Why Do People Join Cults? (2018 Rerun)
Psychology In Seattle Podcast
Kirk Honda
4.5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2025
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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August 15, 2018
The Psychology In Seattle Podcast ®
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, deserving listeners. |
| 0:08.4 | We've talked about cults and other related topics a few times, |
| 0:13.7 | and there's been a lot of interest in it. |
| 0:15.5 | A lot of listeners have wanted more discussion about that. |
| 0:19.6 | So I have asked Alexandra, what's your last name, Alexandra? |
| 0:25.4 | Thain. Dane. Stain. St. St. C-I-N. Okay, right. It looks like Stein to me, but it's |
| 0:33.7 | Stain, you're saying. And she is an expert on cults, |
| 0:38.1 | and so I thought we would find out why people join cults, |
| 0:42.7 | because it is kind of a mystery as to, you know, |
| 0:46.1 | I think a lot of people think, |
| 0:47.2 | well, I would never join a cult. |
| 0:48.8 | That's not me. |
| 0:50.4 | I'd, you know, I would be able to sniff it out. |
| 0:52.5 | And I'd tell them to go to hell. |
| 0:54.8 | And I think that that's not necessarily true. |
| 0:59.6 | I think people are overly confident about their ability to withstand a sort of process. |
| 1:05.1 | So I thought we might ask Alexander about that process. |
| 1:08.9 | This is the Psychology in Seattle podcast. |
| 1:11.5 | I'm your host, |
| 1:16.5 | Dr. Kirkonda. I'm a therapist and a professor. Alexander, would you like to introduce yourself? |
| 1:24.1 | Yeah, sure. I'm Alexandra Stain. I have a PhD basically in social psychology, |
| 1:30.4 | studying the mechanisms at work in cults and totalitarian systems. |
... |
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