We were just speaking of cults in my intro psych course this week--I push social psych up to the front.
Here is one that made the news today. http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=7676173 My question to a person with greater knowledge than myself is why they so often end up killing themselves in a mass suicide to get to another place? And I get Phil Zimbardo's take that typically these are not "crazy" people but people who find themselves in a weakened state due to situational events and a charismatic person brings them together so that they have social and emotional support; but why does it seem that someone with a mental illness is always the head of these cults that make the news (confimation bias and availability heuristic?). Of course, I am probably making the serious mistake of not knowing about all of the cults that don't have mentally ill leaders and don't commit mass suicide or have other strange group behaviors and don't make the news. Wow, can you tell we did the chapter on critical thinking before that? ;) Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph. D. Professor, Psychological Sciences University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=4979 or send a blank email to leave-4979-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
