A Theory Of — Cognitive Dissonance

To prove this wasn't just about cults, Festinger and James Carlsmith conducted a now-famous experiment. They asked students to perform a mind-numbingly boring task: turning wooden pegs on a board for an hour.

To stop the pain of that inconsistency, we must change something. We can: Leave the cult (the rarest path). Change the belief: "The prophecy was wrong." Add new cognitions: "We saved the world with our faith". The peg-turning experiment A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

In 1954, Leon Festinger , a social psychologist, found himself fascinated by a bizarre newspaper headline about a cult called the Seekers. Led by a woman named Dorothy Martin, they believed that on December 21, the world would be destroyed by a great flood, and they alone would be rescued by a flying saucer from the planet Clarion. To prove this wasn't just about cults, Festinger

Then came the pivot. At 4:45 a.m., Martin claimed to receive a new message: the group had spread so much light that God had decided to save the world from the flood. We can: Leave the cult (the rarest path)