The spherical shape of Earth is what we like to call around here “settled science.” But nowadays, pit even a 2,500-year-old truism against the evangelism of Internet algorithms, and you got yourself an actual “debate,” no matter how inane.
We’re speaking of what appears to be the disturbing trend of people thinking the surface of the world is flat.
No, really — this is a thing. For example, last month the third annual Flat Earth International Conference convened in Dallas; the rapper B.o.B once started a GoFundMe campaign as part of a quest to gather ungatherable evidence for the idea; and basketball star Kyrie Irving has found himself having to apologize for publicizing the view on Twitter. A 2018 YouGov survey found that 16% of 8,215 American adults queried had various levels of doubt about the true shape of the Earth.
At this point, it’s probably fair to ask: When is American society going to hit epistemological bottom?
Perhaps the first step in answering that question is understanding why a belief like flat Earth can flourish, at least among certain groups of willing adherents. To that end, we talked to Asheley Landrum, assistant professor of science communication at Texas Tech University, who has been studying the movement, if you want to call it that. We asked her, well, just what in the round world is going on here?
Here are some of the key points from Landrum’s answers, edited for length and clarity.
YouTube as Flat Earth Gateway
One of the things we found is that many people with this belief discovered flat Earth through YouTube.
One of our research participants told us he started off by watching videos that were suggested to him on YouTube because of his interest in conspiracy theories. He started looking into conspiracy theories about the Illuminati and Sandy Hook, and the whole time he was watching he kept being suggested flat Earth videos by the algorithm.
He said he was going to watch one of the videos with the intention of discrediting it, but by the end he accepted that Earth is not round.
This was very true for many of the people we talked to; they start by watching a series of conspiracy videos and then they’re introduced to this idea of a flat Earth. They choose not to watch it, but the more it’s suggested, the more compelled they are. By the time they view it, they’re ready to kind of accept that information.
Loving the Science, Not the Scientists
Many of the people we interviewed do love science. They talk about how much they respect the process of science; they just don’t trust scientists. Scientists are seen as elite authorities who just make fun of them when they have legitimate questions to ask.
One person posed a question about motion that I think many individuals would not know the answer to: “If I can feel motion when I’m in a moving car, how come I wouldn’t be able to feel motion if I’m on a planet that’s hurtling through space?” To that person, that is evidence the planet is motionless. A physicist would be able to explain it, but if all that the scientist or media personality or opinion leader does is dismiss them for asking “stupid questions,” then of course they’re going to further distrust scientists.