Essay by Eric Worrall
According to Grist, censoring social media companies to stop climate conspiracies spreading would help, but therapies developed by LGBTQ+ outreach groups are also worth a try.
Why people still fall for fake news about climate change
It was the hottest year on Earth in 125,000 years, and #climatescam is taking off.
Kate Yoder Staff Writer
Writer Published Dec 18, 2023…
Part of the problem is the genuine appeal of fake news. A recent study in Nature Human Behavior found that climate change disinformation was more persuasive than scientific facts. Researchers at the University of Geneva in Switzerland had originally intended to see if they could help people fend off disinformation, testing different strategies on nearly 7,000 people from 12 countries, including the United States, India, and Nigeria. Participants read a paragraph intended to strengthen their mental defenses — reminders of the scientific consensus around climate change, the trustworthiness of scientists, or the moral responsibility to act, for example. Then they were subjected to a barrage of 20 real tweets that blamed warming on the sun and the “wavy” jet stream, spouted conspiracies about “the climate hoax devised by the U.N.,” and warned that the elites “want us to eat bugs.”
The interventions didn’t work as hoped, said Tobia Spampatti, an author of the study and a neuroscience researcher at the University of Geneva. …
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The most straightforward way to fight disinformation would be to stop it from happening in the first place, Spampatti said. But even if regulators were able to get social media companies to try to stop the spread of conspiracy theories and falsehoods, dislodging them is a different story. One promising approach, “deep canvassing,” seeks to persuade people through nonjudgmental, one-on-one conversations. The outreach method, invented by LGBTQ+ advocates, involves hearing people’s concerns and helping them work through their conflicted feelings. (Remember how accepting climate change means accepting you might be a tiny part of the problem?)
Research has shown that deep canvassing isn’t just successful at reducing transphobia, but also that its effects can last for months, a long time compared to other interventions. The strategy can work for other polarizing problems, too, based on one experiment in a rural metal-smelting town in British Columbia. …
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Read more: https://grist.org/politics/why-people-fall-for-climate-conspiracies-fake-news/
Imagine having a government funded rainbow liberal show up on your doorstep, who explains that you need their help to resolve YOUR emotional problems.
Proponents of this absurdity claim we skeptics deny the overwhelming evidence for the climate crisis, because it is easier to cling to delusions than face our fear and personal responsibility for contributing to the crisis. The plan is that with a little one on one psychological help, the same kind of help which is given to bisexual or gay people who are struggling to accept their sexuality, we can overcome our reluctance to face the truth about the climate crisis.
Somehow I doubt gay therapy for climate skeptics will prove any more persuasive than failed skeptic narrative “inoculation” initiatives.
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