Why do people fall into sects?

[Tomcat]

It has been noticed that many sects of various kinds, strange semi-sectarian movements and similar phenomena grow like mushrooms after rain precisely in times of crisis. As it turned out, this is just a consequence of the effect discovered by American psychologists Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer.

What thesis did they, in fact, deduce and prove? When physical reality becomes less and less comprehensible, when it is not clear what, how and at what moment will happen, then social realities become more and more important. And the proof of this statement was the following experiment.

Students were invited to test a certain vitamin supplement, which was injected into the blood. The scheme was simple. A person (let's designate him as X) enters the room and sees that another (let's designate him as Y) is injected with a vitamin supplement. Then our subject X leaves for the same procedure in an adjacent room. After the injection, he has to fill out a questionnaire in another room. And now our X sees the very Y, which, as you probably already guessed, is a dummy. When the “real” subject enters the room to fill out the questionnaire, the “actor” is already writing something.

Y had two roles. With one "X" he demonstrated when filling out the questionnaire how he was happy, satisfied with his life and that he was doing well, he was happy. For other "Xs" he got angry, scribbled a questionnaire, stamped his feet, swore. What happened with the "real" subjects? First, they injected them not with a vitamin supplement, but with ordinary "epinephrine" (synthetic adrenaline). It acts on the body in the following way: heart rate, sweating, slight tremors, dry mouth appear.

Secondly, all "real" subjects were divided into three groups. The first was said that the vitamin supplement is good, but it has side effects: heart palpitations, sweating, breathing and dry mouth. Like, if this happens, so that they are not afraid. That is, they were warned about the physical reality that they will have. The other two groups were not told that. After being vaccinated, they were simply sent to the room where the actor was sitting, who was either angry or happy.

And what is surprising is that those who saw the aggressiveness of the "actor" after a while also began to get angry. The subjects who saw a happy person also began to rejoice. And those who were warned about "side effects", no matter what "mood" they saw the actor in, remained calm. That is, the subjects from the first group knew: everything that happens to them is the result of the injection, and not of some of their personal problems.

Those who were in the dark (the second and third groups) were included in this imitation of the "actor". They did not know why the heartbeat appeared, the mouth became dry, and so on. And when they saw another person receiving the same injection, and he was angry, they thought that, probably, one should also be angry (or rejoice, depending on the behavior of the "actor"). They drew some kind of conclusion and began to behave in the same way.

Thus, Schechter and Singer developed an attributive theory of emotion. It sounds like this: our emotions arise from our assessments. And now the second group of subjects, say, assessed their condition as aggressive and angry. The third group assessed him as happy and rejoiced. And people from the first group, who listened to their body and knew with their heads that it was just a reaction to the injection, did not assess their condition in any way and did not react to it.

We constantly rely on other people's assessments, while others rely on ours. Therefore, people tend to infect each other with various assessments and conditions.

How does it work in life?

When a serious crisis occurs in the country and no one knows how to act, it is not clear what is happening, at these moments it is enough for two or three charismatic personalities to appear who clearly and distinctly say where to run, what to do , break, set fire, and so on. And people start to follow them. And the followers of this or that "idea" or "teaching" are growing exponentially.

We are so arranged - if we do not know what is happening to us, then we begin to focus on others. Social influence has a stronger effect on us than personal influence. And you need to seriously strain not to succumb to this.

If you need to organize your sect, it's easy to do. Introduce a lot of uncertainty into people's lives, and then tell them where that certainty is. Declare that the end of the world will be in two years, and if you pray earnestly, sell your apartments and give you all the money, then the end of the world will not come. Here is the finished sixth. Remember, though, that this is illegal and punishable by law ...

So, if suddenly your physical reality has become incomprehensible, then think carefully. Do you really need to sell all your property and give money to some financial pyramid, sect or psychics?

Be vigilant, do not succumb to other people's influence and be sure to share in the comments to this article what you think on this issue.