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13 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 MARCH 2020 OPINION Annabele Cuff DEBATE is the art of discussing opposing views in a respectful manner. This is a view that is ingrained and which lies at the core of the ethos of the Faculty for Social Well-being. Given the number of discussions in the personal or public spheres that degenerate – sometimes rather quickly – into the personal and vitriolic, debate is an activity that should be far more widely engaged in than it currently is. It is with this aim of encouraging and promoting positive engagement on controver- sial issues, that the Faculty for Social Well-being has instituted a yearly debate, known as the Dean's Fo- rum Debate, in which four teams come together to debate topics of current interest in the area of social wellbeing. The winning team takes home €1,000, however, in reality this is not the main motivator for the teams preparing for this debate. The benefits to them per- sonally are so much larger. In the two and a half months from the selection of the teams to the actual debate at the end of February, the participants will test their understanding of what it means to debate, as opposed to merely argue. Besides deepening their understanding of the top- ics up for debate, they will improve their critical thinking, creativity, teamwork, research and strate- gising, and hone their ability to speak well and per- suasively. The process forces them to examine their own opinions and to engage with the other side of the argument, irrespective of their personal beliefs. Debate as a form of public engagement has been around since ancient times. In Ancient Greece, Athe- nian men (seems they were not so advanced after all – only men were deemed worthy) were expected to take an active part in municipal life by joining in the communal debate of laws and important civic issues in the Agora, the central public gathering place. So highly regarded was this form of public engage- ment that they had a word for those citizens who did not engage in this public debate: "idiotes". From these civic-minded origins to the debating societies of 18th century London, which opened up public commentary to different and often politically unrep- resented sections of society, to the modern student debating organisations of today, debating is an im- portant means of allowing engagement and discus- sion that might not otherwise take place. Engaging in debate hones one's ability to think crit- ically, to disagree with a stated opinion in a respect- ful manner, to probe for holes in the logic and struc- ture of an opponent's argument, while remaining cool, calm and collected throughout. Good debate is about not letting one's emotions take over, it is the ultimate form of intellectual communication. Prac- tice in debate teaches how to think on your toes, it is the art of convincing others, turning them to your point of view, of valiantly defending even points of view that you may not personally agree with – all of which are valuable skills in life, both on a personal, as well as a professional plane. This is why several top universities across the globe give huge importance to debate and why it is so highly regarded. But besides the general advantages, participation in debate brings with it other, more personal, benefits. The American Debate League states that high school students who join debate clubs, even if they only ex- perience one or two debates, score better on ACT and SAT tests, get into better colleges and perform better once in college. Barack Obama's Secretary for Education Arne Duncan said that competitive de- bate is one of the great equalisers for minority ac- complishment and educational opportunity. The skills learnt through engaging in debate and public speaking encourage a more civil and con- nected society. We learn to examine our attitudes towards social contexts in relation to general think- ing, to evaluate our stands and to consider opposing views rather than instantly discrediting them be- cause they are not in line with our own beliefs. In a world where increased access to media and person- alised searches might lead to our isolation within an intellectual filter bubble, any encounter that alerts us to views that do not align with our own is deeply enriching. Allowing "the other side" a voice also upholds one of the most well-known human rights, that to free- dom of speech. These three words are often used to justify expressing unpopular opinions, however in essence freedom of speech means allowing everyone their voice, even those we disagree with, and being allowed to disagree, so long as the disagreement re- mains respectful. In the end, engaging in argumenta- tion, debate, persuasive communication and public speaking skills benefits everyone. The Faculty for Social Well-being is invested in im- proving the personal and civic skills of its students through the Dean's Forum debate. Through this process participating students expand their public speaking and persuasive skills and forge new friend- ships with students from other disciplines within the Faculty. This year's Forum, held on Thursday 20th Febru- ary, was no exception. This informative evening was exciting and well attended. Four provocative topics were selected and opposing aspects of each were then debated on the evening. Given that some as- pects of the topics up for debate were pretty contra- ry to mainstream opinion, the teams did very well in valiantly covering all aspects, including the unpopu- lar viewpoints. For the first heath, the topics up for debate were: Partisanship in Politics – Doom or Bloom, and Mas- culinity without Toxicity – Does it Exist? The two topics for the second heath were AI: The Unpredict- able Future and Big Brother is Watching: Protection or Infringement of Privacy? Congratulations to the winning team, and well done to all the participants, as they were all extremely well prepared and the spirit of the evening was one of vibrant competition and lively discussion. If interested in reading a course with the Faculty for Social Well-being or you would like any informa- tion contact us on socialwellbeing@um.edu.mt or on Facebook um.socialwellbeing Respectfully, I disagree Annabele Cuff is research support officer, Faculty for Social Wellbing University of Malta navirus was planned by the so-called "deep state" and claimed the virus can be warded off by drinking bleach. e spread of medical conspiracy theories can also have severe conse- quences for other sections of society. For example, during the Black Death in Europe, Jews were scape- goated as responsible for the pandemic. ese con- spiracy theories led to vio- lent attacks and massacres of Jewish communities all over Europe. e outbreak of the coronavirus has led to a worldwide increase in racist attacks targeted towards people perceived as East Asian. It is possible to intervene and halt the spread of con- spiracy theories, however. Research shows that cam- paigns promoting coun- terarguments to medical conspiracy theories are likely to have some success in rectifying conspiracy beliefs. Games such as Bad News, in which people can take the role of a fake news producer, have been shown to improve people's ability to spot and resist misinfor- mation. Conspiracy theories can be very harmful for socie- ty. Not only can they influ- ence people's health choic- es, they can interfere with how different groups relate to each other and increase hostility and violence to- wards those who are per- ceived to be "conspiring". So, as well as acting to combat the spread of the coronavirus, governments should also act to stop mis- information and conspira- cy theories relating to the virus from getting out of hand. is article is republished from e Conversation un- der a Creative Commons licence