“In order to enter into this process of individual psychological and algorithmic confirmation, you have to have some sensitivity to some sort of left or right narrative,” Wojcieszak says. “If there are social or political issues that you have opinions on, that can start the process. »

You can imagine someone who is not particularly politically extreme but harbors some fears about where the country is going, getting drawn into extremists and becoming an extremist himself as they become more and more integrated. more in this community. People need community, and extremists can give them that. They will be welcomed by this community, Wojcieszak says, and they will feel the psychological need to begin to accept this community’s narrative on a number of issues.

Mike Gruszczynski, assistant professor of communication sciences at Indiana University, says a distrust of institutions, such as the news media and government, can lead people to create chambers of echo and often fall into the trap of disinformation because it appeals to their political beliefs. He says this is more common on the right than on the left.

“Many people on the right wing of the political spectrum have long been suspicious of traditional journalism,” Gruszczynski says. “Not only are they wary of it, but they exist in a sort of feedback loop where their chosen leaders tell them that the information coming out of the media is false or biased. »

One of the ways society can help prevent people from falling down these rabbit holes and becoming more extremist is by teaching them media literacy. Gruszczynski says it won’t necessarily be easy to do, particularly because there is so much misinformation out there and it’s often quite convincing. But it would be worth it. “Everyone now has to be their own detective,” says Gruszczynski.

This often seems like an insurmountable challenge, Wojcieszak explains, because those who have become politically extremist live in a very different reality than the rest of the population. If someone spends most of their time on extremist forums or in extremist groups on social media, for example, it is difficult to reach them and bring them back to reality. She says improving social media algorithms so that these platforms are less likely to make people more extremist in the first place could be a good starting point for tackling this problem.

“In the United States, the situation has become very serious for certain groups. People who are, let’s say, true Trump believers or who are convinced that Covid was a hoax, I’m not sure we can deprogram them,” Wojcieszak says.

Society may not be able to dig everyone out of these rabbit holes, but increased media education and social media platforms that aren’t designed to confirm people’s existing beliefs and make them more extreme could help. fewer people to become radicalized. This is a widespread problem that will take time to resolve, but the status quo does not appear sustainable.