A study of belief formation and its change (3) : Process of belief-system change by cult mind-control

Abstract

This paper is intented as an investigation of process of belief-system change by means of a religious cult mind-control. This study analyzed the process by mainly using a questionnaire survey administrated to 272 persons of the cult exiters, with content analysis of text books of the dogma, videotapes of the dogma, recruiting manual, seminar's manuals and interviews to exiters from the religious cult supplementary used. It should be concluded from the analysis that the cult recruiters take advantage of camouflaged religious recruiting, interpersonal attraction, group attraction, personal and social reality operations for recruiter's mind control. In the process, to begin with, the recruiter are attracted by the recruiter's warm regard and they begin to learn the dogma without knowing that it is a religious recruiting. As the next step, recruiter come to believe the dogma through influence of reality operation and interpersonal attraction. And finally, the recruiters tell the truth of their own group to the recruiters and ask them to be the members of the group.