In 1978, Jonestown, Guyana, 917 Americans of The People’s Temple committed mass suicide by cyanide poisoning. Among the members were young children.

But that was years ago. Indeed, we like to associate cults with the past, thinking that we are much more critical and informed of our environment than our grandparents were. But think of conspiracist social networking sites. Do you think they play a role in the making of cults in the digital world? This article will examine why the topic of cult psychology, with the emergence of the internet, is still relevant today.

Warning: The topic of this article may be upsetting to some people.  

Also note: This article only talks about cult psychology in relevance to western culture. I’ve linked youtube videos below about some “cults” in Indonesia, South Korea, and Japan that I think are worthy of attention. “Cults” because some social scientists are still unsure about whether to call them “cults”.

This article will cover:

• What is a cult: definition and history
• Coercive persuasion techniques
• The rise of internet culture: QAnon

What is a cult: Definition and history

Discussions of cults have an interesting psychological and sociological insight [5,7]. In Western Europe and U.S.A, cult studies boomed in the 1970s, where people saw flourishment of new cults and its devastating impacts especially on young people[9]. To understand cult psychology, it would be interesting to see the historical context in western society. Specifically, the definition of cult differs in three groups: social scientists, Christian counter-cult ministries, and secular anti-cultists[7].

Social scientists: cults are “an organized group with socially-deviant beliefs with excessive devotion to them”. Social scientists sometimes disagree on which groups they label as “cult”, but they agree that strong considerations of the country’s society are important to identify “socially-deviant beliefs”[6,7].

Christian counter-cult ministries: Less inclusive and more pejorative than that of social scientists. Concerned about the growth of different religions in the U.S.A, labeled almost any religions as “cults” if they deviate from orthodox Christianity[7]. Because of globalization, this perspective is not very popular today, especially in the scientific community[6,7].

Anti-cultists: The dominant force in public debates on cults in the 1970s, which saw tragic events perpetuated by new cults[6] Their definition of cults is more similar to social scientists, but stresses more on the destructiveness of cults, which includes brainwashing of new members and destroying their abilities to make rational judgements[9].

As our interest lies in social psychology, we will naturally proceed with the social scientific definition of cults, but also the implications on (ex) cult members brought about first by anti-cultists.

With this in mind, according to the Cult education Institute, social scientists have consensus that below are some warning signs of cults[13]:

1. Absolute authoritarianism without accountability
2. No tolerance for criticism or questions
3. Former followers are always wrong for leaving and there is no legitimate reason for anyone to leave
4. Records, books, articles or programs that document the abuses of the leader or group
5. Followers feel they are never able to be “good enough”
6. The leader is considered right at all times
7. The leader is the exclusive means of knowing “truth” or giving validation.

Coercive persuasion techniques

Coercive persuasion, also known as brainwashing, refers to a process in which a group or individual systematically uses unethical manipulative methods such as threats, intimidation, and anxiety, to change another’s behaviors and attitudes[8,10]. Authorities of cults use coercive persuasion to ensure that cult members divorce from their individuality to uphold the cult’s beliefs and attitudes[10]. The techniques can be divided into three types[10]:

1. Social environmental: Authority manipulates the victim’s environment to weaken their mental resistance to persuade them easier. When one is isolated with the cult with little interference from the outside world, they gradually feel dependent on the cult. This means they are more susceptible to be influenced by the group’s culture and ideologies[6].  

• Physically isolating the victim from the outside world, thus contact with foreigners of different opinions is impossible. In the case of The People’s Temple, cult leader Jim Jones coerced his followers to sell their houses to move with him to the isolated town of Jonestown, Guyana[5].
• Information control, in which authorities ban external knowledge they consider threats to their cult’s culture, but also manipulate information to strengthen beliefs of their cult being good, and outsiders being bad[6]. A classic example of this is banning books under a dictatorial regime. Victims’ knowledge on the world and critical thinking will be limited[6,7].
• Creating a sense of existential dependency is also a popular method, in which leaders, through manipulation and actions, make followers believe that they are very dependent on the leader, so much so that the fact that they are alive is because of the leader’s goodness[6,10]. After Jim Jones successfully coerced his followers into selling their houses, he vowed that they will be taken care of in Jonestown. He provided them with shelters, beds, and farms to work on, all in an isolated village[5]. Thus, his followers found it difficult to believe that they can exist independently without him and the church[3,6].

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2. Emotional techniques: We are probably most familiar with this one because it is used in many other coercive techniques such as gaslighting[10]. Authority directly manipulates victims’ emotions to influence attitude change.

• Emotional activation of pleasure which consists of leaders harnessing attention and likeability through a charming personality[5,8]. Because of the likable traits associated with the leaders, followers are more likely motivated to identify with the leaders and crave validation from them[3,7].
• Emotional activation of fear, guilt, anxiety, where leaders use rewards and punishments to elicit emotional responses of fear, guilt, and anxiety[10]. A leader might elicit punishments for “lack of obedience” and praise people who conform by giving them special “titles”[5].

3. Cognitive techniques: contrary to attacking emotions, this technique targets our critical thinking skills and our ability to make rational decisions[5]. It draws from the two mentioned above because people who feel dependent on the leader and cult are in good position to be coerced into adopting the culture and attitude of the cult.  

• Denigration of critical thinking, where the leader presents manipulative arguments to show that the victims’ opinions are false or even laughable. Victims then end up suppressing their thoughts, telling themselves that their thoughts are not worth examining[5].
• Use of lies, where leaders fake or manipulate information about the outside world so that victims believe that the outside world is bad and their group is good[9,12]. This strengthens their group identity.
• Control of language, where leaders limit the vocabulary of followers to restrain them from asking particular questions and evaluations[6].

These are just some ways of coercive persuasion that are specific to cults. If you are interested in learning more about how people become obedient to illegitimate authorities, click here to read a similar article :) https://www.shrinkitout.com/article/the-dark-side-of-obedience-to-authority

The rise of internet culture: QAnon

Now that we’ve read the techniques used by cult leaders to make followers submit to them, we wonder whether we are much less prone to them. Are we more critical and informed than people in the 70s? The answer, you may think, is probably but to an extent. Many people, including myself, can see how it’s not impossible to get influenced by the techniques above.

The rise of social networking sites have made us more informed about the world, but it can also land us in a rabbit hole of damaging conspiracies[2]. An example of this is QAnon. Information of this social media cult is too much to be described in a few paragraphs, but if you are interested, feel free to use the links I’ve provided in the bibliography section.

Also please beware that the following might contain information about the group’s conspiracies that may upset you.

QAnon is an American political far-right movement based on conspiracies informed by the anonymous user “Q”[2] . Through various platforms such as YouTube and Telegram, followers of Q converse baseless conspiracies against many Hollywood actors and democratic politicians[1,2]. Many of their conspiracies have been labeled as anti-semetic[11] and obsessed with the idea that Donald Trump “will expose democratic politicians of their involvement with sex trafficking children”[4]. This movement is even extending to a few Western European countries and Japan[12].

According to an expert in online conspiracy, Renee DiResta, QAnon’s way of luring people into baseless theories is similar to cults of the pre-internet era[1]. “As the targeted person was led deeper into the group’s secrets, they become increasingly isolated from families and friends outside the cult”[4]. Online support groups have even been developed for those who “lost” families and friends to QAnon, notably r/QAnonCasualities, which currently has 216,000 members (as of december 2021).  The movement also involves groupthink, which is a psychological phenomena where members of a group adopt common beliefs and attitudes that leads to irrational and dysfunctional decision making. Individuals diminish their sense of critical thinking[6]. Furthermore, the followers uphold the belief of feeling special with the unique information they have and they rarely subject conspiracies to fact-checks[4]. Social psychologist Rachel Bernstein stated that this is because they fear losing their special identity as people with “special” information[1,4].

An interesting part about QAnon is that contrary to pre-internet cults, followers don’t even know who their leader is. This allows them to freely imagine and overestimate the superiority and the “all-mightiness” of their leader[7]. With the rise of social media networking sites, it’s clear that we are in some ways more vulnerable than pre-internet eras, to be sucked into these conspiracist forums because they are only a few clicks away.

However! There are many strategies we can use to make us more critical about what authority figures say to us. This will lessen the manipulative impact on our emotions and thoughts. Read “How to break free: defeating the norm” in my old article :) https://www.shrinkitout.com/article/the-dark-side-of-obedience-to-authority

And to know more about how we believe in conspiracy theories, read https://www.shrinkitout.com/article/the-earth-is-flat-the-psychology-behind-conspiracy-theories

In conclusion, cult psychology gives us insight on how authority figures can change our attitudes and beliefs through coercive persuasion techniques. Furthermore, I think that studies on cults are still relevant today, especially with the rise of social networking forums, which give us new and interesting phenomena about the development of cults in the 21st century. This is particularly interesting because the target age groups of these sites are usually young people who are in the process of finding their identity in society.

So what about you? have you encountered cult-like forums on social media? Or have you first handedly seen QAnon forums in action?

Extra sources

1. QAnon conspiracies are tearing through evangelical America- YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYMIozCKxGE
2. Why do people join cults? - TED-Ed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB-dJaCXAxA
3. I grew up in a cult. it was heaven-and hell. - Tedx talks ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS7mBbXxJYA
4. Enslaved by the cult- Exploitation of young boys in Java’s ancient tradition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSQMMYxq8oc
5. Japan’s strangest cult? - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIS-RE3gO64

6. South Korea: In the kingdom of the reverend Moon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebrbLTlalV0

Bibliography

1. Andrews, T. (2020, October 12). QAnon is tearing families apart. Washington Post. https://web.archive.org/web/20201211233337/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/09/14/qanon-families-support-group/

2. Bank, J., Stack, L., & Victor, D. (2020, August 18). From 2018: Explaining QAnon, the Internet Conspiracy Theory That Showed Up at a Trump Rally. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/01/us/politics/what-is-qanon.html

3. Banks, S. P. (2008). Dissent and the Failure of Leadership (New Horizons in Leadership Studies). Edward Elgar Pub.

4. DiResta, R. (2018, November 13). From QAnon to Pizzagate, When Online Conspiracies Form Cults. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/online-conspiracy-groups-qanon-cults/

5. Jonestown | History, Facts, Jim Jones, & Survivors. (2021, November 11). Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Jonestown

6. Marlin, O. (1990). Group psychology in the totalitarian system: A psychoanalytic view. Group, 14(1), 44–58. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01458125

7. Melton, G. J. (2014). Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America: The Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America Vol (Religious Information Systems). JG Melton.

8. Moore, R. M. (2018). Understanding Jonestown and Peoples Temple. Praeger.

9. New Religious Movements: History of Study | Encyclopedia.com. (2017). Encyclopedia.Com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/new-religious-movements-history-study

10. O. (2018, November 19). Brainwashing: Coercive Persuasion Techniques. Exploring Your Mind. https://exploringyourmind.com/brainwashing-coercive-persuasion-techniques/

11. Sales, B. (2020, September 18). QAnon is an old form of anti-Semitism in a new package, experts say. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. https://www.jta.org/2020/09/18/politics/qanon-is-an-old-form-of-anti-semitism-in-a-new-package-experts-say

12. Scott, M. (2020, November 6). Europe’s QAnon followers embrace US election conspiracy theories. POLITICO. https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-qanon-us-election/

13. User, S. (n.d.). Warning Signs. Cult Education Institute. https://culteducation.com/warningsigns.html