Several things have proven to be unsuccessful. They are the first things that people want to do - telling people that they are in a cult or stupid or brainwashed is almost always a failure. Cults by design have defenses against these approaches including indoctrination that encourages cult members be prepared for the criticisms they will face.
The cult usually has several thought stopping cliches that answer all criticism and stop critical thinking regarding criticism and steer the thinking and emotions of the cult member towards criticizing the critic (Scientology, for example, trains members that Scientology is the most ethical group on earth and that critics always have hidden crimes and hidden evil purposes that bias them to lie endlessly about Scientology).
When someone has bought into the idea that they should always attack the attacker and relentlessly pursues this it is useless to criticize the cult or the choice of the cult member to join the group. It will just destroy your relationship with the person. If they are talking to you and you have a positive relationship that is your best resource. You have to try to preserve the relationship and not antagonize the person.
Depending on which cult they are in you may have a hard time getting them to look at any information on critical thinking or psychology or cults.
Scientology for example discourages any study of critical thinking, psychology or any thinking on these topics other than Scientology doctrine.
Often people who are in cults need years or decades of seeing the cult itself contradict its own statements. The book A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance by Leon Festinger describes how this process works in fine detail. Quotes below from A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance followed by the page number.
Dissonance has been shown to be an inevitable consequence of a decision. The magnitude of the postdecision dissonance has been hypothesized to depend upon the following factors:
1. The importance of the decision.
2.The relative attractiveness of the unchosen alternative to the chosen one.
3. The degree of overlap of cognitive elements corresponding to the alternatives.
Once dissonance exists following a decision, the pressure to reduce it will manifest itself in attempts to decrease the relative attractiveness of the unchosen alternative, to establish cognitive overlap, or possibly to revoke the decision psychologically. (Page 47)
1. Following a decision there is active seeking out of information which produces cognition consonant with the action taken.
2. Following a decision there is an increase in the confidence in the decision or an increase in the discrepancy in attractiveness between the alternatives involved in the choice, or both. Each reflects successful reduction of dissonance.
3. The successful reduction of postdecision dissonance is further shown in the difficulty of reversing a decision once it is made and in the implication which changed cognition has for future relevant action.
4. The effects listed above vary directly with the magnitude of dissonance created by the decision. (Page 83)
Festinger described how people without preexisting bias on a subject who need to make a decision on that subject seek information. Regarding that subject they seek information of different kinds from different sources and are impartial in what they seek out and willing to take in information of different kinds without concern for either the source or content. They are open to different ideas from different people.
After making a decision some of the information will become consonant in other words in agreement with the behavior chosen and some will become dissonant in other words in disagreement. This will effectively reorganize the information and eventually create bias.
Festinger went on to say:
The presence or absence of dissonance in some particular content area will have important effects on the degree of information seeking and on the selectivity of such information seeking. (Page 126)
Relative absence of dissonance. If little or no dissonance exists, there would be no motivation ( considering this source of motivation alone ) to seek out new and additional information. (Page 127)
The presence of moderate amounts of dissonance. The existence of appreciable dissonance and the consequent pressure to reduce it will lead to the seeking out of information which will introduce consonances and to the avoidance of information which will increase the already existing dissonance. (Page 128)
The presence of extremely large amounts of dissonance. Under such circumstances a person may actively seek out, and expose himself to, dissonance-increasing information. If he can increase the dissonance to the point where it is greater than the resistance to change of one or another cluster of cognitions, he will then change the cognitive elements involved, thus markedly reducing or perhaps even wholly eliminating the dissonance which now is so great. (Page 129)
Festinger here gives us crucial information. If the internal conflict over an idea or behavior is entirely absent a person has no reason to gain information. There are some things a person doesn't care about. A concept may not have any supporting or opposing content in one's mind. So you just don't care.
If you have moderate dissonance, meaning a bit of discouraging information but not too much you avoid disagreeing evidence and seek agreeing evidence. So you might avoid TV shows that disagree with your political views, as an example, and watch ones likely to agree.
For millions of Americans an extreme polarization and self censorship is observable. With as an example Fox news millions of people either agree and only watch Fox news for national political information or strongly disagree and never watch Fox news for national political information.
One could say many of these people have moderate dissonance and seek to reduce it by finding agreement from Fox while avoiding disagreement from others. Now one might say "Why is the dissonance continuing if he only seeks agreement ?", Well he runs into people who don't follow his beliefs or other evidence. So he can stay in moderate dissonance for decades if he doesn't change his routine or get new information of significant influence relevant to the dissonant cognition.
Here is the goldilocks zone of any subject, you care and are not unbiased and open to any information. But you are seeking more proof you are already right and avoiding proof you are wrong. The conditions are just right to keep you close minded and biased towards your beliefs and behaviors. And to keep finding evidence you are right while avoiding evidence you are wrong.
The Scientology cult is built to get a person here subtly, covertly and keep them there.
Now when dissonance is near the absolute limit possible a person changes dramatically. They can seek dissonant information to examine. Why ? Because the way they have been thinking and doing things isn't comfortable and finding small bits of consonant information doesn't relieve the dissonance.
As a simple way to describe this say you get a job at a company and for a while like the pay, work and work environment. It is highly consonant. You don't look for evidence against your job. Simple, then say you find out your company pollutes extensively and uses slave labor in other countries and other unethical practices. Say that is highly troubling to you and you feel tremendously conflicted. It generates high dissonance. You are very concerned on a deep personal level.
At that point just seeing the company logo or motto won't comfort you. A manager just trying to mildly compliment the company won't work. It will merely frustrate you.
In this situation seeking more evidence against your old behaviors and ideas may actually be sought and feel right. Even though you face admitting having been wrong you can dismiss much or all the dissonance involved by changing your mind. All the dissonant elements can be resorted as consonant and the formerly consonant ones as dissonant. So you can entirely switch sides on an issue. For a job you might quit.
Well for Scientologists this has special meaning. When dissonance escalates to explosive proportions the Scientologist can start seeking neutral or critical information on Scientology. Normally Scientologists never do that.
But eventually hearing the same ideas from Hubbard or getting auditing may not relieve doubts about Scientology. So this is the origin of lurkers - the people who secretly look outside the cult and examine the internet at sites like the Underground Bunker and read books critical of Scientology.
In social psychology the three factors of emotions , behaviors and ideas interact. In theory all three are connected and can influence each other. Hubbard stole all three for his methods and renamed and redefined each. He called emotions affinity, ideas reality and behaviors communication. He recognized that manipulating any one could control the other two. I explored that in ARC and KRC.
Cognitive dissonance theory has the concept that with enough dissonance, which for my example can be seen as equivalent to an emotion, one can affect behavior and subsequently beliefs which are ideas. With no concern for something no behavior regarding it is inspired, with slight concern a little reassurance is sought and accepted and with tremendous unrelenting discomfort, even anxiety , internal conflict and worry a person can be driven to look for disagreeing information to settle the issue. They can become open, even slightly, to accepting the criticism of their formerly held beliefs. In this way emotions that in the past trapped a person can turn and compel them towards freedom. This level is called explosive dissonance.
The lurkers moved outside the goldilocks zone. Some sadly are so overwhelmed and confused they stop and go back into the cult. So the information they run into is important.
Fortunately many keep up looking outside the cult and begin recovery in earnest. I hope this post has offered an explanation that will help people understand why people stay and why they leave. And to help them recover.
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