Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MA in Government and Politics

Department

Government and Politics

First Advisor

Robert Pecorella

Second Advisor

Fred Cocozzelli

Abstract

This thesis examines the transformation of political paranoia and collective decision-making in the United States from the twentieth century to the digital age. Building on Richard Hofstadter’s concept of the “paranoid style” and Irving Janis’s theory of groupthink, it argues that the dynamics of conspiratorial thinking and collective misjudgment have not disappeared but have been reconfigured by digital communication systems. While Hofstadter identified paranoia as a recurring rhetorical mode and Janis analyzed groupthink as a pathology of small, cohesive decision-making groups, this study contends that both frameworks require adaptation to account for contemporary digital environments. The analysis traces how historical revelations of genuine conspiracies, including the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and Project MK-Ultra, blurred the distinction between irrational suspicion and justified mistrust, contributing to the normalization of conspiratorial thinking in American political culture. It then examines how the structural features of digital platforms, including speed, scale, permanence, algorithmic sorting, and anonymity, reshape the conditions under which beliefs form, circulate, and stabilize. These features reproduce the antecedent conditions of groupthink in new forms, enabling collective misjudgment to emerge without formal leadership, stable group membership, or physical insulation. To show these dynamics, the thesis applies a comparative case study approach to three conspiratorial movements: JFK assassination theories, QAnon, and sovereign citizen ideology. These cases demonstrate that digital groupthink operates along a spectrum, varying in levels of dissent tolerance, epistemic closure, and identity commitment, while consistently producing resilient, self-reinforcing belief systems. Across cases, consensus is maintained not through direct interpersonal pressure but through algorithmic amplification, engagement-driven visibility, and networked reinforcement. The central argument is that political paranoia has become infrastructural. It is embedded within the technological systems that organize information and social interaction, making conspiratorial thinking adaptive within digital environments. As a result, misinformation and collective misjudgment cannot be fully addressed through individual-level interventions alone. The findings suggest that understanding and mitigating digital groupthink requires attention to platform design, information architecture, and the broader conditions shaping contemporary political discourse.

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