Cults and Sects

[Nimthill]

While I understand this might also be placed in the EMM board; I'd like a more scientific approach to this topic.

What I'm curious about is why people are drawn to sects and cults? How is it possible that apparently normal people become so incredibly mesmerized by a single leader that they would do anything; anything he tells them?

I used to think that was only emotionally or extremely stupid people who get sucked into these cults; but that's clearly not the case. I've read some cases of ex-cultists who appear to be quite normal. A perfect example of this is Jonestown; where Jim Jones ordered his followers to commit suicide. 909 people committed suicide.

Another good example is Nazi-germany. Sure; Hitler and Goebbels and the rest of the nazi High Command were villans; but why did 90 million regular people do their bidding? If my government today would just tell me to start burning jews or god knows who; I'm tell them to shove it. Yet I refuse to believe that those germans back then were that different from me now; what made them do it?

Is it really that easy to brainwash people?

[Sphere]

A plausible explanation I have read on why humans are so susceptible to authority is that in our evolution it was very important to pass down knowledge and skills to offspring. I.e. natural selection favored traits that increased trust and deference to parents and elders as that increased survivability amongst our physically limited by intellectually gifted species.

So rather than the traits of reason and skepticism we like to envisage as our salient attributes, it is our willingness to accept what we are told by those with authority that is important to our survival. And indeed if you look at what human progress is based upon, it is the handing down of knowledge through the generations.

Such deference to authority might be very useful in a wild and dangerous world, were eating the wrong plant or building the right spear meant life or death, but in todays world it can be corrupted to get people to do and believe things that are not rational.

[Elfdude]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_polarization
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_think
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outgroup_homogeneity_bias

Those not only explain cult functions but rather all religious functions.

There's very few people that can exert a force of will on others like this without a 'mob' mentality in which each person feeds the enthusiasm of all of the others. If we imagine for a moment you get .1 happiness points per person who is happy around you and you yourself are happy with 1 point of happiness. If you have 10 people you are twice as happy as you were. If you have 20 people you are three times as happy as you were and so on. This results in more people following than avoiding.

The thing about humans is very people people actually break off independently from the group to form a system of rules or morals in which they believe in with enough veracity to form a counter current within a group. Maybe 1 in 5 adults successfully do this the other 4 make for easy prey. This is why isolation from the other groups which might influence these perspectives is essential.

Hitler did this on a mass scale. He created a uniform group by pegging the jews as the outcastes, he then hid any detractors and fragmented all of the groups he could in such a way that the only authority people turned to (at first) was him and the government he had created. He then polarized the views within the group and essentially exerted masterful control. Unfortunately by making himself the sole authority he chained the people into relying on only his decisions which many have found flaws in. Cult leaders tend to either get discovered or end it before they get to the point where they make enough mistakes that their credibility is gone.

The other problem is that stimuli that is gradual will be turned off and ignored by the brain. So while at first you might've thought it was a little crazy over time they only slightly up the ante until you've reached a point where you cease to notice it's crazy or even out of the ordinary anymore.

[Phier]

I still think most cult followers are weak in some way. They are looking for validation, friends, a feeling of belonging and that is what the cult provides. Not being in the cult is more painful than being in the cult.

In Jim Jones's case, they really were not the creme of the crop there, and once they moved to Africa, escape was almost impossible for those who had second thoughts.

The Nazi's appealed to something more basic. A desire to feel powerful. There is something very seductive about their rallies. I recall reading a book by a Jew who was a young man at the time, and he was upset because he wanted to join in their rallies and take part as they did their torchlight marches.

This is the mistake I think modern fascists are making, they forget the seductive nature of power, and the feeling of power one gets being in such a group. You would get more recruits doing torchlight marches wearing mean looking uniforms than you will throwing rocks at windows.