Activity 2 - Listen to me! - How to escape the rabbit hole?

Why do we believe in conspiracy theories?

How to escape the rabbit hole?

What is the “rabbit hole”? In the words of Mick West: “The phrase comes from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. Alice enters the bizarre Wonderland by following a white rabbit down a hole.
In recent times a more specific usage has arisen, derived from the 1999 film The Matrix, where at a crucial point Morpheus offers Neo a choice. He can either take the blue pill and return to a normal life, or take the red pill and “see how deep the rabbit hole goes.” Neo, of course, “takes the red pill,” and the “rabbit hole” leads him to discover the true nature of the world. He “wakes up” from his programmed illusion of comfortable, bland monotony into a brutal yet genuine struggle for existence, a messianic battle against evil, manipulating overlords. This terminology has been directly adopted by various conspiracy communities. The rabbit hole is seen as a good place to be, a place where the true nature of the world is revealed.

Beliefs in different conspiracy theories tend to reinforce each other, cutting a person off from other people, until they surround themselves with a like minded crowd. This has been a well-known fact for a considerable period of time. What is more problematic, however, is the fact that social media tend to produce a very similar effect for any kind of strongly held belief.

So how to help people out of the rabbit hole, if almost everyone is stuck in one?

There are a few steps that could help, although no universal solution is available. The decision in what kind of theories to believe is ultimately a personal one – no amount of external pressure could force a person to change their convictions. The role of an external person – a friend, teacher, youth worker, parent – can be only one of a partner. We can listen, discuss, provide information, reach out a hand – but it is up to the other person to take it.

Below you will find a list of training activities you can implement with your class/young people with the purpose of gaining knowledge and abilities dealing with various aspects related to conspiracy theories.

Activity 2 - Listen to me!

In most day-to-day conversations, people are generally concerned with what they have to say, less so with what they can learn from the other. Yet being listened to is a fundamental human need.
In order to be willing to trust others, people need to have the feeling their point of view is respected, that someone is willing to hear them out. That is why a listening exercise is a fundamental stepstone towards trustbuilding.

This is a trust-building exercise based on the importance of opening a space for listening.

After completing this activity, learners will:

Understand the importance of listening as a skill in relationship-building
Be able to express themselves more coherently
Be able to better follow the gist of a conversation
Be able to relay what they heard to another person
Become more willing to engage in cooperative activities with others

Printouts of question cards (1 set per each group of participants)
Stopwatch
Post-its
Pens
Flipchart

45 min.

2 - 24 person

Beginner (no prior knowledge required)

Explain to the participants that this activity will open up a space for them to express themselves and be really heard.

Show the group the following video (in English, auto-generated captions are available for other languages:

The School of Life. Why We Need to Feel Heard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnQwaVnv-FA

8 min.

1. Ask the group several questions. The ones who would answer with ‘yes’ should go to one end of the room, the ones with ‘no’ – to the other end, while the ones who are not certain can stay in the middle.

Do you believe that genuine communication is possible?
Do you thing you are a good listener?
Do you regularily feel listened to?
Do you have somebody you can confide in?

5 min

2. Divide the group into pairs (2-14 participants) or groups of 4 (15-28 participants). Each pair/small group gets one set of question cards. Each participant picks a card and reads the question. Using the stopwatch, count exactly 3 minutes, during which no one can interrupt the speaker. Then, the other person / a person chosen by the speaker has 1 min to summarise what they heard. Afterwards, participants reverse roles. In pairs, each participants answers 2 questions, in groups of 4 – just a single one.
20 min

3. In the big group, participants can share how the experience was for them: