Are you in a cult? Here’s how celebrity leaders can manipulate their followers
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Do you listen to Taylor Swift, browse Gwyneth Paltrow’s latest self-care obsessions at Goop, or follow Elon Musk’s interior monologues on X? They’re quite normal activities today, but beware: you might actually have joined a cult.
Is that really true? Probably not. But Swift, Goop, and Musk are all cultural mainstays that have had the cult label applied to them at some point, no matter how innocuous their fandoms may really be. This could simply be because cults seem to be everywhere these days.
News articles, documentaries and streaming series have shown us the sordid inner workings of countless real cults, from the Manson family to NXIVM (pronounced nek-see-um). And figures today, both popular and divisive, have seemed to embody the charisma and totalitarian tendencies we see in cult leaders, attracting millions of ardent fans.
So, are cults really spreading throughout modern society, invisibly sucking the vulnerable into a whirlpool of fear, loyalty, abuse and coercion? Have we grown more susceptible to cult recruitment in an age dominated by virtual interactions? Or is cult psychology perhaps more ingrained in human nature than we might want to believe?
The word ‘cult’ summons a fairly specific image. A group of unkempt, oddly dressed men and women, likely living in a compound, singing songs and perhaps farming beets. A leader – probably a man – walks among them, basking in their adulation, stopping to offer a word to a favourite follower.
Behind closed doors there are strange rituals, beatings, promises of eternal salvation, humiliation and abuse, people desperate to leave but unable to cut their ties. Murder and orgies may figure in as well.
Many of the more famous cults, like the Peoples Temple or the Branch Davidians, do stick to that stereotype to some extent. But there have been countless cults throughout history, not all exactly the same. Definitions used by experts can vary somewhat, but they’ve largely coalesced around several key characteristics.
The first is a leader who is both charismatic and authoritarian. Charles Manson bore more than a passing resemblance to Jesus, and strummed his guitar on street corners to attract young women.
Keith Raniere, the leader of the NXIVM cult now accused of sex trafficking, was hailed by his followers as a genius. Both also coerced their followers into horrifying acts.
Psychologists often speak of the ‘dark triad’ when they discuss cult leaders, or the personality traits of Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism.
Narcissism in particular might be most dangerous says Prof Michael Hogg, a professor of social psychology at Claremont Graduate University, in the US. Not only do narcissists seek praise, but they’re far more likely to take leadership.
“They think themselves so fabulous, so wonderful, they think: ‘Well, of course I’m going to do the leadership’,” he says.
Content retrieved from: https://www.sciencefocus.com/wellbeing/cult-leader-psychology.
