They were “kidnapping our loved ones and replac[ing] them with a bitter hollow shell of what they once were.”
This sounds like a line from the campy 1978 sci-fi horror flick Invasion of the Body Snatchers, about aliens from a dying planet that come to Earth and replace humans with clones that are devoid of their old personality.
But it’s not.
It’s actually a quote from a recent study in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships about the QAnon conspiracy theory, which alleges that the governing elite is dominated by a secret cabal of Satan-worshipping, cannibalistic, deep-state pedophiles. Participants in the study described watching the theory take hold of their friends and family members, transforming them beyond recognition.
Perhaps this scenario sounds familiar. You too may know someone who started “doing his own research” on politics, science, or the economy—and then went down an internet rabbit hole of posts claiming that some event or phenomenon was plotted by a clandestine group of powerful people or organizations, usually with sinister or malevolent intentions. Before you know it, he seems like a different person. His new beliefs dominate conversations and ruin relationships.
Our current news cycle has no shortage of online influencers peddling ever more outlandish theories. A great deal of research has been dedicated to the quest for an explanation of why people might adopt conspiracy beliefs. Some scholars suggest that such susceptibility has to do with personal traits such as narcissism or deficiencies in intelligence.
But these arguments are too facile. Think of the now-infamous Vanity Fair interview in which the White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said that Vice President J.D. Vance had been a “conspiracy theorist for a decade.” Vance—who, whether you like him or not, is certainly not unintelligent—cleverly responded by saying that he believes in only the “conspiracy theories that are true.”
He has a point: Many outlandish-seeming scandals have turned out to be absolutely factual, such as the squalid Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee that lasted from the 1930s to the 1970s. Present-day cases have also occurred, such as the official discrediting of the lab-leak origin of the coronavirus pandemic—later shown to be the most plausible explanation of Covid-19’s emergence—as nothing more than an anti-Chinese conspiracy theory. Read more»
Arthur Brooks | “Arthur Brooks: Why Your Neighbor Became a Conspiracy Theorist. And Maybe You, Too.” | The Free Press | March 30, 2026
RESOURCES
- Heidelminicast: Conspiracy Theory is a Form of Gnosticism
- A Major Problem With Conspiracy Theories (Part 1)
- A Major Problem With Conspiracy Theories (Part 2)
- Put Away Your Conspiracy Theories: Christ Reigns
- Conspiracy Theories Are Bunk
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