Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2005, Page 21
This partial background profile is certainly not universal. For example, many of the 9/11
hijackers were college-educated individuals who came from professional two-parent middle-
class homes. Nonetheless, it appears that terrorist group joiners from dysfunctional family
backgrounds are particularly susceptible to the seductive messages of charismatic leaders,
who offer them their first positively meaningful group experience. The leader becomes the
welcoming father figure, and the leader‘s group provides a close-knit family atmosphere.
Many joiners are individuals desperate to belong to a ―family‖ group, presumably because
their actual family groups did not fulfill their emotional affiliation needs.9
These unfulfilled needs make some individuals especially vulnerable to cult conditioning.
Terrorism researchers have compared terrorist groups to cults, and they have concluded
that the cult model is applicable to terrorist groups.10 Most cults center on a charismatic
leader. Charismatic leaders have many of the following characteristics: physical presence,
intelligence, experience, education and expertise, the ability to verbally and clearly
articulate the vision and the mission, and, most important, a strong emotional appeal. Most
joiners of cults respond to the leader‘s message first at an emotional level, then later at the
physical and intellectual levels. Joiners report that they have finally found someone who has
the answers to life‘s perplexing questions and who is therefore worthy of their total
commitment.11
In exchange for providing joiners with meaningful existences and for fulfilling their affiliative
emotional needs, the leader requests and receives unquestioning obedience from the
joiners. Long-term members of the group support the leader‘s obedience pressure by
applying conformity pressure on new joiners in order to forestall any deviation from the
group‘s mission or values. The joiners‘ initial susceptibility to this intense obedience and
conformity pressure makes them extremely vulnerable to the five-phase social psychological
conditioning process used in violent cults, which is summarized in Figure 1.
Figure 1: The Five Phases of Social Psychological Conditioning
Phase 1—Depluralization: stripping away all other group member identities
Phase 2—Self-deindividuation: stripping away each member‘s personal identity
Phase 3—Other-deindividuation: stripping away the personal identities of enemies
Phase 4—Dehumanization: identifying enemies as subhuman or nonhuman
Phase 5—Demonization: identifying enemies as evil
In essence, this process first eliminates a joiner‘s old social and personal identities
(depluralization and self-deindividuation) and then, in the case of extremist hate groups and
terrorist groups, reconditions joiners to hate and sometimes kill noncombatants upon
demand (other deindividuation, dehumanization, and demonization).
Numerous studies have demonstrated that, for most people, meaningful group affiliations
are important for psychological health.12 In stable, normal (non-crisis) societies, most
individuals are pluralized—that is, they fulfill their affiliative needs by belonging to a variety
of groups. None of these affiliations, with the possible exception of the family group, is
absolutely essential to an individual‘s self-concept.13
All cults, including terrorist groups, wish to change this normal pluralized state by
depluralizing potential joiners. Cults are frequently located in isolated environments. If
joiners agree to live in these isolated environments, it becomes easier for them to give up

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2005, Page 22
membership in any of their previous group affiliations, often including their families. Old
group affiliations and identities detract from the total commitment required by the cult.
Cults cannot effectively condition joiners unless the cult group is the joiners‘ only group
affiliation.14 An individual who has only one group affiliation has self-concept and self-
esteem that are totally dependent on retaining membership in that group. The completely
dependent individual is then willing to do whatever it takes to retain membership in the
group.
Although cults would like joiners to immediately and completely depluralize upon joining, in
reality depluralization can occur via several pathways over varying amounts of time. Indeed,
some individuals are suddenly inspired by the cult leaders to give up all of their old group
affiliations at once. However, other potential joiners go through a much slower
depluralization process. They may slowly abandon their ―mainstream‖ group affiliations
while attaching themselves to more marginal, but still somewhat mainstream, groups. After
a while they leave these marginal groups and join the extremist cult. Thus depluralization
could occur within days, or it could take years.15
Once a joiner‘s old group affiliations and group identities have been eliminated, the joiner is
more vulnerable to Phase 2. Self-deindividuation takes away an individual‘s personal
identity, both externally and internally. For example, many cult joiners give up their civilian
clothes and are then given uniforms to wear. Internally, all recruits are expected to give up
any values, beliefs, attitudes, or behavior patterns that deviate from the group values and
expectations. Deindividuated joiners give up their personal sense of right and wrong if it is
different from that of the leader. Furthermore, the joiners‘ broader view of reality—their
view of how the past, present, and future fit together to create the modern social world—
becomes aligned with that of the leader. Deindividuated persons stop thinking about their
own unique qualities. They absorb the concept that they are simply anonymous parts of the
greater whole, the cult.16
Phase 3, other-deindividuation, parallels joiner self-deindividuation. We categorize our social
world into those who are in the same groups as we are (―in‖ groups, ―us‖) and those who
are not in our groups (―others,‖ ―out‖ groups, ―them‖17). Many cults take this normal
categorization process a step further by identifying certain ―out‖ groups as enemies. Cult
joiners are then conditioned to deindividuate members of the enemy group. Enemy
deindividuation includes giving up any personal relationships with enemy group members,
knowing or referring to any enemies by individual name, or distinguishing any individual
attributes or characteristics among enemy members. All enemies become a homogeneous,
faceless mass: they all look alike, think alike, and act alike.18
Numerous studies have demonstrated that both types of deindividuation increase
aggression against members of enemy groups,19 20 a finding that is apparently related to the
fact that combat killing is less traumatic if the victim is further away from the killer.21 The
further away and less individually identifiable the victim is, the easier it is to deindividuate
that person and therefore to kill him or her.
Once cult joiners are deindividuated into ―us,‖ and cult enemies are deindividuated into
―them,‖ negative stereotyping of the enemy begins. This is the transition to Phase 4,
dehumanization. All positive characteristics (for example, moral virtue, intelligence,
responsibility, honesty, trustworthiness, reliability) are attributed to members of the ―in‖
group, and all negative characteristics (moral degeneracy, stupidity, irresponsibility,
dishonesty, untrustworthiness, unreliability) are attributed to members of the ―out‖ group.22
Dehumanization occurs when the enemy and the enemy‘s characteristics are associated
with nonhuman entities, such as animals, vermin, filth, and germs. Nazi propaganda in the
1930s compared the Jews and their negative characteristics to rats and cockroaches.23 Cult
members are constantly encouraged to use these labels when referring to the enemy. Once