the case when it comes to conspiracy theories. 

Secondly, looking on the Internet and typing a search term in Google is not research in the scientific understanding of research. “Researching the Internet” has the scientific value equivalent to that of reading a newspaper or asking your next-door neighbor. 

Meanwhile, to the critical reader, conspiracy theories or better – conspiracy fantasies, may appear funny, silly, madness, hallucinations, etc. Yet, conspiracy theories are theories that kill.

Perhaps one of the most lethal conspiracy fantasies ever created was Hitler’s hallucination that there is a Bolshevik-Jewish conspiracy fantasy that is behind it all. In the most extreme version of Nazi racism, this conspiracy theory insinuated that the German Volk has to be saved from Jewish Bolshevism. It led to Auschwitz and the murder of millions of people. 

Fast forward to today and one finds that conspiracy fantasies still play a vital role in virtually all right-wing terrorist attacks: 

• the Oklahoma bomber, who killed 168 people, believed that there are government-controlled Zombies;
• Norway’s Neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik who killed 77 people believed in a conspiracy fantasy of an imminent Muslim invasion;
• Donald Trump’s rioters on the 6th of January 2021 who killed five people believed in a conspiracy fantasy that the 2020 election was stolen.   

While the 6th of January 2021 riot took on a more sinister force, it is not uncommon to find election-related conspiracy theories appearing rather frequently in conservative and right-wing circles and media – particularly in the aftermath of an election. They appear predominantly within the losing party.

Yet, recent research shows that such conspiratorial beliefs – even those of a stolen election – will decline over time. While the number of stolen-election believers may deteriorate, we also know that members of the Republican Party tend to be more susceptible to conspiracy cues than the Democrats. 

They might also be more likely to believe in a conspiracy fantasy called “the great reset”. The great reset conspiracy fantasy actually began in September 2020 when the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau gave a brief presentation at a UN conference. He outlined the steps his government was taking to address the social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,

this pandemic has provided an opportunity for a reset. This is our chance to accelerate our pre-pandemic efforts to re-imagine economic systems that actually address global challenges like extreme poverty, inequality, and climate change.

Almost immediately, Trudeau’s words were misinterpreted on online platforms and sold as “proof” that the evildoer Trudeau was one of the malicious leaders of a global conspiracy. Furnished by free access and high speed, online platforms allow conspiracy proprietors to spread hallucinations like the great reset globally. 

It is not uncommon to see that conspiracy fantasies like the great reset conspiracy fantasy are not particularly coherent. As a consequence of its own inconsistencies – being a highly secretive but, at the same time a global conspiracy that includes countless people – the great reset conspiracy fantasy has been called by the always exquisite term, “The Intercept” a conspiracy smoothie.

Being somewhat implausible, the global great reset conspiracy fantasy run by “the elite” still presumes that a fast number of world leaders – including the always present elites aka Bill Gates, etc. – are using the COVID-19 pandemic to establish an authoritarian world government. 

Sadly for the believers in this conspiracy fantasy, the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2023) has gone, but the COVID-19 global dictatorship has failed to materialize.

Yet beyond all this, the great reset conspiracy fantasy has had three key themes making it a very popular conspiracy fantasy: 

1. it has mobilized the language of oppression – “us down here” against “them up there” – to defame public health measures;
2. it provides an easy-to-believe telltale that matches the scale of a global crisis – the global elite in cahoots with a global pandemic; and finally,
3. it uses a touchy and emotional language of authority and control that is reassuring to right-wing and supportive of antidemocratic ideologies.

Not all too unexpectedly, the great reset conspiracy fantasy triggered the ideology, the myths, symbols, and coded beliefs of far-right people, fitted into the ideological orbit of their political parties, and their right-wing media ecosystem. Relying on classical themes of conspiracy fantasies, the great reset relied on four main narratives:

1. the World Economic Forum (Davos) influences key social, economic, cultural, political, and medical institutions;
2. evil globalists interfere in national and local affairs;
3. the great reset conspiracy fantasy uses authoritarian threats in the belief that “pandemic mitigation measures” are used to establish a COVID-19 dictatorship; and,
4. the great reset conspiracy fantasy thrives on historical conspiracies that also involved dark forces lurking behind the official line.

Worse, the great reset conspiracy fantasy relied on the traditional conspiracy language of a so-called “New World Order”. Without openly advocating it, this language also carries coded connotations to older and all too often anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

Its hallucinations suggest that there is a global conspiracy and a global cabal run by international bankers such as the Rothschild family whom, they – together with others – pull the strings of puppet-like world leaders. Great reset believers also believe that this elite manipulates global causing events, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic. 

As so often, current research is reasonably good in explaining right-wing conspiracy fantasies, but it is less good on what to do about conspiracy fantasies. Still, there are things that can be done about the spread of anti-democratic conspiracy fantasies.

Anti-Conspiracy Interventions

Given the seemingly unstoppable rise of conspiracy fantasies and their relevance in right-wing terrorism, as well as for the failed 6th of January 2021 Capitol Hill coup d’état, several forms of interventions have been developed to target or better to prevent conspiracy beliefs. Perhaps three preventative measures are worth noting:

• Informational Inoculations:

The first category of conspiracy interventions are informational inoculations. The theory behind this strategy suggests that – much like the anti-vaxxers’ rallies – an informational inoculation consisting of pre-emptive debunking helps people to avoid falling into the trap of conspiracy fantasies. This plan gives people a weakened form of a conspiracy argument along with points that refute the claims made in the conspiratorial argument.

• Priming:

Priming interventions intervene into psychological states of people “before” they engage in conspiracy beliefs. Priming focuses on analytical thinking by significantly changing the likelihood that people would agree with conspiracy beliefs.

• Narrative Persuasion:

This strategy relies on the persuasive power of stories to confront conspiracy beliefs. This is called story-telling or narrative persuasion. The theory behind this is that the stories, narratives, and the anecdotal character of conspiracy fantasies tend to be more appealing to people than the somewhat detached nature of scientific evidence. This is supported by the fact that personal anecdotes in favour of COVID-19 vaccines are far more persuasive than scientific evidence. On the upside, narrative persuasion needs to challenge cognitive bias, logical fallacies, a jumping-to-conclusions bias, and illusionary pattern perception where none of such pattern exists.

While such interventions aren’t particularly easy since conspiracy fantasies are self-sealing ideological constructs that reject almost any “outsider”, there are, nevertheless, some successful interventions. And these share a number of common characteristics. The majority of anti-conspiratorial interventions consisted of actions that are conducted “before” people are exposed to conspiracy statements.

On the downside, often rather common counterarguments against conspiracy fantasies and customary debunking strategies, tend to produce minor effects. By contrast, preventative measures applied “before” exposure to conspiracy fantasies showed significant impacts.

In other words, people who were primed tend to have a higher resistance to conspiratorial persuasions. They show less susceptibility towards conspiracy beliefs. Commonly, many conspiracy beliefs are the product of intuitive and emotional (non)thinking. Simultaneously, rational deliberation and a more focused analysis of reality is often associated with lower susceptibility to conspiracy fantasies. 

In the end, fostering critical and analytical thinking in people through priming might possibly motivate them to push past superficial conspiracy fantasies. Unfortunately, none of the interventions will provide an easy solution to conspiracy fantasies. 

Yet, there are still some rather practical guidelines that actually work when confronting conspiracy fantasies. One might recommend that those seeking to reduce mis- and disinformation and conspiracy fantasies might do the following:

• Avoid appealing to emotions: Interventions that focus on the emotional state of people and appeal to feelings of empathy tend to have a rather small effects in terms of changing beliefs in conspiracy fantasies.
• Counterarguments aren’t that effective: Counterarguments that challenge specific conspiracy beliefs – particularly “after” people have been exposed to conspiracy fantasies –tend not to be particularly effective.
• Prevention is the best cure: Interventions that provided counterarguments against conspiracy fantasies are most effective when these counterarguments come before” people are exposed to a particular conspiracy fantasy. In fact, it is more difficult to challenge conspiracy fantasies once people have started to believe in them. If people have been made aware why certain conspiracy fantasies are implausible “before” they have been exposed to them or the ideological outflow of conspiratorial media, they are much more resistant to conspiracy beliefs.
• Analytical mind-set and critical thinking: Both skills are one of the most effective means of challenging conspiracy fantasies. There is a clear link between emancipatory education and believing in conspiracy fantasies. Even Trump might know this and as a consequence, he loves the uneducated. People who have an analytical mind-set are far less likely to hold conspiracy beliefs. When people are encouraged to develop an analytical mind-set and are explicitly taught how to diagnostically evaluate conspiracy beliefs using critical thinking skills, they were much less likely to fall into the trap of conspiracy fantasies.

 

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