| 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. |
 |
What is a conspiracy theory?
The information bubble
Why do we believe in conspiracy theories?
Fact checking
What is critical thinking?
How to escape the rabbit hole?
Activity description
1. Sunrise Phase
From the deck, take as many cards as there are players according to the following list:
6-7 players = 2 black cards + all others red
8-10 players = 3 black cards + all others red
11-13 players = 4 black cards + all others red
14-16 players = 5 black cards + all others red
Inform the players of the number of the black cards included.
The first step is to divide the players into two teams. Each player gets one card from the prepared and shuffled deck, secretly looks at the card's color and returns the card to the deck. Then everybody closes their eyes and lowers their heads. The trainer starts counting aloud. After number 5, s/he continues to count silently until 15, then s/he resumes counting aloud until 20. During the silent period, the players who got black cards, should open their eyes, raise their heads, and look at each other, then close their eyes and lower their heads again. Accidental or purposeful peeking by red card holders should be discouraged. On count 20, everybody should open their eyes. The Mafia are the players who saw each other and therefore know each other. The Citizens are the players who saw nothing, don't know each other, and don't know who the Mafia members are. The only advantage of the Mafia is that they know each other. Citizens have to suspect everybody, but they have an advantage of being the majority. The main struggle during the next phase will be between the informed minority and the uniformed majority.
2. Day Phase
In the day phase, any participant is allowed to talk. At any moment, they may put another player in the "accused" position. S/he should provide grounds for the suggestion why they believe the other person to be with the Mafia. Everyone, including the accused, has a right to argue. When the accuser asks for a vote, everyone should vote by raising their hands. If the majority of the players (not counting the accused) votes "guilty", the suspected player is "sentenced to death" and s/he is out of the game. If the accuser fails to get a majority, the game continues with the same number of players. Accusations may happen any number of times during the discussion. Players who are eliminated from the game do not reveal their identity until the end of the game and should not try to help others who are still in the game. There is no way to know the team identity of the "dead" unless you have the next phase.
After the discussions have finished, the night phase begins.
3. Night Phase
The Night is the only phase when players can find out if all Mafia members have been eliminated. Everyone takes a pen and a piece of paper, and secretly writes on them. The paper and pens should be the same for everybody. Citizens must write "citizen" on the note, while members of the Mafia must write the name of the person, whom they want to eliminate from the game. After that, everybody puts their notes in the middle and the trainer reads them. The number of the notes with names will reflect the number of surviving Mafia members, so the players will know if they have "killed" a Citizen or a Mafia member during the day. If the same name appears on all Mafia notes, the named person is "murdered" and is out of the game. If there are differing names, nothing happens.
The game ends when there are no names listed during the Night or all Citizens have been eliminated.
60 min.
