Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 2 No. 1 1985, Page 56
Cults Go To High School:
A Theoretical And Empirical Analysis Of The Initial Stage In The
Recruitment Process
Philip G. Zimbardo, Ph.D.
Cynthia F. Hartley, M.A.
Abstract
The predictive utility of the authors‘ theoretical model of pre-conversion cult
recruitment was tested in a survey of over 1000 high school students from
the San Francisco Bay Area. Fifty-four percent of students reported at least
one contact with an identified cult recruiter. Many students, including those
who were not approached, reported being open to accepting invitations to
attend cult-sponsored events. &profile of eleven variables significantly
distinguished those students who had been approached from those who had
never had any contact with a cult recruiter. An independent composite of
fifteen variables classified those contacted students who were open to
considering future invitations from cults, as well as those who would reject all
prospective inducements from cults. It is concluded that a reciprocal
relationship exists between these two interacting parties.
Recruitment of new members is a vital function of religious movements in their early
development and, depending on their goals, may continue to be so throughout the life of
the group.
Recruitment serve‘s a range of purposes for a new religious group. It provides bodies to
perform mundane tasks essential for organizational maintenance (care of church property
and leaders, for example). It adds canvassers who can bring in financial support through
their tithing, donations, or free labor. Proselytizing is also one test of the depth of
commitment of current members, which is then further bolstered by their success in
converting others to the new belief system. As recruitment builds up the membership rolls,
the once-small sect moves toward greater strength and legitimacy by acquiring property,
providing secular services, becoming a viable political voting block, and gaining access to
the popular media.
The initial recruitment efforts of a new religious group may amount to little more than
bringing like-minded souls into the fold from among the members‘ family, friends, and
fellow workers. But as recruitment efforts are extended in scope, they become more
formalized, diverse, and sophisticated. Recruiters may be trained in some form of
―compliance-gaining strategies‖ (see Marwell &Schmitt, 1967 Snow, Zurcher, &Ekland-
Olson, 1980). The organization may develop tactics for ―milieu control‖ in which prospective
members are ―encapsulated‖ for a day, weekend, or longer in a private setting where the
full operational force of recruiting efforts can be sustained. These encounters may be
supplemented eventually by mass communication appeals through cable TV, books, tapes,
and other large-scale promotional ventures.
This progressive refinement and extension of recruiting efforts by new religious groups is
documented by John Lofland (i978), who witnessed systematic changes in the conversion
efforts of the Unification Church of Reverend Moon over a decade. (See Lofland &Stark,
1965). Recruitment-conversion attempts in the early sixties were in many respects weak,
haphazard, and bumbling. The gaining of a convert seemed often even to be an accident, a
lucky conjunction of some rather random flailing. Starting around 1972, however, all that
Cults Go To High School:
A Theoretical And Empirical Analysis Of The Initial Stage In The
Recruitment Process
Philip G. Zimbardo, Ph.D.
Cynthia F. Hartley, M.A.
Abstract
The predictive utility of the authors‘ theoretical model of pre-conversion cult
recruitment was tested in a survey of over 1000 high school students from
the San Francisco Bay Area. Fifty-four percent of students reported at least
one contact with an identified cult recruiter. Many students, including those
who were not approached, reported being open to accepting invitations to
attend cult-sponsored events. &profile of eleven variables significantly
distinguished those students who had been approached from those who had
never had any contact with a cult recruiter. An independent composite of
fifteen variables classified those contacted students who were open to
considering future invitations from cults, as well as those who would reject all
prospective inducements from cults. It is concluded that a reciprocal
relationship exists between these two interacting parties.
Recruitment of new members is a vital function of religious movements in their early
development and, depending on their goals, may continue to be so throughout the life of
the group.
Recruitment serve‘s a range of purposes for a new religious group. It provides bodies to
perform mundane tasks essential for organizational maintenance (care of church property
and leaders, for example). It adds canvassers who can bring in financial support through
their tithing, donations, or free labor. Proselytizing is also one test of the depth of
commitment of current members, which is then further bolstered by their success in
converting others to the new belief system. As recruitment builds up the membership rolls,
the once-small sect moves toward greater strength and legitimacy by acquiring property,
providing secular services, becoming a viable political voting block, and gaining access to
the popular media.
The initial recruitment efforts of a new religious group may amount to little more than
bringing like-minded souls into the fold from among the members‘ family, friends, and
fellow workers. But as recruitment efforts are extended in scope, they become more
formalized, diverse, and sophisticated. Recruiters may be trained in some form of
―compliance-gaining strategies‖ (see Marwell &Schmitt, 1967 Snow, Zurcher, &Ekland-
Olson, 1980). The organization may develop tactics for ―milieu control‖ in which prospective
members are ―encapsulated‖ for a day, weekend, or longer in a private setting where the
full operational force of recruiting efforts can be sustained. These encounters may be
supplemented eventually by mass communication appeals through cable TV, books, tapes,
and other large-scale promotional ventures.
This progressive refinement and extension of recruiting efforts by new religious groups is
documented by John Lofland (i978), who witnessed systematic changes in the conversion
efforts of the Unification Church of Reverend Moon over a decade. (See Lofland &Stark,
1965). Recruitment-conversion attempts in the early sixties were in many respects weak,
haphazard, and bumbling. The gaining of a convert seemed often even to be an accident, a
lucky conjunction of some rather random flailing. Starting around 1972, however, all that
