Intelligence doesn’t make you immune to conspiracy theories – it’s more about thinking style (theconversation.com)

submitted 9 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/scicomm@mander.xyz

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[-] DarthGraben@mander.xyz 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It's pretty common to come across someone online claiming they’re just too smart to ever be fooled by conspiracies/cults (religious, political, commercial), but it's actually really important not to assume intelligence is all you need to avoid it. Everyone should be aware of and have a guard up against tactics of undue influence. It might be easier to reach the conspiracy/cult believers if we could say 'look, it's not that you're stupid', but it seems like this article is suggesting the rest of the sentence is 'it's just that you're bad at thinking', which isn't a lot better... ha.

[-] Onii-Chan@kbin.social 3 points 9 months ago

There's nothing worse than a smart person who gets lead down the wrong path.

[-] PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 1 points 9 months ago

It might be easier to reach the conspiracy/cult believers if we could say 'look, it's not that you're stupid', but it seems like this article is suggesting the rest of the sentence is 'it's just that you're bad at thinking'

This is why I personally don't like all the critical thinking advice online. None of it actually helps a person think better. Being aware of your own biases, for example, doesn't automatically make anyone better at critical reasoning.