Avoiding uncomfortable conversations at holiday gatherings may no longer be as simple as avoiding talk of politics and religion.
That’s because more than 75% of Americans now agree with at least one conspiracy theory, according to a survey published by the National Academy of Sciences last year.
But Chris Conner, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Missouri, says there are some helpful strategies for facing off with someone who is determined to discuss how the upper echelons of society are conspiring to make everyone's lives miserable.
Conner has studied and written about conspiracy theories for years, and says, assuming light table talk is impossible, his go-to is to lead with empathy.
“One of the things that sociology professes is this idea of radical empathy,” he says. “I have to put myself in the shoes of the people that I'm studying to understand them.”
Conner is quick to clarify that the idea is not to justify what your problematic aunt or uncle is saying or doing, but to understand their viewpoint with the goal of a positive, productive conversation that could eventually create what he calls “an off-ramp for people to, basically, come back into society.”
This step is vital to Conner because, while some conspiracy theories simply seem fun, they can still lead to harmful outcomes.
Take, for example, the kitty litter theory. Conner says it’s been making the rounds.
The theory holds that many schoolchildren are now identifying as cats.
“It's based on this idea that there’s litter boxes in many elementary schools,” Conner says, “and that's because of active shooters.
“There’s kitty litter in there in case they need to absorb vomit, or if they need to have the kids use the restroom — because they're often locked down for, like, 12 hours,” Conner explains.
So, yes, some classrooms do have kitty litter in them. But not for the reason a conspiracy theorist would like to believe.
Conner warns that trying to counter conspiracy theory assertions like this with logic isn’t a great strategy, because “what makes them hard to refute is that they have some kernel of truth.”
There’s also an emotional component to overcome.
“At the root of it is this anxiety, or concern, by conspiracists about people who identify as a different gender,” Conner says. “A lot of people have just become aware of trans peoples’ existence, even though they've been around for time immemorial.”
He and professors at two other universities have most recently focused on QAnon, the far-right conspiracy theory that claims a deep state made up of Democrats and society’s elites aims to harm the general population.
Conner and his colleagues call the radical movement a “big tent” conspiracy theory because it unites several beliefs, including those who believe in Bigfoot, UFOs, children identifying as cats, and so many others.
Their book, “Conspiracy Theories and Extremism in New Times,” is a peer-reviewed academic text. Their next publication, titled “QAnon: Capitalism and the Crisis of Meaning,” doesn’t yet have a release date, but the ideas they explore aren’t going anywhere.
While many conspiracy theories long appeared to be a product of fringe, far-right groups, Conner’s research suggests that’s no longer the case.
“Because of the media coverage … a lot of cultural tropes got pushed into the mainstream discourse,” Conner says, “like racist beliefs and the groomer conspiracy theory, which says that LGBT people are basically stealing your children.”
“They kind of package these ideas in a new form and then they get people thinking about them in a new way, and that means they may demonize those people who are the targets of these conspiracy theories. That's when you end up with a rise in hate crimes,” he says.
Conner and researchers Saverio Roscigno, of the University of California, Irvine, and Matthew Hannah, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, write in the forthcoming “QAnon: Capitalism and the Crisis of Meaning” that participating in QAnon means interacting with what they call gamified systems that are “strategically engineered to increase the likelihood that users will engage with them.”
This means the internet offers spaces to share ideas and encourage participation, but also “capitalizes on psychological mechanisms to hook and hold its followers,” they write.
“People will go to these forums where conspiracy theories are talked about, and they're doing so because a lot of people feel alienated in our society,” Conner says, “and they turn to all kinds of different mechanisms to solve that.”
They make friends with others who are interested in the same ideas and then reinforce each other’s beliefs, which creates a sense of community.
But when they step outside that community, they’re not met with the same enthusiasm.
“That really makes it hard for people to pull others out,” Conner says.
If meeting a conspiracy theorist with empathy still feels challenging, Conner tries a different approach — one based on the assumption that people really don’t like seeing themselves in a bad light.
In the classroom, for instance, he speaks to students from the only point of view he owns: that of a gay professor.
“I try to flip the script and say, ‘Well, if you believe in XYZ, what, then, is the implication?’ And, ‘If you know now that you have this data, this knowledge, and my own personal story, what are you going to do about it?’” he asks. “It kind of puts the onus back on them to consider and think about those ideas.”
“I think at the core, no one wants to be a bigot,” he says.
Chris Conner will discuss the rise of conspiratorial thinking and share strategies for identifying credible information at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 11 at the Kansas City Public Library’s Plaza branch, 4801 Main St., Kansas City, Missouri 64112. The event is free with RSVP. More information at KCLibrary.org.
