Conspiracy theorists are terrified about losing their ‘status’ – and they come from all walks of life

Conspiracy theorists come from all walks of life – but they all share the same paranoia that a specific part of their lives is being snatched away.

Exclusive: Conspiracy theories in Australia are being fuelled by people gripped by “status anxiety” that cuts across gender, income, and race, new research has revealed.

Some who believe the Covid-19 pandemic is fake were found to have “lost it” under “acute” economic stress, political research company Redbridge Group found after interviewing conspiracy theorists.

More than 200 focus groups revealed gender didn’t make a difference – and neither did race or income.

“A number of them were working class or lower income, middle class … But then there is this other cohort that is quite not rich, but comfortable, what you would describe as probably upper middle class life,” Redbridge Director Research and Policy Simon Welsh said.

An anti-Covid vax rally in Melbourne’s CBD. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Fuelling their actions was the belief their “social status is under threat”.

“Under threat from anything from immigrants, to young people, to ‘woke’ people, all that sort of stuff…,” Mr Welsh said

“You have had voices stoking that kind of threat and then put them under serious stress, even financially, and then stir in some conspiratorial thinking and you can see this cocktail mix,” he said.

“They are the ones you see driving to the Canberra [protest] in the brand new SUVs with the jetski on the back.”

This group was made up of United Australia Party members from around the country.

An anti-lockdown protester has capsicum spray washed from his eyes at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Daniel Pockett

They were hell bent on punishing “incumbents” no matter what party they were from and preferencing them last.

“Which goes back to that status anxiety – to give them a kick and a shake for the sake of shaking.”

Redbridge Group’s Director Strategy and Campaigns Kosmos Samaras said those who suffered economically meant their “trauma was more acute”.

“Their emotional response is to rationalise and process it and try and rebuild their lives – but there’s a section that just loses it. And there’s a significant portion of people in that basket,” Mr Samaras said.

Meanwhile, a study believed to be the first of its kind will track Australian and New Zealanders over two years to try and determine how people fall down the misinformation rabbit hole.

Redbridge Group’s Director Strategy and Campaigns Kosmos Samaras.

Dr Matt Williams of Massey University.

Study leader Dr Matt Williams of NZ’s Massey University said people wanted understand why people fell down the misinformation rabbit hole.

“We don’t like just saying ‘a bad thing happened, but we don’t know why”, and a conspiracy theory can often provide an appealing explanation for events that distress us,” he said.

Dr Williams said some researchers thought people were drawn to conspiracies when threatened or anxious.

“In my view the evidence for this is somewhat tenuous; people who report experiencing more stress in their lives tend to be a little bit more likely to believe in conspiracy theories, but it’s not a very strong relationship. We intend to test this further in our study.”

There could also be social motives. “Sometimes, developing and expressing a particular belief can make us feel like we belong to an in-group,” he said.

Originally published as Conspiracy theorists are terrified about losing their ‘status’ – and they come from all walks of life