Cults and False Information Cascades
On November 18, 1978, one of the largest mass suicides occurred in modern history at a remote place named Johnstown. 912 people, following the orders of cult leader Jim Johns, committed suicide by drinking poisoned kool-aid. While the actions of those people may seem irrational and fanatical for most people, there may be more complex underlying reasons that caused this horrific event. The cause of people joining cults and remaining in them despite terrible living conditions could be partially modeled with the theory of false information cascades. In order to model the behavior and decision making process of individuals when they decide on joining and following a cult, complex factors that contribute to these decisions will be simplified for the sake of analysis. This article analyzes the creation of Jonestown, as well as the many tactics that Jim Jones used to lure people into the cult and coerce them to remain despite the harsh conditions they must endure.
People most susceptible to joining cults are typically individuals at low points of their lives with very little or poor social connections to others. Therefore, they are often in desperate need of perceived social support and encouragement from others. This creates the foundation for these people to be targeted by cults. When these individuals come into contact with members of a cult, they can decide on joining them or leaving them based on the positivity or negativity of the signal they received(More simply stated, the good or bad impression that the cult left with the individual). However, given that most rational thinking individuals will immediately perceive the signal they receive as negative and decide on not joining, cults will utilize other tactics in order to coerce or deceive the individual into choosing to accept despite their negative signal.
Cults could hold social events where a targeted individual for indoctrination will be approached by other members of the cult who had undergone a similar decision making progress when first approached by the cult. The targeted individual will likely not learn about any negative signals these members have received when they were indoctrinated, but rather, the individual will be more likely to be told of the decisions these members have made-which is to join the cult. In this scenario, the targeted individual is actively deprived of information which could have changed their decision. For instance, Jim John would hold sermons, large communal dinners, and other activities to draw in newcomers, then purposefully set them up with older cult members to allow the flow of misinformation to occur(It is to be noted that this is a very common tactic used by cults). Under a lighthearted setting, where the emotionally vulnerable individual is suddenly showered with false attention and support, they may become more susceptible to new but misleading information, and be more likely to ignore any negative signals they themselves may receive. If the individual is only informed of positive signals and acceptances regarding joining or rejecting the cult, they may be more likely to choose to join the cult irregardless of their own signal. If the individual were to join, they would further the false information cascade created by previous members, and contribute to luring in new members.
A few things worth of note is that the targeted individual could, rationally speaking, receive more information on previous signals or decisions made by others that may sway their own decision-Often times, a simple google search could give lots of information about a specific cult. However, the targeted individual is at an emotionally vulnerable position where they may unconsciously value the opinions(And therefore decisions made) of people who pretend to positively interact with them in order to lure them into the cult. Therefore, personal bias imposed upon known information could make some signals and decisions appear more credible or important than others. Additionally, purposeful social isolation from the outside world imposed by cults could also limit the amount of information a targeted individual receives. This kind of social isolation can be imposed by coercion, spreading of misinformation to build mistrust, or physical isolation by heavily involving targeted individuals in cult related events. For instance, Johnstown is established in a geographically isolated region out of the US, which isolates members from any friends and family.
False information cascades can occur in different aspects of society, from simple misunderstandings through social media to committing human rights violations under the mob mentality. People who actively attempt to mislead others to making decisions led on by these cascades can distort and hide information that may cause others to make different decisions. The tragedy at Johnstown may not be simply explained with one theory, but false information cascades can shed some light on the impact of misinformation on people’s lives.
Source: https://www.apa.org/monitor/nov03/jonestown