How to Become a Cult Leader:
The Social Psychology of Groups
Sue Frantz
Psychology
May 16, 2003
What is a Cult?
An organization operating on the fringes of
society
“New Religious Movements”
• Faith Groups
• High Demand Faith Groups
• Destructive Cults
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 People’s Temple
L. Ron Hubbard & Scientology
Marshall Applewhite & Heaven’s Gate
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
Create Your Own Social Reality
Provide a cult’s 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
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.
"[T]he 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
Create Your Own Social Reality
Keep repeating it.
“Fiction if heard frequently enough can come to sound like fact.”
-- Pratkanis & Aronson, Age of Propaganda
Use the Ingroup Bias
Initiation
Distinctive clothes
Changed diet
Changed name
Send Your Members Out
to Witness
Brings in new members
Reestablishes current members’ beliefs
How?
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)
Cognitive Dissonance
“This was really a lot
of fun”
Why did I say that? It
wasn’t really fun at
all!
Cognitive dissonance! The thought doesn’t mesh with the behavior.
Cognitive Dissonance
Am I liar? Nah! Not me!
Cognitive Dissonance
I lied because they paid me
$20. That’s a lot of $. I
was doing my job.
“The task really
was BORING!”
Cognitive dissonance resolved!
Cognitive Dissonance
They only paid me $1.
Certainly I wouldn’t sell my
soul for $1. So why did I
do it?
“The task really was
ENJOYABLE!”
Cognitive dissonance resolved!
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...
Cognitive Dissonance & Witnessing
Am I liar? Nah! Not me!
Cognitive Dissonance & Witnessing
Nobody forced me to say
that, so why did I do it?
“This group really
is GREAT!”
Cognitive dissonance resolved!
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)
Create Commitment
Foot-in-the-door technique as used by Scientology
Time Magazine, 1991
Create Commitment
Foot-in-the-door technique – continued
Time Magazine, 1991
Create Commitment
Foot-in-the-door technique – continued
Time Magazine, 1991
Establish Leader’s
Credibility and Attractiveness
L. Ron Hubbard is God
David Koresh is the second coming of Christ
Distract Members from Thinking
“Unthinkable” Thoughts
Especially important for new members
Chanting
Singing
Meditation
Constant group interaction
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
Recap
Create your own social reality
Use the ingroup bias
Create commitment
Establish leader’s credibility & attractiveness
Send members out to witness
Distract members from thinking the
“unthinkable”
Fixate members’ vision on a phantom
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.