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Chapter 2 - Down the Conspiracy Theory Rabbit Hole

How Does One Become a Follower of QAnon?

from Part II - Recruiting and Maintaining Followers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2023

By
Joseph Pierre
Edited by
Monica K. Miller
Monica K. Miller
Affiliation:
University of Nevada, Reno
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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.

Keywords

QAnonconspiracy theorycultalternate reality gamerabbit hole
Type
Chapter
Information
The Social Science of QAnon
A New Social and Political Phenomenon
 , pp. 17 - 32
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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