How to Become a Cult Leader: The Social Psychology of Groups

1
How to Become a Cult LeaderThe Social
Psychology of Groups

• Sue FrantzPsychology
• May 16, 2003

2
What is a Cult?

• An organization operating on the fringes of
  society

New Religious Movements

• Faith Groups
• High Demand Faith Groups
• Destructive Cults

3
Create Your Own Social Reality

• Choose something people already believe in and
  put your own spin on it.

David Koresh the Branch Davidians
Fred Phelps the Westboro Baptist Church
Jim Jones the Peoples Temple
L. Ron Hubbard Scientology
Marshall Applewhite Heavens Gate
4
Create Your Own Social Reality

• Eliminate all sources of information except that
  provided by the cult.

Remote area
No mass media
Limited contact with people outside the
organization
5
Create Your Own Social Reality

• Provide a cults eye view of the world

Shirley Phelps-Roper, the attorney for the
Westboro Baptist Church, explained that Rogers,
as a Presbyterian minister with a television
program, had a responsibility to comment on the
issue. By not doing so, she explained that he was
helping to promote homosexuality, which the group
says falls into the category of whoremongery and
adultery, which will damn the soul forever in
hell. She added that the support some Americans
have given to homosexuals was the reason behind
tragedies including the Sept. 11 attacks, the
crash of the NASA shuttle Colombia (sic), and the
nightclub fire in Rhode Island. You don't get
to pretend to decide what form God takes,
Phelps-Roper said. He's the God who could have
stopped the shuttle crash, the nightclub fire,
but instead he sent those things. This country
has forgotten God and effectively flipped him
off, and Fred Rogers is in part responsible."
-- Daily Illini, March 20, 2003
6
Create Your Own Social Reality
Regarding the Sept 11th attacks, Jerry Falwell
said on the 700 Club
"Throwing God out successfully with the help of
the federal court system, throwing God out of the
public square, out of the schools," he said. "The
abortionists have got to bear some burden for
this because God will not be mocked. And when we
destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we
make God mad.
"The pagans and the abortionists and the
feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are
actively trying to make that an alternative
lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way
all of them who have tried to secularize
America," Falwell continued, "I point the finger
in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'"
-- ABC News, Sept 14, 2001
7
Create Your Own Social Reality

• Keep repeating it.

Fiction if heard frequently enough can come to
sound like fact. -- Pratkanis Aronson, Age of
Propaganda
8
Use the Ingroup Bias

• Initiation

Distinctive clothes
Changed diet
Changed name
9
Send Your Members Out to Witness
Brings in new members Reestablishes current
members beliefs How?
10
Cognitive Dissonance
Perform a boring task. Can you tell the next
person how much you enjoyed it? IV 1 vs.
20 DV So, how much did you really enjoy
it? Those paid 1 found the task much more
enjoyable than those paid 20.
-- Festinger Carlsmith (1959)
11
Cognitive Dissonance
Why did I say that? It wasnt really fun at all!
This was really a lot of fun
Cognitive dissonance! The thought doesnt mesh
with the behavior.
12
Cognitive Dissonance
Am I liar? Nah! Not me!
13
Cognitive Dissonance
I lied because they paid me 20. Thats a lot of
. I was doing my job.
The task really was BORING!
Cognitive dissonance resolved!
14
Cognitive Dissonance
They only paid me 1. Certainly I wouldnt sell
my soul for 1. So why did I do it?
The task really was ENJOYABLE!
Cognitive dissonance resolved!
15
Cognitive Dissonance Witnessing
This organization is great! Join us!
Why did I say that? I really think that joining
this organization was a bad idea...
16
Cognitive Dissonance Witnessing
Am I liar? Nah! Not me!
17
Cognitive Dissonance Witnessing
Nobody forced me to say that, so why did I do it?
This group really is GREAT!
Cognitive dissonance resolved!
18
Create Commitment
Foot-in-the-door technique IV Sign a petition
supporting safe driving? vs. no request About 2
weeks later -- DV Can we place this large,
ugly Drive Safely sign in your front
yard? Those who had signed the petition were 3
times more likely to agree to the second request.
--Freedman Fraser
(1966)
19
Create Commitment
Foot-in-the-door technique as used by Scientology
Time Magazine, 1991
20
Create Commitment
Foot-in-the-door technique continued
Time Magazine, 1991
21
Create Commitment
Foot-in-the-door technique continued
Time Magazine, 1991
22
Establish Leaders Credibility and Attractiveness
L. Ron Hubbard is God David Koresh is the second
coming of Christ
23
Distract Members from Thinking Unthinkable
Thoughts

• Especially important for new members
• Chanting
• Singing
• Meditation
• Constant group interaction

24
Fixate Members Vision on a Phantom

• It looks solid, but is never accomplished
• Better world for the faithful
• Doomsday has been moved to some future point

25
Recap

• Create your own social reality
• Use the ingroup bias
• Create commitment
• Establish leaders credibility attractiveness
• Send members out to witness
• Distract members from thinking the unthinkable
• Fixate members vision on a phantom

26
Further Reading

• Pratkanis, A. Aronson, E. (2001). Age of
  propaganda The everyday use and abuse of
  persuasion, revised. Freeman.
• Cialdini, R. (2000). Influence Science and
  practice, 4th ed. Allyn Bacon.