I think you need citations for everything you wrote there. We do have a lot of research into how people come to believe conspiracy theories and (to a lesser ext

I think you need citations for everything you wrote there. We do have a lot of research into how people come to believe conspiracy theories and (to a lesser extent) how to break them out of it. Most of what I've read agrees that pushing those people and/or treating them without empathy is the wrong approach. But the cause is not always contrarianism, and vaccine skepticism is not a perfect analog for the other controversial issues you mentioned. Tellingly, vaccination wasn't a political or controversial issue for many decades in the US.