How Cults Work 9 - Undue Influence In Recruitment

How Cults Work - Undue Influence In Recruitment

This is the ninth post in a series dedicated to the book Terror, Love and Brainwashing by Alexandra Stein.

Stein described "undue influence mechanisms in recruitment" :
 "A variety of other social influence techniques are employed in the recruitment stage. They include: obedience to authority, as demonstrated in Milgram's famous electric shock experiments; Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance; the majority effect shown in Asch's" lines" experiments; and ingratiation techniques such as flattery, similarity and making use of the principle of reciprocity. These and other scholars have defined a variety of ways in which we, as humans conform, comply and obey -  all features necessary to group living, but behaviors that can also be subject to manipulation. " Page 57

 "These social psychological processes are used to great advantage by totalist groups. They are very important to understand, but they are not the focus of this book. Writers such as Cialdini, Lalich, Singer, Hassan and Zimbardo have described these well and studying their work results in a tremendous  pay off in terms of protecting one from making poor decisions based on rather universal human vulnerabilities." Page 58

I have read quite a bit regarding this topic and can personally recommend Influence by Robert Cialdini as fundamental to understand psychology, Take Back Your Life by Janja Lalich regarding cults and abusive relationships and their similarities, Cults In Our Midst by Margaret Singer as one of the absolute best books on cults ever with simple language and clearly communicated ideas, Freedom of Mind by Steven Hassan with his model of cultic influence and a very easy to understand delivery that encompasses much of basic principles in cultic studies, and I also recommend Cults Inside Out by Rick Alan Ross which has a comprehensive analysis of cults and cultic references and could be used for an entire curriculum on cults with the references described in great detail, an absolute must for serious cultic students. Additionally A Theory Of Cognitive Dissonance by Leon Festinger is essential to understand psychology and cults, reading this book is crucial to understanding the subject.

To address Scientology in particular my highest possible recommendation goes to the work of Jon Atack. His Scientology Mythbusting articles at The Underground Bunker blog and articles such as Never Believe A Hypnotist, The Total Freedom Trap, Hubbard and the Occult and many more dismantle much of the undue influence in Scientology and his book Piece Of Blue Sky is probably the most accurate and detailed history of Scientology available. 

As I have said before I have written numerous blog posts at Mockingbird's Nest on the undue influence used in Scientology and feel the work of Alexandra Stein fills a hole that was left in earlier models. It in my opinion compliments the ideas Daniel Shaw provided in his book Traumatic Narcissism and together they explain key issues regarding how cults work as relationships and on a social or group basis rather than just examining individual cult members or just the leaders of cults and no one else.

I know further on Stein gives more answers regarding the relationships that tie cults together and how they work. We already have her crucial new, to me, ideas of trauma alternated with love to create dissociation and impaired critical thinking as the way to control cult members. 

Stein adds a few ideas regarding who is vulnerable to cult recruitment to close the chapter.

 "The search to find "who is vulnerable" to totalist recruitment is destined to continued failure. Cult recruitment is primarily the result of situational vulnerabilities not personality vulnerabilities (or what social psychologists call situational as opposed to dispositional factors.) What are these situational vulnerabilities ? Singer, who counseled thousands of former cult members, described a key vulnerability as being in a normal life "blip." That is, some recent, yet developmentally normal, change in life situation such as a recent move to attend university, a divorce or other relationship breakup, perhaps a death in the family, or a change of job or housing. WAr, natural disasters or social upheavals - such as the breakup of the former Soviet Union, or the current collapsed states of Syria or Somalia - can contribute to weakening family and community ties leading to increased social fragmentation and isolation. Simply living in the contemporary developed world, with fewer neighborhood ties and more dispersed families, means most of us live in increasingly vulnerable social networks. " Page 59

So,  Stein has shown how what situation one is in is the source of vulnerability to cult recruitment, not anything regarding a particular person like their psychology. She contrasted a political group and a political cult and found people in very similar circumstances joined one of the other. So, if you end up in a cult or more benign group is mainly a matter of luck. 

A key difference is that the political cult, The Newman Tendency, had members severe all or nearly all affiliations with non group members while the Green Party, the more benign group, had people usually keep all their old friends and associates from before when they joined. Normal groups do not need to isolate you because they do not rely on you having no escape. Normal groups do not need to severe your connections to the outside world because they are not relying on isolation and alternating terror and love to control you. 

Stein described it "The totalist group thus further isolates a person from prior relationships, while the non-totalist one is likely to have no effect at all on the person's previous relationships.

For over half a century, then, scholars of totalism from Arendt to Zimbardo have found that there is no personality profile of a potential recruit to a totalist or extremist group. The latest UK government report has come out, confirming yet again that "researchers concluded there was no 'vulnerability profile' to help identify those at risk of becoming radicalized without creating an 'unimaginable number of false positives.'

As these studies show, it is unhelpful to continue looking for a profile of a "typical" terrorist or cult recruit - most of us could become vulnerable given the right conditions, the right group and the right time. A far more fruitful approach is to understand the profile, methods and operating (perhaps we should say "hunting") grounds of the organizations to which people are recruited, and to be able to distinguish effectively between open and relatively benign organizations from dangerous, totalist organizations that are capable of exerting extreme levels of control over their members. Developing a profile of such organizations would enable societies to begin to educate and protect the public from such recruitment and indoctrination attempts." Page 60

I cannot stress strongly enough how much I agree on the last point - we need to understand that cult recruits are not especially stupid, crazy, evil, sadistic or masochistic. They are just people in situations that are vulnerable as everyone is. The groups themselves have common traits, like requiring members to sever ties to outsiders,that need to be identified and for the public to be educated regarding. That is probably the best general defense against cults.

Stein closed the chapter with "By the end of the recruitment phase the recruit (whether voluntary or involuntary) has been pulled away from prior attachments. They are being taught that these attachments are holding them back (or they have simply been removed from their attachment figures as in the case of child soldiers). The leader and the group have been established as the sole available source of comfort and knowledge, the new safe haven. Recruits are becoming busy and engaged with their groups, and they are increasingly exposed to the groups'totalist propaganda. Cognitively the person's independent thinking has been disrupted by a variety of social psychological persuasion pressures, as well as by the loss of their prior social sources of reality verification. The recruit's prior emotional and cognitive structures that have been part of their means of survival and adaptation to life are now effectively removed or neutralized. " Page 60

 In the next chapter Stein takes on how the disorganized attachment bond forms in the indoctrination.