Do you know rabbit hole syndrome?

There are individuals who live under the shadow of conspiracy. People who believe that the reality in which they live is characterized by falsehood and montage. Their conspiracy theories are true; In other words: anyone who deviates from them is false.

Thus, they tend to isolate themselves from the world around them and only interact with others who share their ideas. To describe how and why this transformation happens, the concept of the “rabbit hole” has recently been developed, a metaphor based on the film Alice in Wonderland.

Although a good part of the population views conspiracy theories with skepticism, for these people they are real, absolute and undeniable certainties. That is, the beliefs that gravitate around the conspiracy form a fundamental element for your identity.

Thus, the “rabbit trap” is the first element that hooks the person and causes them to develop beliefs based on conspiracy. These beliefs are ruminative thoughts that gravitate toward conspiracy, often giving rise to very intolerant behaviors.

According to Robbie M. Sutton, there is increasing evidence that some people fall into conspiracy holes that cause harm from social isolation to violence.

behind the rabbit

Rabbit hole syndrome had never been described until now. Its authors, Robbie M. Sutton and Karen M. Douglas, have based themselves on a fragment of this film to explain what it consists of.

In it, we can remember that Alice, upon seeing the famous rabbit with his watch, went after him and went into his burrow, without doubting for a moment what would happen next. In fact, on her way down the rabbit hole, Alice tripped and fell. She plunged into the void through a seemingly endless pit.

Through this metaphor, published in the specialized journal Current opinion in psychology, Researchers have wanted to explain the processes that can make a person fall into the trap of conspiracy theories. To do this, we are going to describe a sequence of steps that could occur when falling into the conspiracy trap.

1. An involuntary process

The tendency to embrace conspiracy theories is far from voluntary. That is to say, it is enough for the conspiracy theory to attract the person’s attention (as happens in the rabbit example).

Conspiracy theories (for example, UFOs, supernatural experiences, or flat-earthism) are born, grow and reproduce because they are seductive (the person thinks they are in a position of privilege compared to the people around them, and who have been deceived).

At first, people are attracted to the mystery and the fun of “the weird and strange.” However, and without consciously deciding, mere contact has the potential to become a fuse that ignites more conspiratorial beliefs in these people. What began as a curious contact ends up transforming the person. That is to say, Contact with conspiracy theories can have a “domino effect.”

Examples of this can be found in conspiracy theories about COVID-19 (Sutton, 2022). Furthermore, people are far from being able to know how the mere fact of coming into contact with these theories causes their way of seeing the world to change.

2. A “cognitive tachycardia”

At the beginning of the syndrome, these individuals may be skeptical of the type of information that society as a whole discards (for example, “the world is flat”). However, when they enter the conspiracy circles and contact the people who are part of these circles, the “contagion effect” occurs.

Thus, a person’s beliefs, in principle normal, become conspiratorial. At first it seems to be a slow process. However, after a while, they flare up and increase with extraordinary speed. That is, they become increasingly numerous and powerful.

Once this red line is crossed, subjects tend to isolate themselves from the real world and interact exclusively with other people who think the same. Thus, they turn their backs on anyone who thinks otherwise. They engage in a spiral that consists of reading and viewing an increasing amount of information related to the content of the conspiracy. This makes their conspiratorial beliefs even more reinforced.

People who believe in conspiracy theories tend to isolate themselves from the world and relate only to each other.

3. An “armored” mind

In the later stages of this syndrome, beliefs begin to crystallize and harden. It is very complicated to change and restructure them.

Interestingly, the researchers point out that the evidence on this last phase is scarce. This occurs because it is difficult to find participants who want to undergo studies on conspiracy theories. Basically, because for these people, those who conspire are others, instead of them.

Once a person has incorporated conspiracy beliefs into their cognitive system, they poison many other areas. Thus, it is common for the identity and belief system of these people to undergo a metamorphosis. They separate themselves from those closest to them and blend in with people who share their conspiratorial beliefs. Furthermore, they could be said to be “immune” to evidence against what they think.

As we have seen, to fall into what we have called a conspiratorial “rabbit hole”, it is enough to be fascinated by what is different. In this way, once first contact is established, people can find themselves trapped in a bottomless pit, as happened to Alice in Wonderland. Once inside, it is difficult to get out, because it transforms people’s beliefs in a significantly profound way.

You might be interested…