Alex Trebek and John Cena are just two of the celebrities helping Last Week Tonight's John Oliver fight the spread of misinformation by encouraging people to do research and think critically.

As coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on the US, conspiracy theories about it are running wild via social media. Some are the stuff of pure fancy, but others come with visuals and data convincing enough to make them seem not just plausible, but likely. Oliver cites one documentary in particular, Plandemic, as being especially well crafted, despite being full of misinformation.

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Before he calls on his friends to fight the spread of falsehoods, Oliver delves into why conspiracy theories are so appealing in the first place. Much of it comes down to the innate human desire for things to make sense. Conspiracy theories tend to emerge from things like the assassination of John F. Kennedy can be attributed to "proportionality bias," which is the "tendency to assume that big events have big causes." The idea that a single person can have such an enormous impact on the world is too much for some people to handle, so they latch onto any other explanation they can.

Interestingly, conspiracy theories are even more common during worldwide health crises. The current idea that coronavirus is in some way related to the 5G network rollout has its precursor in an 1890 theory that electric lighting caused an outbreak of influenza.

Oliver moves from a discussion of the absurdity of current coronavirus conspiracies to how we can best combat them. While it can be tempting to simply tell people their ideas are ridiculous, shaming or criticizing those who believe in conspiracy theories tends to make them dig in their heels even more. According to experts, it's better to approach them with empathy. "Meet them where they are and nudge them to think a bit more critically," as Oliver puts it.

To that end, he enlists some celebrity friends to each address the topic in their own unique fashion. Paul Rudd (Ant-Man) encourages people not to believe everything they see online, cheekily referencing the #RIPPaulRudd hashtag that was doing the rounds on Twitter. Billy Porter (Pose) entreats viewers to use their brain like it's the first roll of toilet paper from a brand new pack: unsparingly and with gusto. WWE star John Cena takes his shirt off. He shares valuable insight about respected information sources, too, but mostly he takes his shirt off.

You can view all of the videos at TheTrueTrueTruth.com.

Last Week Tonight airs Sundays on HBO.

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Source: Hollywood Reporter