Believing in conspiracy theories can trigger a ‘significant breakdown’ in romantic relationships, a study suggests.
Researchers have found that obsession with conspiracies such as QAnon, Flat Earth and Covid vaccine misinformation can fundamentally change a person’s behaviour.
This leaves partners struggling with anxiety, stress, insomnia and social isolation, they warned.
And it can wreak havoc on family life, leaving relationships on the brink of collapse.
In the study, published in The British Journal of Social Psychology, researchers interviewed 17 current and former partners of QAnon conspiracy believers.
QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory that claims the world is secretly controlled by a ‘deep state’ cabal of Satan-worshipping child sex offenders.
Many participants said their partners became consumed by the conspiracy and seemed like ‘a different person’.
In many cases, partners even said that the spiral into conspiracy thought was the ‘death’ of the person they once knew.
Scientists say that belief in a conspiracy theory, such as the Flat Earth Theory, leads to a ‘significant breakdown’ in romantic relationships
Intense belief in conspiracy theories has a well-documented negative effect on the lives of those who engage in it and for the people around them.
Studies have found that people who become obsessed with these rabbit holes of misinformation become estranged from their friends and family and increasingly isolated from society.
At the same time, conspiracy theorists can become more dangerous, being significantly more likely to endorse political and interpersonal violence.
For example, one study found that people who believed that 5G masts were being installed to spread COVID-19 were more likely to justify the use of violence against the engineers installing them.
However, as this new study shows, these changes also wreak havoc on conspiracy theorists’ romantic lives.
At the beginning, non-believing partners tried to reason with their husbands and wives with appeals to facts and reason.
However, participants in the study say they soon realised this was futile as the arguments became bitter and personal.
Interviewees said that their partners called them ‘brainwashed’, ‘sheep’, and ‘the enemy’.
Scientists interviewed romantic partners of people who had become deeply involved in the QAnon conspiracy theory, revealing four ways in which their partners were affected
Ultimately, researchers found that conspiracy theorists became all-but unrecognisable as the person they once were.
The conspiracy theorists poured almost all of their time into researching their chosen theory online and talked about it constantly at every possible opportunity.
Participants reported that their partners changed dramatically, becoming angry, agitated, mean, aggressive and hateful.
One told the researchers: ‘He became this very angry, depressed, unhappy person, you know, who took it out on people around him.’
In extreme cases, partners even became abusive and dangerous, with one participant reporting that his partner attacked him after learning he had taken the Covid-19 vaccine.
For the partners watching their loved ones spiral out of control, the psychological and social effects were severe.
One told the researchers: ‘I’m a very anxious person to begin with and hearing him rant about this stuff made me even more anxious, and I drank a lot more because I couldn’t sleep.’
‘Sometimes you can get so overwhelmed cause he seems so sure. And it messes with your head. You start thinking you’re the crazy one,’ added another.
Participants said that their partners became a ‘different person’ after falling into the QAnon conspiracy theory, describing this as the ‘death’ of the person they once knew
Likewise, some of the participants described becoming increasingly socially isolated and experiencing a strong stigma associated with their partner’s obsession.
After attempting to understand their partners’ behaviour, both through conspiracy theory research and therapy, a large number of participants ultimately decided they needed to end the relationship.
This was particularly fraught for long-term couples with children, as the conspiracy theorist partner frequently attempted to ‘convert’ the children to their views.
In some cases, children were brought to rallies or introduced to conspiracy influencers, while other parents withheld vital medical treatment or vaccinations.
Some parents were too scared to leave their children alone with their former partners, fearing that their irrational behaviour could lead to harm.
One anxious parent said about her daughter: ‘I am reluctant to let her go too long with him because I am afraid of a situation where she has some kind of medical need, and he doesn’t get her appropriate attention. If something happened, would he take her to the hospital?’
However, for those who did get free, the overwhelming feeling was one of relief.
As one participant put it: ‘I was sad, but I was mentally at peace after over a year of hell.’
WHAT IS FLAT EARTH THEORY?
Those who believe the Flat Earth Theory claim our planet is shaped like a flat disc instead of a sphere.
Because Earth’s surface looks and feels flat when we walk around it, the conspiracy theorists denounce all evidence to the contrary.
The leading theory suggests Earth is a disc with the Arctic Circle in the centre and Antarctica, a 150-foot-tall (45-metre) wall of ice, around the rim.
Those who believed the Flat Earth Theory claim our planet is shaped like a flat disc instead of a sphere. Pictured is a model presented to attendees at the first annual Flat Earth International Conference, held in North Carolina in November 2017
Theorists claim that satellite images and evidence pointing to a spherical Earth are part of a ’round Earth conspiracy’ orchestrated by NASA and other government agencies.
Proponents of the bizarre theory also claim the Earth is stationary in space rather than orbiting the sun.
Some believe the Earth is covered by a glass dome which sits over the flat disc.
The international scientific community has consistently denounced the Flat Earth theory.
Decades of space imagery and peer-reviewed astronomical research back their claims.
NASA has proved that the Earth is round using satellites, GPS and images from space, but ‘Flat Earthers’ believe the space agency is lying.
