AI-powered study sheds light on how QAnon beliefs shatter family bonds
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A new study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships has shed light on how belief in the QAnon conspiracy theory affects family dynamics. By analyzing over 75,000 sentences referencing “family” from the subreddit r/QAnonCasualties, the study revealed a wide range of emotional, psychological, and practical impacts on those with QAnon-believing loved ones. From grief and fear to fractured holiday gatherings and broken ties, the findings offer one of the most comprehensive portraits to date of the interpersonal consequences of conspiracy belief.
The study focuses on a relatively unexplored but increasingly relevant issue: how belief in QAnon—an elaborate conspiracy theory alleging a global cabal of child-trafficking elites—is damaging family bonds. While research has frequently examined how conspiracy beliefs affect individuals and societies, few studies have explored how they disrupt intimate relationships. This study, led by Justin B. Phillips from the University of Waikato in New Zealand, addresses that gap by using advanced machine learning techniques to analyze real-world discussions from people seeking support and understanding.
“In one of my courses we explore the consequences of conspiracy beliefs. We don’t actually care much about whether conspiracy theories are true or false, but instead we’re more interested in the—typically negative—effects of such beliefs,” explained Phillips, a senior lecturer in the School of Law, Politics, and Philosophy. “Over the years I would routinely point my class to r/QAnonCasualties for examples of negative, interpersonal effects of conspiracy beliefs on families. So, I decided I might as well write about it.”
The QAnon movement, which emerged in 2017, centers on the claim that a secret government insider known as “Q” is revealing hidden truths about a satanic, child-abusing cabal. Followers believe that Donald Trump is leading a covert war to expose and defeat this group. Despite its fringe origins, QAnon quickly gained momentum. By 2022, about two-thirds of Americans had heard of it, and one in five reported knowing a supporter personally. The theory’s mix of political extremism, apocalyptic messaging, and internet-driven community has made it particularly polarizing and emotionally charged.
Phillips designed the study to investigate how people describe the effects of QAnon beliefs on their family relationships. To do this, he collected all posts and comments from the public Reddit forum r/QAnonCasualties that contained the word “family.” This subreddit serves as a support space for people who feel estranged or harmed by a loved one’s belief in QAnon. The final dataset included nearly 75,000 unique sentences from over 6,000 posts and more than 53,000 comments, spanning from mid-2019 to the end of 2023.
To analyze this vast dataset, Phillips used a technique called BERTopic, a machine learning method that identifies and groups related themes in large text corpora. This approach allowed him to identify 58 distinct categories of family-related discussion on the subreddit. These categories covered everything from emotional reactions and relationship breakdowns to attempts at reconciliation and broader reflections on the nature of QAnon as a belief system.
The results were striking in both their emotional depth and thematic variety. Many posts reflected intense emotional pain, with topics such as grief, devastation, anxiety, and fear appearing frequently. Posters described feeling as if they had lost a loved one to a “cult,” comparing the emotional fallout to mourning a death. In some cases, family members expressed concerns about safety—both their own and that of others—due to the increasingly erratic or extremist behavior of their QAnon-believing relatives.
Content retrieved from: https://www.psypost.org/ai-powered-study-sheds-light-on-how-qanon-beliefs-shatter-family-bonds/.
