My understanding is that engaging is typically a bad idea because these folks typically fall into one of three buckets:
1. The person believes what they are saying strongly enough to say it openly and conspicuously. Attempts to correct them with facts triggers a backfire effect which causes them to believe the false information even more strongly[0].
2. The person is a troll. They don’t actually believe what they are saying. They are only saying it in order to make others (you!) upset because it makes them feel powerful[1].
3. The person is actually a bot or part of a coordinated disinformation campaign. Their goal is to create false division between people to create instability, and engaging only helps them achieve their objective[2].
In all cases, an action which causes people to feel the need to repeat false information may cause more people to believe the false information due to the illusory truth effect[3], which can lead to the sort of spiral we find ourselves in today. My understanding here is that false information existing is not a problem so much as the ubiquity of the false information, and from that perspective it’s more important to make it harder to find than it is to try to correct it.
1. The person believes what they are saying strongly enough to say it openly and conspicuously. Attempts to correct them with facts triggers a backfire effect which causes them to believe the false information even more strongly[0].
2. The person is a troll. They don’t actually believe what they are saying. They are only saying it in order to make others (you!) upset because it makes them feel powerful[1].
3. The person is actually a bot or part of a coordinated disinformation campaign. Their goal is to create false division between people to create instability, and engaging only helps them achieve their objective[2].
In all cases, an action which causes people to feel the need to repeat false information may cause more people to believe the false information due to the illusory truth effect[3], which can lead to the sort of spiral we find ourselves in today. My understanding here is that false information existing is not a problem so much as the ubiquity of the false information, and from that perspective it’s more important to make it harder to find than it is to try to correct it.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belief_perseverance
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll#Psychological_c...
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/28/russia-covid...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_truth_effect