Social Psychological Techniques of Cults

Yexin Xu

doi:10.54254/2753-7048/2025.CB26836

Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public MediaOpen access

Social Psychological Techniques of Cults

Research Article

Open Access

Social Psychological Techniques of Cults

Yexin Xu ^1*

¹ University of Toronto

^*Corresponding author: yexin.xu@mail.utoronto.ca

Published on 16 September 2025

LNEP Vol.122

ISSN (Print): 2753-7056

ISSN (Online): 2753-7048

ISBN (Print): 978-1-80590-377-2

ISBN (Online): 978-1-80590-378-9

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Abstract

With the development of religious culture, a extreme form of religion-cult is also becoming more rampant, they use specific means to brainwash the minds of believers and manipulate their behaviors, which negatively affects their physical and mental health. In this paper, This paper will analyze the foot-in-the-door technique and deindividuation used by the cult the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God (MRTCG) to explain the reasons why believers, after joining into the cult, end up in self-immolations. Also, this paper will give a solution to improve the social consequence - more people fall into the cult and end up following the organization's instructions to commit suicide - by placing more advertisements that popularize the cult's brainwashing techniques to the public in order to provide a forewarning to better resistance to the cult's persuasions, however, this method also has the disadvantage of being ineffective when the target audience is distracted.

Keywords:

Cults, MRTCG, Foot-in-the-door Technique, Mass Suicide

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References

[1]. Introvigne, M. (2005). Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God. Encyclopedia of Religion. https: //www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-ma ps/movement-restoration-ten-commandments-god

[2]. Hannan, L. (2000, March 20). Up to 600 cult members burnt in a locked church. Was it mass suicide - or murder? The Independent. https: //www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/up-to-600-cult-members-burnt-in-a-lo cked-church-was-it-mass-suicide-or-murder-5372012.html

[3]. Myers, D. G., Twenge, J., Jordan, C. H., & Smith, S. M. (2021). Social Psychology, 8thCanadian edition. McGraw Hill. ISBN-13: 9781260327014

[4]. Walker, S. (2024). Persuasion. Psychology Department. University of Toronto. Zimbardo, P.G. (1969). The human choice: individuation, reason, and order versus deindividuation, impulse, and chaos. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 237-307.

[5]. Freedman, J.L., & Fraser, S.C. (1966). Compliance without pressure: the foot-in-the- door technique. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4(2), 195-202. 10.1037/h0023552.

[6]. Walker, S. (2024). Conformity & Group Influence. Psychology Department. University of Toronto.

[7]. Zimbardo, P.G. (1969). The human choice: individuation, reason, and order versus deindividuation, impulse, and chaos. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 237-307.

[8]. Jansen, L., Fennis, B.M., & Pruyn, A.T.H. (2010). Forewarned is forearmed: conserving self-control strength to resist social influence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 911-921. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2010.06.008.

References

[3]. Myers, D. G., Twenge, J., Jordan, C. H., & Smith, S. M. (2021). Social Psychology, 8thCanadian edition. McGraw Hill. ISBN-13: 9781260327014

[5]. Freedman, J.L., & Fraser, S.C. (1966). Compliance without pressure: the foot-in-the- door technique. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4(2), 195-202. 10.1037/h0023552.

[6]. Walker, S. (2024). Conformity & Group Influence. Psychology Department. University of Toronto.

[7]. Zimbardo, P.G. (1969). The human choice: individuation, reason, and order versus deindividuation, impulse, and chaos. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 237-307.

Cite this article

Xu,Y. (2025). Social Psychological Techniques of Cults. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media,122,1-4.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

About volume

Volume title: Proceedings of ICEIPI 2025 Symposium: AI Am Ready: Artificial Intelligence as Pedagogical Scaffold

ISBN: 978-1-80590-377-2(Print) / 978-1-80590-378-9(Online)

Editor: Kurt Buhring, Gregg S. Lloren

Conference website: https://2025.iceipi.org/Cebu.html

Conference date: 23 July 2025

Series: Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media

Volume number: Vol.122

ISSN: 2753-7048(Print) / 2753-7056(Online)

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