Conspiracy theories are becoming embedded in British culture, fuelling profound mistrust in institutions and social division. Our forthcoming study into attitudes and behaviours towards media and technological change reveals significant openness to conspiracy theories across the UK. We found these beliefs especially prevalent among the young where 55% of 16-24s believe in some online conspiracies, compared to 42% of 36-50s.

This pattern of belief correlates with broader information literacy challenges. 69% of those who claim to believe some conspiracy theories admit they can't tell if the news they read is true. They also feel underserved by the current media landscape, with 72% stating they don't hear enough about their local community in the news. Considering the structural problems in the media sector, this is a pretty understandable result. Perhaps most troubling, the majority of this UK conspiracy audience (62%) feel the internet harms their mental wellbeing. These concerning trends become clearer when we examine specific conspiracy theories and their real-world implications.

A case study: chemtrails and climate denial

The UK's hottest ever summer has just ended. At The Good Side we have been thinking about climate change and conspiracies. Over team lunches, we heard several anecdotes about more acquaintances embracing chemtrail conspiracy theories, so we thought we'd deep dive.

We found that UK chemtrail conspiracy interest rose 90% between August 2021 and July 2025. May 2025 was the highest month on record in our data. In total, this represents over 1M Google chemtrail searches in the UK since 2021.

Why do the search volumes spike in summer? In the warmer months people spend more time outdoors and the summer skies make aviation trails more visible than cloudy winter weather.

Although search does not mean belief, this summer trend shows a marked increase in chemtrail curiosity across the UK.

Much like clouds, the boundaries of chemtrail narratives are pretty porous. In general, adherents think that aircraft condensation trails are actually harmful chemical sprays. Extreme versions of chemtrail conspiracy theories insist that global elites are spreading fertility-suppressing chemicals in order to reduce the global population. Importantly, one growing narrative is that elites have faked climate change in order to justify global cooling through chemtrails. Structurally these narratives all pose an opposition between elites and the populous. Taken together, these overlapping theories create what conspiracy-ethnographer Alexandra Bakalaki, describes as a world that feels 'like a theatre of war'.

The tricky thing about chemtrails is that these narratives emerged at a time when governments did indeed invest in new weather modification technologies, as pointed out by the anthropologist of public science Rosie Cairns. But legitimate concerns have crossed into ‘disordered doubt’ in much of the chemtrail community, where scientific evidence debunking chemtrails is dismissed and the messengers, science educators or journalists, are attacked.

But how did these narratives manifest in the summer of 2025? The clearest answers lie on social media.

From search to social: ‘cloudbusting communities’

One of the UK's biggest chemtrail conspiracy channels is dedicated to ‘cloudbusting’, the belief that assemblages of copper, resin, and crystal, can burst harmful chemtrails in the sky. The largest UK cloudbusting social media page we found received 3.4M views in May 2025, the same time we saw a peak on Google search. Post comments reveal the connection more clearly.

Reading the posts within this community showed how the ways users linked chemtrails to climate change denial. Users dismiss reports of rising UK temperatures as deliberate fearmongering by the government. BBC weather reports are mocked. Experts are derided. Shadowy elites are blamed. Summers should be hot, users say, and bad weather is a sign of weather modification or further proof climate change is a myth. This is ‘disordered doubt’ in action.

To protect clear summer skies, the account owner shares pictures of their homemade cloudbusters, upward facing constructions of copper wire, neatly laid out on the lawn. Users on this channel often call cloudbusters ‘orgonites’ and refer to themselves as the ‘orgonite community’.

One of the challenges of tracking online narratives, like chemtrails, is finding KPIs that signal uptake. Orgonites, however, provided a clue.

The ripple effect: from content consumption to action

We found that cloudbusting interest extends to e-commerce, with a micro-trend of’ ‘orgonite’  searches up 31% on UK Etsy. Digital storefronts offer orgonites in many forms from copper pendants to iridescent pyramids.

Orgonite interest is certainly not owned by the chemtrail community, they're popular across wellness beliefs. However, two things connect the Etsy trend to chemtrails: sellers talk about cloudbusting in their listings and search volume peaked in May - the same time we saw peaks on Google search and on our largest UK cloudbusting social media channel’s views.

The 'so what?': A new playbook for brands

Understanding the human needs behind these trends is key. These conspiracy beliefs not only distort facts, but they erode the common ground essential for social integration. Returning to our survey results reveals three clear opportunities for brands and foundations committed to strengthening social integration.

1. Go beyond fact-checking. You cannot challenge these beliefs with facts alone. To build trust, brands must address the underlying human needs driving this behaviour: the desire for community, a sense of control, and a way to make sense of a complex world.
2. Embrace micro-local: Our data shows a huge appetite for local stories. Brands can build relevance and trust by filling the void left by legacy media. This means investing in local content, supporting community initiatives, and creating platforms for authentic local connection.
3. Turn audiences into communities. Our top performing social media channel isn't just an 'audience'; it's a 'community of back-garden builders.' The strategic lesson isn't to sell to this group, but to learn from the model. The most powerful brands will create their own passionate, engaged communities around positive, shared goals - like genuine sustainability and conservation projects.

As a B-Corp cultural insights and strategy consultancy working with conservation clients, we're committed to fighting for the planet. Increasingly, this means moving beyond simple communication and tackling the complex human dynamics of misinformation. It's a good thing we love a narrative-change challenge.

We help brands decode the social narratives that shape belief, trust and behaviour. If you’re building strategy in a moment of uncertainty, we’d love to collaborate.

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