If conspiracy theories are like mental viruses, can we build immunity to them? DrAndyNo explains.
I call this new field “cognitive immunology.” It deploys a frame of reference that recognizes the ubiquity of infectious nonsense and treats resistance to it as a noteworthy achievement. Through this lens, senseless beliefs may warrant explanation, but acquired immunity to infectious ideas is especially salient. Cognitive immunology helps us understand what many minds are doing right.
Here’s the idea: false, baseless, and destructive ideas are mind parasites. Some are infectious and harm the minds that host them. But minds have defenses—“mental immune systems”—that offer some protection. These are natural systems, and we can study them like we do other natural systems. We can learn how they work and why they sometimes fail. Then, we can apply what we learn to prevent mental immune system breakdowns.
Cognitive immunologists are making strides. We’ve identified the mind’s antibodies. We know the basics of how mental immune systems work. (A healthy mind deploys questions and doubts to ward off problematic ideas; in unhealthy minds, this “mental immune function” is suppressed, misdirected, or
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