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1 results

  • Chapter 2 - Down the Conspiracy Theory Rabbit Hole

  • from Part II - Recruiting and Maintaining Followers
  • Edited by Monica K. Miller, University of Nevada, Reno
  • Book:
    The Social Science of QAnon
    Published online:
    14 September 2023
    Print publication:
    28 September 2023, pp 17-32

  • Summary

    The rise of QAnon in the US and abroad is best understood within a “socio-epistemic” context of hyper-polarized politics and populism, growing mistrust in authoritative sources of information, and the ubiquity of misinformation, especially from online sources. Although there has not yet been a systematic study of how people have come to be followers of QAnon, psychological research on conspiracy theories, cults, and “internet addiction” can inform applicable mechanisms of “recruitment” and “conversion.” Published anecdotal accounts likewise illustrate the process by which some individuals have fallen down the QAnon “rabbit hole.” Believers in conspiracy theories like QAnon can be modeled along a typological continuum that distinguishes “fence-sitters,” “true believers,” and “activists,” as well as “apostates” who manage to disaffiliate. “Clinical staging” of QAnon believers in this fashion might be useful in predicting effective interventions for those vulnerable or who succumb to belief in conspiracy theories.