Cult-like Beliefs

Radicalization as a social phenomenon

We decide what to believe by deciding who to believe. What we think of the problem of “misinformation” is a social phenomenon.

Consider people who become political radicals. Or decide that they are trans. Or become convinced that Trump is a genius. Or become convinced that Trump is Hitler. How do they become attached to their beliefs?

I think that there is a relationship between adopting intense, messed-up beliefs and being sucked into a cult. In this essay, I want to explore that connection.

When is it a cult?

All of us believe that we have understanding of the world. We believe that our moral norms are good to hold. But we allow that we could be wrong in our perceptions or in our judgments. In a cult, we believe that we have found the “one true way.” Everything else is at best misguided and at worst evil.

If you are not in a cult, you will have friends, families, and associates with various interests and beliefs. If you are in a cult, you will cut off contact with anyone who is outside of the cult.

If you are not in a cult, you understand that there are many people who deserve some of your attention. You try to synthesize ideas from multiple sources. You treat your synthesis as provisional. There are no ultimate answers. No one person is right about everything. If you are in a cult, you may have a leader who you regard as infallible. At the very least, you view the leader as having unique insights that set him apart from the rest of humanity.

If you are not in a cult, you see that some differences among people are healthy. It is ok for someone to belong to a different church. If you are in a cult, you see everyone outside of your cult as at best blind to the “true way” and at worst the enemy of the “true way.” You live entirely in an “us vs. them” world.

If you are not in a cult, you tolerate and even respect dissenting voices. If you are in a cult, dissent is unacceptable, and the dissenter must be cast out.

If you are not in a cult, your sense of self-worth is derived from many sources. If you are in a cult, you depend exclusively on praise from within the cult.

If you are not in a cult, your emotional and financial commitment to any particular group can sometimes go up and sometimes go down. If you are in a cult, your commitment has to continually increase.

If you are not in a cult, you have multiple, diverse sources of social support. You have multiple, diverse sources of information. If you are in a cult, all of your social support comes from the cult. All of your information comes from the cult.

Perhaps we should not think of cult-like behavior in “either-or” terms, meaning that you are either you are sucked into a cult or you are not. Perhaps we should think of group attachment as a spectrum, with levels of attachment varying. Some degree of attachment is healthy, but excessive attachment is not.

The Online Environment

I get the impression that the online environment facilitates cult-like behavior. You may choose to spend almost all of your time in a particular niche, rather than deriving information and social support from diverse sources.

Perhaps the very behavior of spending a lot of time on line can foster a feeling of alienation. Perhaps it can encourage you to believe that you have found a “true way” that others ignore or oppose.

For whatever reason, my impression is that cult-like behavior is on the rise. I get the sense that more cults are forming and growing. I get the sense that people are more readily adopting cult-level attachments than was the case in the past.

Note: My computer came back, although it took several days longer than I expected. The problem with using another computer is that I have to re-generate my credentials for sites. Doing a routine backup might be worth it just for that.