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I have a theory!
(I have theories about everything)
It& #39;s that a cognitive bias toward authority-based rather than evidence-based reasoning is an important check-off on the "are you a potential cult recruit" vs "are you really, really not" https://twitter.com/drvox/status/1321152190744940544">https://twitter.com/drvox/sta...
(I have theories about everything)
It& #39;s that a cognitive bias toward authority-based rather than evidence-based reasoning is an important check-off on the "are you a potential cult recruit" vs "are you really, really not" https://twitter.com/drvox/status/1321152190744940544">https://twitter.com/drvox/sta...
Cults -- and I& #39;m starting to include my own evangelical Protestantism under the "cult" umbrella -- exploit a basic human need for a sense of belonging and identity.
Oh, and purpose. How could I forget purpose. Belonging, identity, and purpose. These are the things cults give you, or at least PROMISE to give you.
But, what makes something a cult?
But, what makes something a cult?
A cult is a totalistic movement. There& #39;s a lot of reading to do on the characteristics of totalistic movements --
https://culteducation.com/brainwashing/26424-thought-reform-and-the-psychology-of-totalism.html">https://culteducation.com/brainwash...
https://culteducation.com/brainwashing/26424-thought-reform-and-the-psychology-of-totalism.html">https://culteducation.com/brainwash...
But I have a shorthand, and I& #39;m self-conscious even *saying* it because I& #39;ve internalized how much evangelical Christians would bristle:
I believe a healthy religion resembles, basically, a hobby or fandom.
Anything that demands MORE of you than that, is a cult.
I believe a healthy religion resembles, basically, a hobby or fandom.
Anything that demands MORE of you than that, is a cult.
If you want to see if something is a cult or not -- try to leave and see what happens.
This is why I& #39;ve retroactively started to identify my childhood evangelical Protestantism as a cult, because of what happened when I tried to leave.
This is why I& #39;ve retroactively started to identify my childhood evangelical Protestantism as a cult, because of what happened when I tried to leave.
But why did I WANT to leave?
Cults more or less base their entire existence around preventing people from leaving. I was raised in the cult, I didn& #39;t know anything else. My whole family was still in it -- leaving the cult, I had nowhere to go.
So, why leave?
Cults more or less base their entire existence around preventing people from leaving. I was raised in the cult, I didn& #39;t know anything else. My whole family was still in it -- leaving the cult, I had nowhere to go.
So, why leave?
A cult offers: belonging, identity, and purpose/meaning in exchange for, basically, your soul. It& #39;s a steep price, but if it really delivers on those things, I guess, people are willing to pay it.
But what if it doesn& #39;t even offer you those things?
But what if it doesn& #39;t even offer you those things?
This is where my theory about evidence-based vs authority-based reasoning comes in. I think cults are mostly designed to "work" on people who are naturally biased toward authority-based reasoning.
And I& #39;m really, really the opposite.
Growing up in an authoritarian cult, I was taught to doubt my own perceptions and conclusions, and I do. I recognized that memory is faulty, perceptions imperfect. So I learned to fact-check myself. Take notes. Test things out.
Growing up in an authoritarian cult, I was taught to doubt my own perceptions and conclusions, and I do. I recognized that memory is faulty, perceptions imperfect. So I learned to fact-check myself. Take notes. Test things out.
I still don& #39;t know to what extent my strong evidence-based reasoning bias is inborn vs. learned as a defense mechanism.
But it means the cult didn& #39;t WORK -- it didn& #39;t deliver.
But it means the cult didn& #39;t WORK -- it didn& #39;t deliver.
I didn& #39;t get belonging, identity, and purpose -- instead I got alienation, loneliness, depression, one existential crisis after another, and a sense of doubt and uncertainty that goes all the way down.
But, that& #39;s what happened to me being raised in a cult.
As an adult, I could& #39;ve just not joined, and been vaguely baffled about why anybody would.
As an adult, I could& #39;ve just not joined, and been vaguely baffled about why anybody would.
Anyway, one of my theories about the authority-vs-evidence bias in human cognition is that people who are strongly in one camp or the other often REALLY don& #39;t understand the thinking of people strongly in the opposite camp.
It& #39;s a cognitive bias, right? So literally EVERYTHING in your brain is filtered through that bias. It& #39;s almost impossible to even imagine what reality looks like to somebody with the opposite cognitive bias.
For example, look at the way creationists talk about "evolutionists" -- as if we "believe in" evolution as a religious precept, the same WAY they believe in creationism.
Or, look at the way Republicans, evangelicals, Qanoners -- authoritarian thinkers, all -- talk about science and scientists. As if a scientist is simply a *competing* authority figure.
I could probably natter about this all day, but lunch is over, so I& #39;ll leave you with this: I think evidence-based thinkers CAN comprehend authority-based thinkers, in a way, because we can OBSERVE them --
But authority-based thinking will never *intuitively* make sense to evidence-based thinkers.
It& #39;ll always seem absolutely BONKERS to me that somebody could believe in, for example, Qanon.
It& #39;ll always seem absolutely BONKERS to me that somebody could believe in, for example, Qanon.
But I have the evidence that they do.
And I always have to go with the evidence.
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And I always have to go with the evidence.
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