In her 2022 testimony before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Rachel Kleinfeld of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace put the stakes of rising conspiratorial thinking among the American public in grave terms:

The deliberate sowing of a conspiracy such as Stop the Steal has . . . opened the body politic to further conspiracies, such as the violent QAnon movement and lies perpetrated by Russia, Iran, and other foreign powers. It has decreased trust in democratic institutions and increased harm to minorities. It has also increased the normalization of political violence in America and caused political violence and extremism to burgeon.

A large body of academic evidence supports the link Kleinfeld draws between conspiracy theories and declining trust in institutions, political violence, and intolerance. Conspiracy theories can damage society by eroding trust not just in political institutions but also in neighbors and coworkers, increasing our feelings of powerlessness, disillusionment, and apathy, spreading and intensifying prejudiced views against vulnerable groups, and fueling violence and political extremism.