> Across two experiments, we find robust evidence that the debunking conversation with the AI reduced belief in conspiracy theories by roughly 20%. This effect did not decay over 2 months time, was consistently observed across a wide range of different conspiracy theories, and occurred even for participants whose conspiracy beliefs were deeply entrenched and of great importance to their identities. Furthermore, although the dialogues were focused on a single conspiracy theory, the intervention spilled over to reduce beliefs in unrelated conspiracies, indicating a general decrease in conspiratorial worldview, as well as increasing intentions to challenge others who espouse their chosen conspiracy.
Is there a control group? Perhaps the participants were trained to agree with researchers instead. For example they can mix a few real theories that are unintuitive:
* Do chemtrails control your mind?
* Does dark matter exist?
* Is the yeti real?
* Is special relativity real? (probably a more concrete example with clocks)
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[ 38.3 ms ] story [ 1018 ms ] thread* Do chemtrails control your mind?
* Does dark matter exist?
* Is the yeti real?
* Is special relativity real? (probably a more concrete example with clocks)
* Is Santa real?