The upheaval that QAnon conspiracy beliefs cause in family life, including divorce, estrangement and abuse, is revealed in a new study. 

Researchers studied more than 5,000 testimonies from wives, children and other family members of people who had ‘fallen down the rabbit hole’ of believing in QAnon, the far-right political conspiracy theory. 

Dr Rian Mulcahy and Dr Jessica Simpson, of the University of Greenwich, looked at posts on the online platform Reddit written by family members of people who believe that a cabal of satanic child molesters is operating a global child sex trafficking ring, and that President Trump is leading the fight against them. 

The thread, r/QanonCasualties, is popular, with more than 287,000 subscribers and 60,000 weekly visitors in the US, UK and elsewhere. 

Dr Mulcahy told the British Sociological Association’s annual conference in Manchester today [Wednesday 8 April] that the research offered “an unprecedented record of how ordinary families navigate the emotional, moral and practical consequences of conspiratorial belief, and how these beliefs are a form of radicalisation.  

“It shows how ‘Qbelievers’ refused to listen to reason, and became abusive and threatening to family members who tried to talk them out of their views. 

“For the loved ones of Qbelievers, everyday interactions became strained or even impossible as someone they loved began to speak a new language. What they described was more than political disagreement or conspiratorial thinking – it was a fundamental shift in how their loved ones thought, felt and related to others.” 

The researchers found that it was mainly men who became Qbelievers, and it was mostly “women and those describing themselves as the wives, mothers, daughters and sisters of Q-believers who absorbed tension, managed emotions and shielded others from conflict. They described softening arguments, redirecting conversations and maintaining calm to preserve a fragile normality. 

“Ideological conviction could provide a smokescreen for controlling behaviour, and online radicalisation can operate both as a smokescreen for abusive behaviour and as a catalyst – a trigger or intensifier of existing patterns of manipulation, control and psychological harm.” 

One loved one posted on the Reddit thread: “I have watched several people in my life go down the rabbit hole in varying degrees. It is so disheartening, but I have come to view it as an addict-like problem. They are like junkies, they are addicted to this disinformation anger and the thrill of being subversive or contrarian.”

Another wrote: “I could never talk to my dad about my reservations because the second I’d even begin the conversation, he’d start frothing at the mouth”.

Some posters related how Qbelievers accused them of crimes, with one writing: “She’s my mum, I couldn’t just cut her off… even when she started calling me a satanist.” 

Another wrote that her mother called her “a communist paedophile and that I must like raping babies and drinking their blood. As a 23-year-old moderate Democrat woman who only dates men over 25, this hurt deeper than I can explain. She is fully lost to this cult. I do not recognize her anymore. Q has destroyed my family and turned my own mother against me. I miss her so much and I wish there was something that could pull her out of this but I fear it’s too late.” 

One poster was attacked: “I was punched in the face… three days before our anniversary. He never apologized and completely forgot our anniversary because he was so preoccupied with Trump getting re-elected.” 

Some wrote of delusive beliefs, including a father who was insisting that the shooting incident at his child’s school was faked. 

One wrote “He thought I was a government plant. I stayed because I was scared he’d hurt himself if I left.”  

Another wrote: “We were engaged. I felt like I had to support him, even when he started thinking birds weren’t real.” 

The misery this caused loved ones is revealed in posts: “I just cut her out of my life two weeks ago because I was vomiting from the stress of dealing with her QAnon beliefs.”  

Another wrote: “The pain from this has been unbearable. More painful than my cancer treatments.”  

Most posters were American, but some were from other countries including the UK. One 20-year-old woman in the UK said that she “accidentally fell down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole, without understanding or knowing at the time that it was MAGA adjacent, or really what it was. It was stuff like pizza gate, every celeb is a pedophile, all of that stuff. I was very vulnerable at that time, and lockdown really took a toll on my mental health, and those conspiracies made it worse so I ditched them and once my life got back on track I forgot about them.” 

Dr Mulcahy told the conference that QAnon “spoke of elites who controlled world events and harmed children, but it was its flexibility and adaptability that made QAnon endlessly expandable. It absorbed talk of vaccines, surveillance and elections, reframing each as part of a single moral struggle between good and evil. This elasticity gave QAnon an almost viral quality and a frame that could adapt to fit almost any fear. 

“Qbelievers rejected reason and were described as performing their worldview through raw, unpredictable emotion. Such volatility took the form of rage, hysteria and suspicion.” 

Trump and many of his republican allies openly pushed QAnon slogans and imagery, and collapsed the boundary between political rhetoric and conspiracy theory, said Dr Mulcahy. Although Trump did not make all conservatives QAnon believers, he did make conspiratorial thinking part of mainstream politics, ramping up the ‘us versus them’ narrative that had already shaped the MAGA movement.” 

Platforms such as Facebook and YouTube turned everyday acts of posting, liking and sharing into the means through which conviction spread, she said. 

“Platform and algorithmic accountability must become a central pillar of repair, including the imposition of firm limits on the monetisation of conspiratorial or extremist content. Platforms should be required to develop accessible, human-centred mechanisms for reporting harassment and misinformation that prioritise user safety over engagement metrics.” 

The researchers said that dynamics behind QAnon were not unique to it and could extend to other ideological and conspiratorial movements. 

• The research broke new ground by concentrating on the loved ones of Qbelievers, rather than the believers themselves. The research forms part of a book, The Hidden Pandemic, to be published in July by Emerald. 

Notes:

 The British Sociological Association’s Annual Conference takes place from 8 to 10 April 2026 at the University of Manchester, with more than 700 papers presented. The British Sociological Association’s charitable aim is to promote sociology. The BSA is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales. Company Number: 3890729. Registered Charity Number 1080235 www.britsoc.co.uk 

 For more information, please contact: 

Tony Trueman
British Sociological Association
Tel: 0044 (0)7964 023392 
tony.trueman@britsoc.org.uk