People are more likely to believe conspiracy theories if they are anxious, detached, or narcissistic, researchers find

Published Oct 01 2020 at 7:31 PM GMT

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eory that President Trump is engaged in an undercover battle against celebrities and Democrats who support human trafficking and pedophilia. An August investigation from The Guardian found social media groups supporting and spreading QAnon messaging have skyrocketed over the past few months. Facebook removed 790 QAnon groups from its platform in July, and Twitter removed 7,000.
QAnon followers say this same group of celebrities fabricated the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Bowes, her study could help explain their beliefs.
"I think the pandemic is going to be such a fascinating time to look at conspiratorial ideation because the explanations for COVID-19 are immensely unsatisfying.
It's unsatisfying because it's too big, and there has to be something else causing this or explaining this," Bowes said of some conspiracy believers' lines of thought.