On group control

[Anonymous No.10648764]

What books do you know of on the psychology of controlling and motivating a group of people?

I'm working on a short story about a young person being indoctrinated into a cult and want it to be "hard", as in hard sci fi. I want the reader to be educated as to the practices that cults and other groups employ to sway one over, and motivate one to join the group thought mentality.

So far I've read Hoffer, and that's pretty much it, besides some biographies. I've been recommended a few books that are specifically about cults, but am also looking for practical books on things like motivational speaking, political campaigning, and other aspects of the psychology of influence.

[Anonymous No.10648803]

I've read a few, and the names have been forgotten, but there's no real substitute for actually joining one. I gave it a go and I found that all descriptions books and especially reddit-tier nu-atheists "all cults and all religions are only for stupid or poor people" didn't quite capture the feeling.

[Anonymous No.10648892]

>>10648803
What cult did you join? I think that might be fun for a few months but I'm too poor for scientology

[Anonymous No.10648919]

>>10648892
Just a small local one in my country
I won't go near Scientology though. They have too many connections. The whole satanic panic in the states in the 90s with satanists infiltrating the government and police is actually true with scientologists

[Anonymous No.10648969]

Read about Cointelpro tactics

[Anonymous No.10648989]

>>10648919
When you joined, on purpose, did you feel as though the group you were entering treated you differently? How big, or established, was the organization? Was it related to a specific religion?

[Anonymous No.10648990]

>>10648764
I currently run a small self-help business that would fit the technical definition of a cult.

I used to be involved in MLM, after this I started researching cults online and saw that MLMs and LGATs use many of the same tactics as cults. Researching cults was such an incredibly strange experience... it's sick what cult leaders do to people. I think if you learned about it, and how easy it was to replicate, you would not want to write this book about it. I don't think there is any good in giving these cult leaders more ideas, that is where they come up with their ideas after all, is reading about it. You can describe cults so people know how to avoid them, but please do not describe how to actually form a cult. It can lead to absolutely sickening results.

My business and funnel is built on the tactics of cults. The only difference is, I am not using cult tactics for nefarious ends like admiration, or sexual power, or murder, or anything like that. I've tried to start a "legitimate" business and it just wasn't working. I don't know how to sell mattress protectors. But I do know how to put people in a meditative state and make them addicted to social contact.

[Anonymous No.10648993]

>>10648764
Read some psiclogy papers and/or books.

[Anonymous No.10649063]

>>10648990
The concept of the story is that the main character will flirt with the idea of joining, while operating under the hubristic illusion that he is too intelligent to be manipulated. The reader will be able to retrospectively pinpoint the tools that the cult used to manipulate him.

This is just a short story I'm doing because I find the premise interesting, and as an exercise in producing a "trail of bread crumbs" frame that I can later translate to the horror genre. The extent of my research will be a few books, and asking an indochinese tapestry forum for their input. My guess is people who do it for real will be quite a ways past whatever I come up with.

[Anonymous No.10649073]

>>10648989
Syncretism of Buddhism and Hinduism
It was quite small. There was just a house in a moderately well off suburb near me where people would go but I think there were other places where some people gathered. But I never went.
I actually joined because of the food though. They gave free meals out sometimes and they were actually top quality stuff. They said going to their meetings came with a group dinner afterwards so I went and the people were very friendly to everyone so it was very easy to go back.
I'm not fat, I'm actually in good shape, it's just that I cannot describe to you how good this cook was. I've never again met anyone who could make spices work the way he could.

[Anonymous No.10649087]

>>10649063
I should also add that maybe a relevant detail here was the first time I went one of the first observations I made was that the majority of the cult members were actually well-educated. There were computer programmers and medical students and philosophy students, and I think a couple of the more senior members had completed a masters in philosophy. I remember one mentioning how he wrote a thesis on Kant (I think it was Kant).
Two Amerifags came with the express intention to try and make fun of their beliefs with their fedoracore shit and they got shut down really quick, they were expecting stupid people with no logic and they found that they were actually smart people unlike what TV told them.

[Anonymous No.10649405]

bump
wanna know too

[Anonymous No.10649444]

>>10649073
>joining a religion because of the food

can't tell if that's retarded or patrician desu

[Anonymous No.10649456]

>>10649063
>The concept of the story is that the main character will flirt with the idea of joining, while operating under the hubristic illusion that he is too intelligent to be manipulated

This is kind of what happened to me when I joined a cult.

I had researched them online, I knew that they were shady. I just wanted to meet new people. I thought that I could climb through the tunnel of filth and come out clean on the other side. But I was dead wrong.

They made me recruit new people, among other things. I went in with the notion that I would do nothing too weird or too bad, that's what I thought. It's not exactly like they forced me do it. You'll often here ex-cult victims say that they were "brainwashed" as a way to take the blame off themselves. But the things I did, I did with my own free will, it's just that I was making decisions that I would not normally make.

It's a combination of social pressure, seeking certain rewards and not wanting those rewards taken away, a dash of believing the bullshit they say might be slightly real, wanting to justify the things you already did, wanting to avoid being punished, and a pinch of "ahh, what the hell, I'll just do it this one time it's no big deal".

A huge huge part of it is peer pressure, most of it is just to avoid feeling incredibly uncomfortable socially.