Why People Join A Cult

The concept of cults are intriguing and arouse the curiosity in minds of the people who have accepted a life in society and joined humanity the way that it is. It’s a strange thought that people could just walk away from their regular lives to put trust in something so foreign to them, but promises a great return or will save them from something that may cause harm. There are many reasons somebody may turn to join a cult, because they are very promising, and may be the only option remaining for some people because of a tragic event occurring in their life or a mental state they are currently going through. Cults are communities of worship that so often include an obsessive devotion to an ideal or even a leader. Cults are a common thing in society and have potential to be destructive due to the idea of groupthink, which is a psychological phenomenon that occurs in groups in which the desire for conformity results in irrational decision making. Cults have traditionally formed during or after negative periods of history, such as wars, when people are the most vulnerable. However, it wasn’t until the late 1970’s did cults really
In 1987, William Sims Bainbridge and Rodney Stark created “344 propositions to explain almost every aspect of religion, including why someone may join a cult” (Bader and Demaris, 1996). First, the terms cult and sect were defined as followed: “Cults are new religious movements that haven’t split apart from another religious organization, and sects are movements that separate from churchs because of dispute over practices and beliefs” (Bader and Demaris 1996). The specific Propositions that Demaris and Bader decided were best to study are, 1. People with low stakes in conformity have less favorable evaluations of conventional explainations than people with high stakes in