This is a work in progress. My goal is an article or column on QAnon and other conspiracy theories for a general interest publication, perhaps Medium, which looks like a good venue for this kind of thinking.
My challenge is writing in a readable and accessible manner without dumbing down theory. Hence, my lead. I hope to have a finished version next time. Meanwhile, criticism welcome. Thanks!
When I was in middle school, questions of who killed John F. Kennedy four years before seemed like a national obsession. The Cold War was in full swing, and television shows like Mission Impossible and The Avengers filled the programming schedule.
I wanted to be a spy, and ached for an importance belied by my 11-year-old awkwardness and drab, Catholic school uniform. The opportunity presented itself when classmates invited me into a group determined to solve the mystery of who really killed JFK.
For much a few months, we shared secret codes and gestures. We huddled at recess to puzzle over clues and hidden meanings we saw everywhere. We met at the library after school to research periodicals. It was thrilling — until Sister Imaculada found us out and confiscated the tiny pocket knives that the group’s leader had distributed to each of us. Our mission, indeed, became impossible.
QAnon and other conspiracies
Humans are susceptible to conspiracy theories. The human imagination creates the institutions that enable civilized society — corporations, laws, markets, government, science and religion, as the author of Sapiens points out. At the same time, we conjure beliefs that threaten those institutions.
Today, an increasing number of us are uniting “in mass rejection of reason, objectivity, and other Enlightenment values,” as The Atlantic wrote over the summer.
An NPR/Ipsos poll in December, found that nearly 17 percent of respondents believed in some version of the QAnon conspiracy, which claims that Donald Trump is a secret avenger out to destroy a cabal of liberal, alien-connected (the outer space kind), Satan-worshiping Democrats who abduct children, sexually abuse them and sell them for body parts.
Almost a third believe that voter fraud helped Biden win the election and nearly 40% agree that a “deep state was working to undermine President Trump.”
Before the election, Media Matters estimated that 35 former or current congressional candidates were sympathetic to QAnon. Now we have at least one sympathizer in Congress and we are in the aftermath — or perhaps still in the middle of — an insurrection fueled by dark beliefs based in no fact.
Research
In a review of research on people who are drawn to conspiracy theories, psychologist John M. Grohol said that “personality traits such as openness to experience, distrust, low agreeability, and Machiavellianism are associated with conspiracy belief.”
“ ‘Low agreeability’ refers to a trait of ‘agreeableness,’ which psychologists define as how much an individual is dependable, kind, and cooperative. Someone with low agreeability is an individual who is usually not very dependable, kind, or cooperative. Machiavellianism refers to a personality trait where a person is so ‘focused on their own interests they will manipulate, deceive, and exploit others to achieve their goals’ “
People who are alienated, feel powerless, suffer from social isolation and “anomia,” which is broadly defined as a subjective disengagement from social norms, are also seen as more likely to endorse conspiracy thinking.
Consistency does not matter. Those who are likely to believe that Osama bin Ladin was dead when the Seal 6 team arrived at his compound also believe he is still alive. Those who believe Princess Diana faked her own death also sign onto the belief that she was murdered.
Bowen theory
What are the conditions that enable such beliefs to take root?
I plan to draw a line between the susceptibility to conspiracy theories and Bowen’s writing on differentiation of self, individuality and togetherness, anxiety and triangles.
I will use his writing that compares society to a family with a rebelling teenage, which seems particularly apt. The signs of this growing threat have been flashing for a decade and ignored by lawmakers and law enforcement, just as a family might ignore the problem that eventually lead to an acting out child.