RAN Mental Health - The attraction of conspiracy narratives and disinformation: a mental health perspective

Context

Conspiracy theories are not a new phenomenon to RAN Practitioners. Over the last few years, extremist groups have increasingly utilised conspiracy theories for grooming individuals and exploiting their fear, uncertainties and doubts. The COVID-19 pandemic instilled fear in individuals, and many suffered a loss of control over their lives, consequently becoming more vulnerable for believing in conspiracy theories. With social media algorithms determining what a person sees online, the probability of ending up in an echo chamber and only seeing content that strengthens one’s worldview or content promoting conspiracy narratives increases.

Extremist groups weaponise online narratives and echo chambers. This can, for example, be seen in online misogynistic involuntary celibates (‘incels’) platforms, where conspiracy theories about the role and behaviour of women in society is shared. Group members specifically target vulnerable individuals by presenting a number of questions and statements to persons who want to be part of their community (e.g., “please indicate if you are ‘bluepilled, ‘redpilled’, or ‘blackpilled’ or rate how much you despise yourself”).

Alternative systems of thought and interpretations are developed not only in the incel communities but also in other extremist groups in the case of a perceived or real loss of control; the aim is to offer stability and orientation, especially in crises.

A lot of work has been done by the RAN Practitioners network to unpack the content of disinformation, conspiracy theories, and the mechanisms that make them appealing to (extremist) groups. In this RAN Mental Health meeting we will focus on the attraction of conspiracy theories looking at the mental health of individuals and the challenges for mental health practitioners in P/CVE. We will discuss:

• the impact of exposure to conspiracy theories on mental health;
• the functionality of conspiracy narratives for individuals, looking at mental health and mental health disorders;
• the challenges for mental health practitioners in P/CVE arising from individuals’ belief in conspiracy theories;
• how to deal with individuals who believe in conspiracy narratives as a mental health practitioner, e.g. the lack of trust in institutions, and suspicion.

Call for participants

We are currently looking for experienced first-line practitioners from the mental health sector working with radicalised individuals or in prevention of radicalisation.

In order to find the best suited participants and to tailor the meeting content to the practitioners’ needs, we would like you to fill out this survey before 17 April 2024.

We will invite participants based on this information. Please keep in mind that we can only include a limited number of participants in this meeting in order to foster exchanges, so participation is not guaranteed. We will contact you after the deadline of the survey.

If you know other suitable participants for whom this meeting may be interesting, we encourage you to forward the call. 

Do you have any further questions? Please do not hesitate to contact f [dot] denizradaradvies [dot] nl (f[dot]deniz[at]radaradvies[dot]nl) or s [dot] kuijperradaradvies [dot] nl (s[dot]kuijper[at]radaradvies[dot]nl).

Please note this is a face-to-face event, and it requires travel. Your travel will be arranged by RAN. By applying for participation, you confirm your availability and willingness to travel for this meeting.