Opinion by Hal Brown, MSW
I was prompted to think about the question in the title after watching the two videos at the end of “Conspiracy theorist says Biden White House is on a movie set — and he caused 'fake' Texas snowstorm” on Rawstory. The article by Sarah Burris begins:
Conspiracy theories have grown in the past several years as Americans sit glued to social media sites that bring far-right conservatives together around siloed false news sites. But one woman has taken her conspiracies about President Joe Biden to TikToc to tell the world that they're all the ones who are stupid.
The links in the above paragraph are worth checking out.
I am not posting the woman’s videos here because I don’t want to contribute even in a small way to giving someone I feel sorry for more publicity. Her TikTok page has 2943 followers and 14,800 likes and has a logo that says Fuck Biden on the top. The person who posted her videos describes himself as a freelance reporter who had one of his tweets re-tweeted by Trump. According to this article about a someone on Twitter saying Biden will force people to eat cats it is Dave Pal, who runs the popular Twitter account “Fifty Shades of Whey” which has 118,500 followers.
Untreated mental illness is a serous problem in the United States.
According to a survey between 2.3% and 4.4% of the general population have paranoid personality disorder which I think may lead to people have a tendency to believe conspiracy theories. Another disorder which can lead to a person believing in conspiracy theories is delusional disorder. The DSM-IV-TR estimates that the population prevalence of this is around 0.03%. Most studies suggest that the disorder accounts for 1–2% of admissions to mental health facilities. (Reference)
The QAnon movement has led to experts addressing the mental health of believers and whether they can be considered to be suffering from a psychiatric disorder. For example in “Believing in Conspiracy Theories Is Not Delusional” the psychiatrist authors write:
Given that half the population believes in at least one conspiracy theory, it should come as little surprise that there is no reliable "profile" for believers. Although some studies have suggested associations with low education; right-wing political orientation; and certain personality traits like subclinical paranoia and schizotypy, such findings have been inconsistent and may vary across specific conspiracy theory. Associations between conspiracy belief and paranoia suggest overlap within a "conspiratorial mindset," with recent evidence that "distrust of officialdom" is a key mediator between believing in conspiracies and political ideology.
As this psychologist explains in depth in a long interview there are several disparate reasons people believe in conspiracy theories besides having a mental illness. A shorter article summarizes “what do we know about conspiracy theories? It addresses how psychologists’ research offers insight into why people put faith in conspiracy theories such as QAnon.
When a member of Congress expresses or promotes QAnon conspiracy theories they open themselves up to questions about their mental health. The same may hold true for a celebrity.
On the other hand, when an ordinary person puts themselves into the public eye either by posting something outlandish online or talking to a reporter about these beliefs at an event some may make a case that this is newsworthy. I question this. Unless it is a story about mental illnesses and how political movements attract some people with psychiatric disorders, and the identity of the person is hidden, I don't think it is newsworthy. Much has been written about the psychology of Trump supporters (web search). This is a valid and important area of study.
The more outlandish someone’s statements are the more likely they will be reported. The media isn’t compelled to make sure they note the percentages of people at an event they represent. If producers and reporters in the field have to talk to 30 people to find one or two who expresses an outlandish belief and the reporter only interviews these people it offers a highly distorted view. The old saw about televised news “if it bleeds, it leads” applies to coverage of those expressing conspiracy theories, only I’d revise it to say “the more it bleeds, the more likely it is to lead.”
This seems to apply to the woman who posted the videos of herself online. She seems to be of low intelligence and the beliefs she expresses suggests she would be best served if she had a mental health evaluation. If she has a paranoid or delusional personality disorder there’s no treatment but if she is schizophrenic or bipolar there are effective treatments. An estimated 40 percent of individuals with the condition are untreated in any given year. (Reference) An estimated 51% of people with bipolar disorder are untreated in any given year. Suicide is the number one cause of premature death among people with bipolar disorder, with 15 percent to 17 percent taking their own lives. (Reference)
I don’t think there is always a clear point of delineation between when a person is expressing beliefs suggestive of mental illness, has a very low IQ, and/or is unduly influenced by propaganda. I do think that when it comes to a few people like the woman in the videos it is a non-story and would have been best ignored by the media.
I am interested in your views on this and think it is an interesting subject for discussion. Please take the poll.