From Inspiration to Advocacy
A Story of Skeptical Activism
This essay comes from a fan of the Mental Immunity Project. We are always open to sharing guest essays. If you’ve written something–or would like to write something– that you’d like to share with our audience, reach out.1
I went to my first CSICon in 2022. CSICon is an annual skeptics conference put on by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, a program of the Center for Inquiry. One of the talks at CSICon 2022 that had the biggest impact on me was Susan Gerbic’s about skeptical activism. Her talk inspired me to get more involved in promoting skepticism.
So, in 2023, with the help of David Diskin, president of California Freethought Day, I started a subgroup of the Stockton Area Atheists and Freethinkers called Rational Roundtable. We are an affiliate group of the Center For Inquiry, and we meet to discuss articles, books, and podcasts relating to skepticism. Each meeting, we use our critical thinking skills to review a chosen topic. We also participate in community events and take occasional field trips. Our mission is to promote critical thinking in the greater community, whether that be among our friends and family, coworkers, book clubs, etc.
To lead by example, I contacted an organization I volunteer for: OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) at the University of the Pacific, which is where I received my degree and teaching credentials. When I was first asked to join OLLI at the Pacific’s curriculum committee, I did so with an agenda to recommend more speakers and topics relating to science and reason. I offered to facilitate a workshop based on Susan Gerbic’s “Creating Conversations” workshop and I adjusted it for our older learners at OLLI who may not be familiar with skepticism.
I used various sources for the workshop. In 2020, I was already a subscriber to Skeptical Inquirer magazine and started to watch Skeptical Inquirer Presents. I was especially interested in the talks relating to why people fall for disinformation and what could be done about it. So I read books and articles from these presenters including Melanie Trecek-King, Andy Norman, David Robert Grimes, Mick West, Lee McIntyre, and others.2 When I contacted her, Melanie Trecek-King graciously gave me permission to use the fun and informative graphics from Thinking Is Power and the Mental Immunity Project in my workshop.
The goal of the workshop was to have participants learn strategies for having constructive conversations with friends who have fallen for misinformation and help them strengthen their reasoning in a collaborative manner.
The first objective was to define misinformation and disinformation. I discussed the rise of social media “influencers” and content farms sowing not only disinformation, but distrust in traditional institutions such as science, health, and higher education.
We don't need large platforms to make a difference. We just need to be involved in our communities and help make them more rational.
The second objective was to explain why having constructive conversations is so important in our increasingly polarized society and how debunking or fact-checking alone isn’t always as effective. I gave them a real-world example I saw on the Nextdoor App3, where a neighbor asked about “orbs” showing up on her Ring camera4. I shared screenshots of the responses others and I sent to this neighbor, which included links to Wikipedia and Skeptical Inquirer magazine to explain these common camera effects. But another neighbor had responded and said that these “orbs” were “spirits.” The original poster agreed and ignored the information that other neighbors and I had shared debunking this claim. This demonstrated the power of motivated reasoning.
The third objective was to review good thinking tools, including basic critical thinking skills, recognizing common logical fallacies, and using fact-checking resources so participants would be aware of flaws in their own thinking as well as in their friends’ arguments. I shared John Cook’s FLICC chart of science denial and discussed why some people may be susceptible to conspiracy theories. I emphasized that even intelligent, well-educated people can fall for misinformation. Because I was covering a lot of information, I gave a hand-out summarizing the good thinking tools for the participants to review and continue to learn on their own.
The fourth objective was to introduce conversation techniques for constructive conversations. I gave a brief introduction to Street Epistemology and the New Socratic Method to show how reflecting on one’s reasoning of why they believe what they do through civil discussions is more helpful than combative debates. I adapted P.E.P. Talk from the News Literacy Project because it’s catchy to remember. P.E.P. stands for patience, empathy, and persistence, and we discussed ways to use these steps in real-life conversations, including how to use fact-checking tools with friends in a collaborative way.
The fifth objective was for participants to actively practice the P.E.P. Talk strategy. I divided the group into small teams and had them brainstorm how they could use the P.E.P. Talk steps with the neighbor I mentioned above who asked about “orbs”. After the teams demonstrated they understood the strategy, I then had them brainstorm using the strategy in the following scenario: a friend recently lost a spouse and is emotionally and financially vulnerable, and says they want to go to a gallery reading of a famous “psychic” they saw on TV.5 After being given sufficient time, the teams shared with the entire group how they would use patience, empathy, and persistence with their friend.
The workshop received positive feedback on the instructor survey, so I was invited to facilitate the workshop again and give an online lecture at OLLI at the Pacific. This led to me receiving invitations to speak at our local chapter of the American Association of University Women and Rotary Club.
It was a great honor to describe this experience at CSICon 2024 in Vegas during the Sunday Papers session and hopefully inspire others to become more involved in promoting skepticism, just as I was by Susan Gerbic. We don't need large platforms to make a difference. We just need to be involved in our communities and help make them more rational.
Thank you, Carolyn, for sharing your inspiring experience with us!
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Contact our editor Luke Johnson here: luke@cognitiveimmunology.net
Editorial note: Melanie Trecek-King MA is the Education Director for the Mental Immunity Project (MIP), Andy Norman PhD is the founder of CIRCE (the parent organization of MIP), David Robert Grimes PhD is an affiliate of CIRCE, and Lee McIntyre PhD is on the board of CIRCE. They all happen to have been invited at various times to speak for a Skeptical Inquirer Presents event, most of them before the founding of CIRCE.
Editorial note: This is a sort of neighborhood social network. Learn more at nextdoor.com.
Editorial note: These are a brand of doorbells with cameras built into them.
To save time, I explained that gallery readings are often expensive, only several attendees are selected for a “reading,” and psychics use hot and cold reading techniques to seem like they have knowledge that they couldn’t possibly know.
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