By Hal Brown, MSW
“Let us now abstract the basic elements in the paranoid style. The central image is that of a vast and sinister conspiracy, a gigantic and yet subtle machinery of influence set in motion to undermine and destroy a way of life.” (Richard Hofstadter, The pseudo‐conservative revolt. The American Scholar, 2006, 9–27.)
A conspiratorial mindset is characterized by a persistent belief that one or more individuals, groups, or organizations are plotting to accomplish menacing objectives (van der Linden, 2013; Moscovici, 1987). In the present era, in which fake news and misinformation are spread quickly and easily through social media platforms, belief in conspiracy theories is widespread; it is estimated that more than 50% of Americans endorse at least one conspiracy theory (Oliver & Wood, 2014). For society, there are many troubling consequences of conspiratorial thinking, including antisocial behavior, hostility against outgroups, rejection of science, decreased trust in government, and a lack of civic engagement (Einstein & Glick, 2015; Flynn, Nyhan, & Reifler, 2017; Jolley & Douglas, 2014; Lewandowsky & Oberauer, 2016; van der Linden, 2015; Swami, 2012; Uscinski & Parent, 2014). Reference.
When you hear the people from QAnon and others tell about their beliefs you may wonder “who the hell are these people” or more specifically you may ask yourself what’s wrong with them. Aside from their outlandish convictions few if any seem to be developmentally disabled. It would appear that our new members of the House of Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert can speak at least as well as your average fifth grader.
What then is wrong with these people?
Here’s a possible answer.
There are many studies dating back at least to 2004 that suggest the number on those in the American population with a paranoid diagnosis of clinical significance is around 4.4%.
From 2003: “A Survey of Personality Disorders” in American Family Physician journal.
.Findings of the survey are significant: The most prevalent disorder in the United States is obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, which affects 7.9 percent of adults (representing approximately 16.4 million persons). Approximately 4.4 percent (9.2 million) have paranoid personality disorder; 3.6 percent (7.6 million) have antisocial personality disorder; 3.1 percent (6.5 million) have schizoid personality disorder; 2.4 percent (4.9 million) have avoidant personality disorder; 1.8 percent (3.8 million) have histrionic personality disorder; and 0.5 percent (1.0 million) have dependent personality disorder.
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More: Don't Freak Out: Paranoia Quite Common — November 12, 2008
Dennis Combs, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Tyler, has been studying paranoia for about a decade. When he first started conducting paranoia studies, mostly in college students, he found that about 5 percent of them had paranoid thoughts.
Even more: Are we all a little paranoid — Scientific American, July 5, 2018
Paranoia was long considered exclusively a marker of severe psychotic states. But today it is seen as a continuum. For example, some people are mildly suspicious that others disapprove of them. Others feel they are being secretly observed. Still others perceive imminent threats from malevolent individuals. Finally, people at the end of the spectrum are convinced that powerful and evil forces are aligned against them (referred to as persecutory delusions, a term popularized by French psychiatrist Henri Legrand du Saulle in 1871). Sometimes these individuals suffer from hallucinations.
Paranoid thinking is estimated to occur regularly in 10 to 15 percent of the general population, and up to 3 percent have paranoid delusions that are comparable in severity to the delusions suffered by patients with schizophrenia. Interestingly, studies based on surveys suggest that people who feel paranoid in one situation often feel that way in other situations as well: if you think that aliens are about to kidnap you, you also tend to think that your co-workers are looking at you a little strangely and that the laughter you hear coming from the cafeteria is about you. It is as though the paranoid ideas join to create a world completely and utterly centered on you—in other words, Josef K.’s world. (Ref. is to character in Kafka’s “The Trial”)
Let’s consider the high end of the above: paranoid thinking is estimated to occur regularly in 10 to 15 percent of the general population. That is far more than a “mere” 9.2 million people.
The next question I expect you may be asking is whether Trump supporters are more paranoid than others. According to this article the answer, in a word, is yes:
Conservatives’ propensity toward conspiracy thinking can be explained by a distrust in officials and paranoid thinking.
It is beyond the scope of this essay to go into why it is that some many people have beliefs that they take on faith, religious beliefs being the most common, to other kinds of magical thinking. All you have to do is watch television to see the commercials for Prevagen (cited by the FTC as a hoax) and other supplements that have been shown in scientific studies to be totally ineffective to see how many people believe things that are not true.