Conspiracy Theorists Oppose Vaccination. The antidote? Argue for A Conspiracy of Misinformation.

Source: The Atlantic

Thank you to the American Psychological Association for exploring the psychological and attitudinal roots of the anti-vaccine movement. The findings are published here in Health Psychology.

Anti-vaccination attitudes are highest in conspiratorial thinkers. Tightly held beliefs will commonly trump empiricism so an evidence based argument will do little to sway anti-vaccine opinion.

The proposed antidote is interesting: one should work with people's underlying worldviews, to acknowledge the possibility of conspiracies, but to argue that vested interests can conspire to obscure the benefits of vaccination and exaggerate the dangers.

Connect with conspiratorial thinkers. Argue for a conspiracy of misinformation. Now that strategy should be put to a test.