20 Stories Of Flat Earthers Realizing Their Arguments Are Weak, As Shared In This Online Community

When humans didn’t know better, they came to the conclusion that the Earth is flat. But the Greek philosophers from around 6th century BC started questioning it, most famous of them being Pythagoras. He thought that because the Moon is round, Earth must be too. 

In 430 BC another Greek philosopher Anaxagoras suggested that lunar eclipses were also evidence to support the theory that the Earth was a sphere rather than a disk. More Greek philosophers joined the discussion and provided their own evidence until Fernando Magallanes went on a voyage by ship around the world to prove the Earth was indeed round and there is no edge.

Humans went to the Moon and have technology that shows that stars, satellites and planets are round, including Earth. But according to the findings of YouGovAmerica, 16 percent of Americans are not sure that the Earth is round and only 66 percent of millennials claim they believe our planet is a sphere. 

However, some people don’t believe in scientists and have created a conspiracy theory that everyone is lying and the Earth is actually a disk. Generally, it is healthy to question new information but when something has been proven with undeniable evidence, we don’t expect people to deny it.

Bored Panda contacted Karen Douglas, a Professor of Social Psychology at University of Kent, who studies the psychology of conspiracy theories. We wanted to know if there was a factor that united all people who deny what is usually considered the truth.

Dr. Douglas confirmed that there are some common tendencies among such people, “Research suggests that people are attracted to conspiracy theories when one or more psychological needs are frustrated.”

So to satisfy those needs, people might be attracted to conspiracy theories. The Professor goes into what those needs may be: “The first of these needs are epistemic, related to the need to know the truth and have clarity and certainty. The other needs are existential, which are related to the need to feel safe and to have some control over things that are happening around us, and social, which are related to the need to maintain our self-esteem and feel positive about the groups that we belong to.” 

However, it means that anyone can become more susceptible to fall for a conspiracy theory “if they have psychological needs that are not being met at any particular time. This is perhaps one explanation why we saw a lot of conspiracy theories about COVID-19. People were scared and uncertain about the pandemic and were looking for ways to cope with the uncertainty, insecurity, and loss of social contact. Indeed, conspiracy theories do seem to thrive in times of crisis.”

The COVID-19 example perfectly demonstrates that conspiracy theories are not just annoying, but dangerous as well because they “can affect people's attitudes, intentions and behaviours. Conspiracy theories historically have been linked with prejudice, genocide, risky health behaviour and more recently some quite disturbing behaviour related to QAnon and COVID-19 conspiracy theories.”

People who believe in conspiracy theories aren’t harmless also because they like to spread their beliefs and make other people trust their lies. But sometimes it is frustrating to talk to them and it seems useless.

Dr. Karen Douglas explains that when talking to people who believe in conspiracy theories “it is important to remember that these people can feel quite confused, worried, and alienated.”

Because of this, “it would not be constructive to be hostile, or behave in a way that ridicules them. This dismisses their views and might alienate them even further.”

What the Professor suggests is to keep the conversation calm and to hear out what the other side has to say.

Another challenge while talking with believers in conspiracy theories is that they “will have ‘done their homework’ - that is, they usually know a lot more about the topic than other people do. So, when you get into a conversation with someone who believes strongly in a conspiracy theory, it is quite difficult to change their mind, or even to keep up with the discussion, because they are always one step ahead.”

But you can still have a productive conversation with them. Dr. Douglas thinks “that one useful strategy would be to appeal to the value of critical thinking.” Think about it, conspiracy believers look down upon people who believe in mainstream science because they don’t question it and eat up everything the news, the internet or schools tell them.”

The Professor continues, “Many conspiracy believers also believe that they are critical thinkers who are trying to uncover the truth whereas others are still in the dark, or are ‘sheep’ who believe everything they are told. One strategy therefore might be to appeal to this value and ask the conspiracy believer to critically think about their information - where did it come from? Who said it? Is this information reliable? This might uncover flaws in the conspiracy theory and you might be able to challenge them this way. Critically appraising information sources will of course also help people from adopting conspiracy theories in the first place.”

Conspiracy theories are always interesting to learn about because they do have their own arguments and it makes our brain question the reality we live in. Some of them have even been proven to be true. But more often they deny evidence that is very obvious because they are blinded by the refusal of mainstream knowledge.

Do you believe in any conspiracy theories? Have you ever stopped believing in a conspiracy theory because someone presented you with facts that you couldn’t explain? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments.