"Strengthening the self-healing powers of democracy against conspiracy myths"

Political scientist Professor Oliver Hidalgo (right) and educational researcher Dr Hannes Birnkammerer are coordinating the new Europe-wide network.

The University of Passau is in charge of coordinating the network with Professor Oliver Hidalgo and Dr Hannes Birnkammerer. Hidalgo is a professor of political science with a focus on political theory, while educationalist Birnkammerer is a research associate at the Teacher Education Centre (ZLF). TaCT-FoRSED is an acronym for "Tackling Conspiracy Theories by Fostering Resilience and Political Self-Efficacy in Democracies". The researchers reveal more about their project in this interview.

In your new research network, you want to find out why an endemic conspiracy mentality harms democracies. However, believers in conspiracies argue that they would defend democracy. How do you explain this?

Oliver Hidalgo: With a precarious concept of democracy. Conspiracy theorists think they are the good guys because they are on the trail of a conspiracy. They feel they are the ones who wake up the blinded masses, who see through the corrupt elites, which is why conspiracy narratives are always very close to populist narratives. They are also supposedly about saving democracy. But if you look behind this idea of democracy, it's not an inclusive democracy, not one in which you have to deal with legitimate opponents, but rather a friend-foe dichotomy, a Black-White way of thinking, a democracy of exclusion. There is no constructive, joint dialogue to solve problems that actually exist. Conspiracy theorists may present themselves as the great saviours of democracy, but in reality they are its gravediggers.

Why is it so difficult to counter this with facts?

Hidalgo: Because conspiracy theories are about identity building, about a group that sees through all these supposed connections and conspiratorial agreements as opposed to the group that is either responsible for it all or is too ‘stupid’ to understand the connections. In other words, for believers in conspiracy the aim is not to work on a matter or a problem through discussion, through the scientific exchange of arguments, but solely to be on what they see as the ‘right’ side. And that's why I can't counter a conspiracy mentality with factual arguments.

So-called debunking, the attempt to expose the myth, is useless?

Hidalgo: It would be too much to say that it doesn't help. It always depends a bit on what stage a person is at. There are people with a certain affinity for conspiracy myths who can still be won over with convincing facts and arguments. However, those who firmly believe in conspiracy myths are not shaken by this, but integrate such ‘facts’ into their own narrative, according to the guiding principle: everything that appears to speak against the conspiracy is actually part of the conspiracy.

We are convinced that although democracy is particularly susceptible to conspiracy myths, it also provides ways and methods to heal itself.

Professor Oliver Hidalgo, University of Passau

What does the average conspiracy believer look like?

Hidalgo: Basically, there is no such person, also because we shouldn't buy into any stereotypes in this regard. It is by no means the supposedly uneducated or the socially deprived who fall for conspiracy theories, but rather those who read more or are often higher up in the social hierarchy than others and derive their supposedly superior knowledge from this. The bottom line is that there is no particular group that you would immediately recognise as being susceptible to conspiracy narratives. However, there are personality traits that conspiracy believers often share and that can be found in all social classes, such as narcissism combined with a tendency towards authoritarianism. Ultimately, you elevate yourself above others, you think, I am knowledgeable, I understand this better than the others, they are stupid and don't get it. These are often particularly mistrustful people who are basically not so quickly satisfied with simple answers. It is astonishing that they then use all their energy and intellectual potential to refute the prevailing scientific opinions, but are highly uncritical of the conspiracy theories themselves. However, I cannot counter such an attitude by telling the person that they themselves are too stupid and only need the right facts. Instead, I have to start from a completely different angle.

And what would that be?

Hidalgo: That is precisely the core of our research project, which we want to explore in a Europe-wide network. We are convinced that although democracy is particularly susceptible to conspiracy myths, it also provides ways and methods to heal itself. In other words, its weaknesses are also its strengths, and practising democracy also means developing resilience against what endangers it. After all, democracy always consists of diversity and alternatives, as well as the possibility of being allowed to think things differently. Democracy is exchange, the competition of different perspectives. But democracy requires that I learn how to deal with this diversity, this plurality, and also with the ambiguity that results from it.

What is the University of Passau's role?

Professor Oliver Hidalgo

Hidalgo: The University of Passau coordinates the research network of scientific and political institutions in eight European countries, including Spain, France, England, Scotland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. I myself am responsible for the overall academic management of the project, which is why the various threads of the nine work packages into which the project is divided come together in Passau. The theory of democracy, which I represent, also forms the bracket that connects the various disciplines involved, including experts from the fields of psychology, sociology and history. We translate the findings from the various work packages and the different methodological approaches into materials and measures that we can use in schools and adult education to counter conspiracy theories. We also develop policy recommendations on what needs to be done now to effectively combat conspiracy theories across Europe.

Especially when it comes to developing a democratic attitude, this openness towards liberal democracies, this tolerance of diverse perspectives, schools are a good place to practise this.

Dr Hannes Birnkammerer, University of Passau

Mr Birnkammerer, you manage the project from an educational perspective. What are you responsible for?

Birnkammerer: My focus is on schools. Especially when it comes to developing a democratic attitude, this openness towards liberal democracies, this tolerance of diverse perspectives, schools are a good place to practise this. We also have the task of ensuring democratic education in schools. There are various approaches, such as currently the constitutional quarter hour in Bavaria, to familiarise pupils with the core of democracy. But limiting something like this to a quarter of an hour is of course difficult. The discussion starts just as the maths lesson begins.

What approaches do you pursue in the research project?

Dr Hannes Birnkammerer explains the educational measures planned for the project.

Birnkammerer: In our sub-project, we are trying to work with teachers to develop freely accessible educational materials that focus on the topics of resilience and self-efficacy. These materials will be based on our findings, for example, from studies of people who no longer believe in conspiracy theory, in order to facilitate pre-bunking, that is, to prevent the effects of conspiracy theories. We are trying to raise students' awareness so that they develop a critical distrust of conspiracy theories and also become aware of the value of living in a liberal, open democracy.

How can this be achieved?

Birnkammerer: My research interests lie in game-based learning. That's why I have high hopes for game-based formats. These have a big advantage. In the specialist literature, this is called graceful failure. Something can go wrong without anything bad happening. We are familiar with this from business games or simulations, such as flight simulators. Diverse forms of games offer a wide range of didactic potential, for example role-playing games can be used to practise perspective-taking - so there is more to it than just learning how to deal with losing. I want to use this game-based learning to give pupils precisely this kind of self-efficacy experience, so that they learn through play what it means to live in a democracy.

Will you also look at the role of social networks?

Hidalgo: That is a central point in our project. Conspiracy theories are actually an old phenomenon, but digitalisation has taken them to completely new dimensions. The speed and reach of such conspiracy narratives, which used to be very limited locally, has increased immeasurably as a result. But what is also important to us is that we don't want to work with bans here, because these could give the conspiracy even more material. We are counting on democracy to develop its own healing powers.

This text was machine-translated from German.