Finding 7
Consuming conspiracy content influences pupil behaviour outside of direct conspiracy beliefs.
Summary:
The downstream influences of conspiracy belief on pupil behaviour are difficult to identify and isolate.
Nonetheless, there is a strong sense that conspiracy beliefs create a ripple effect through young people’s social interactions, even where this belief is not necessarily strongly held or directly attributed to a specific conspiracy theory.
School staff had real concerns about the impact on conspiracies in terms of how pupils treated others (both staff and peers).
There was a possible impact on how pupils viewed information gathering as a result of belief in conspiracies.
There was potential interpersonal impact on relationships between pupils because of the downstream impact of conspiracy content consumption.
Misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories have a significant role to play in modern public order.
The downstream influences of conspiracy belief on pupil behaviour are difficult to identify and isolate. Nonetheless, there is a strong sense of conspiracy belief creating a ripple effect through young people’s social interactions, even where this belief is not necessarily strongly held or directly attributed to a specific conspiracy theory.
Although we found that belief in conspiracy content and disinformation was not a key part of most pupils’ worldviews, we did find that school staff had real concerns about the impact on conspiracies in terms of how pupils treated others (both staff and peers).
We also encountered instances of conspiracy content causing pupils to have reached worrying non-conspiratorial conclusions about the value of information and information sources. From rejecting books and news outlets, to spurning the need for academic research, there is a risk that exposure to conspiracy content can impact and undermine key notions of epistemological authority, and this manifests far more extensively than any individual conspiratorial belief.
One teacher explained to researchers that pupils had expressed belief in the Illuminati, and when she had attempted to discuss this – asking if they could cite any authoritative texts that agreed with their beliefs, for instance – pupils dismissed the idea of doing so:
I used to work at a school [where] they all believed in the Illuminati, and when I asked [if they could provide a book to back up their [belief]...‘ Oh no, you won't find it [the Illuminati] in a book, Miss. But you will find it in a YouTube video.’
Teacher, Yorkshire and the Humber Focus Group
Other school staff had pupils reject specific news sources, branding them ‘unacceptable’ to look at, and in some cases reject the need for an academic education entirely:
I remember I was doing a lesson as an English teacher...I was putting up newspaper front pages to talk about how the news is presented and I put the Guardian up and about three different girls in the class went "No, we're not looking at that because that's not acceptable news source."...So trying to get them to see this was actually quite a trusted and authorised news outlet was difficult...that speed at which they reached judgments and then passed those judgments along is beyond anything that I've worked with before.
Teacher, London Focus Group
They're looking to people like Andrew Tate: ‘I don't need academics, I can just become a businessman...’ and the misogyny is kind of woven in and a lot of them are too weak and too vulnerable to understand any of that.
Teacher, Yorkshire and the Humber Focus Group
There was also an instance of school staff noting that Andrew Tate quotes had appeared in schoolwork, indicating that pupils were treating it as just another information source, often without malice or fully understanding Tate’s content:
You might get it in an essay...a pupil has just repeated somebody like Andrew Tate's words in an essay or in PSHE
Teacher, Yorkshire and the Humber Focus Group
Across our qualitative research, school staff discussed the ripple effect of Andrew Tate’s content and its misogynistic influences. While some of the beliefs he shares, notably ‘Matrix’ theory would fall under the definition of conspiracy used in this report, much of his content is simply shortform video, often about his views on women.1
“…our biggest issue has been with boys, and lots of incel issues and Andrew Tate”
“So Andrew Tate became a huge issue for us when he was massive because he was the only source of information that pupils were getting from TikTok and Facebook. We had huge, huge issues with misogyny, [most] obviously in Sixth Form, but right throughout the school.“
While many of the pupils considered Andrew Tate to be sexist and to hold some unacceptable beliefs, they also suggested that were good points to him, particularly around making money.2
…he does talk about money a lot. His ways of making money are good ways. So that’s a good thing about Andrew Tate.
Pupil, Midlands Focus Group
Tate was one of several examples of money-making systems referred to in focus groups that were clearly of significant interest to pupils, particularly young men. These schemes have been linked not only to Tate but to online ‘sigma male’ content.3
I definitely have some kids come up to me and say "hey Sir, I've made this online shop. What do you think about it... I'm gonna try and sell some bits" and obviously I quite encourage that because I think I quite like the fact that they're going out of their way to try and do something productive rather than something that's not productive... think that can be quite a positive.
Teacher, Yorkshire and the Humber Focus Group
Our research also identified potential impacts on relationships between pupils as a downstream consequence of conspiracy content consumption. Around a third (31%) of pupils say that they have experienced a friendship becoming more difficult because of an opinion held by the friend, with girls more likely to report experiencing this than boys (34% vs 27%). Some 17% of this age group also reported a romantic relationship becoming difficult because of an opinion the other person holds.
Graph 8: Which of the following, if any, have you experienced in the last year?
In our focus groups, there were specific instances where pupils recounted no longer being friends with young men who had got into Andrew Tate content, which in turn had strained the friendship.
…I don’t speak to them [friends who had got into Tate content] anymore, for obvious reasons. But they were tunnel-vision with that mindset.
Pupil, Midlands Focus Group
A wider factor worth considering in this context is the possible conflation for young people between their online life and real life, which could have ramifications for the behavioural consequences of exposure to conspiracy content:
The internet and ‘real life’ is pretty much one world for young people now. So we've been having co-design sessions this year, and for the first time, they've [young people] just not mentioned the word online at all… there's no separation in their mind.
Chris Martin, CEO, The Mix, Commission Evidence Session
Moreover, exposure to online content without context has implications for the way that young people view domestic politics. Martin told the Commission that during co-design sessions, young people were unable to separate content about the killing of George Floyd from UK politics:
“…and this is difficult because we did a piece of work about attitudes to the police following death of George Floyd. And it became very clear in the co-design sessions that young people saw no difference between what was going on in the States and what was going on in the UK. In fact, they couldn't, because it all came through one digital feed.”
Chris Martin, CEO, The Mix, Commission Evidence Session
Throughout the expert Evidence Sessions, we heard of the wider risks of exposure to conspiracy content and misinformation on mental health. This included the link between self-harm content, suicide content, and eating disorder content. One example cited was suicide misinformation, where children are accessing content that claims that certain methods of dying by suicide are ‘painless’.
For example, if you go through the Shout service you will see young people reporting they’ve come across or had shared methods of suicide, which might be considered to be painful or painless…It’s information which is encouraging suicidality and which is not accurate.4
Chris Martin, CEO, The Mix, Commission Evidence Session
A second element was the emotional toll that online content can take. There was concern that the awareness and constant access to global affairs were impacting anxiety levels of young people.
We certainly saw, whether it's conflict going on, whether it be the war in Ukraine or things going on in Gaza, or even riots in the UK - we see young people showing higher levels of anxiety as a result of exposure to that content.
Chris Martin, CEO, The Mix, Commission Evidence Session
Finally, misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories have a significant role to play in modern public order. The public order challenges linked to the Southport tragedy in the summer of 2024 provided a real-time example of the way in which misinformation through social media created a false narrative of events and fear.
There are several other recent examples of public disorder triggered by misinformation disseminated through fast, unchecked sharing of information online. This includes the riots in the Harehills area of Leeds in summer 2024 as far-right agitators sought to capitalise on a specific court case in order to exacerbate particular tensions within the community.