11 VOLUME 7 |ISSUE 3 |2016
Langone, Dole, and Grice in 1994], in which we ask former cult
members and individuals who were simply members of other
groups—music groups, sport groups, study groups, and so
on—to report the extent to which they experienced certain
kinds of influence attempts to bring them into the group, and
to retain them as members of the group. Each of the items we
included on the scale was related to one or the other of the
six principles of influence. And what we found is that, in every
case for every one of the principles of influence, former cultic
group members reported having more intensive and frequent
exposure to these forms of tactics than any other group
member.
Moestue 2016: “Group Psychological Abuse: Taxonomy and
Severity of its Components,” by Alvaro Roderiguez-Carballeira
et al., was published in 2014 in The European Journal of
Psychology Applied to Legal Context (Roderiguez-Carballeira
et al., 2014). This taxonomy of the GPA strategies consists
of six scales: (a) Isolation, (b) Control and manipulation of
information, (c) Control over personal life, (d) Emotional
abuse, (e) Indoctrination in an absolute and Manichean belief
system, and (f) Imposition of a single and extraordinary
authority (2014). The researchers found that these tactics
and their ultimate aim, to subjugate the individual, had
adequate content validity. The operationalization of the
strategies as detailed in this research study contributes to our
understanding of radicalization as a phenomenon, and of how
to deradicalize victims of abuse. But it is also useful when we
are studying the tactics in the …Art of Recruitment manual
(Abu ‘Amr, 2010).
CM: In Norway, we recently had a type of pyramid group called
Five Present Community, I think…, where lots of people lost
their money. When the media writes about these victims, they
call them greedy and naïve, [implying] that somehow because
of their greed they deserve to lose their money…. Do you
think greed is an issue here?
RC: I have infiltrated these types of pyramid organizations, and
they were very clever in the way they described what being
wealthy would allow. They said to us, “If you had all the money
you wanted, what would that allow you to do?”
And do you know what these people said? “It would allow
me to buy my mother a home that she had never had, and it
would allow me to give my children the education that I am
afraid that I can’t do now.” So their intention wasn’t just to be
greedy.
The organization let people talk about how the goal of this
organization would allow them to achieve purposes that
transcended their own personal interest, which made it
acceptable, and made it legitimate to do the things they were
then asking of people—to work 15 and 16 hours a day, to
get friends and relatives into it because they came to believe
that… [these friends and relatives] could get wealthy too and
achieve their goals.
So these organizations are never selling a product they are
never selling whatever it seems that they are selling. They
can sell anything from motivational tapes and information, to
hammers, to air cleaners—anything. They are always selling
people dreams that will allow them to extract themselves from
their worries and concern, and …achieve their grander goals.
So it is a very persuasive technique.
CM: How can we defend ourselves against undue influence?
RC: I think it is necessary to be knowledgeable of what these
six fundamental dimensions are within us that cause us to
decide…. These are things that guide our behavior. If we
are aware of them, and we encounter a situation where, for
example, we like someone more than we should under the
circumstances—he or she has done something to cause
us to feel … more positively than we should under those
circumstances—[then we will] have a flag go up in our minds
[to] take a step back from the situation and analyze the merits
of what is being requested rather than the way it is being
requested or who is requesting. For example, if we buy a new
computer in a store, and we like the sales person, we have
to remember that we are carrying the computer out of the
store and not the salesperson. Separate the thing from the
presentation of the thing.
Moestue 2016: In Influence… (1984/2009), Cialdini outlines
a number of creative strategies for resisting compliance,
obedience, and conformity, and each chapter ends with
advice on how to resist manipulation. But for people living
in isolation who are under constant cognitive overload, such
as people living in cults or terrorist groups, the mindful and
reflective state of mind necessary to resist these subtle social
pressures is not likely to happen.
CM: Are you afraid that people would use the knowledge in
your book for unethical purposes?
RC: This is an excellent question. The book was written initially
for consumers to learn how to recognize and resist these
principles when they are used on us in unwelcome and undue
fashion. Here is the interesting thing: Not a single consumers’
group has ever called me since the publication of that book.
But my phone hasn’t stopped ringing with requests from
advertisers, marketers, attorneys, fundraisers, and political
lobbyists who say, “Come and talk to us about how we can
harness these principles.”
When the purpose changes from rejection of these principles
to employing them, then ethical issues become very
important. So when I do talk to business entities or other
professional associations, the talk is on ethical influence.
How can we become effective without exploiting? The same
...former cultic group members
reported having more intensive
and frequent exposure to these
forms of tactics than any other
group member.
Langone, Dole, and Grice in 1994], in which we ask former cult
members and individuals who were simply members of other
groups—music groups, sport groups, study groups, and so
on—to report the extent to which they experienced certain
kinds of influence attempts to bring them into the group, and
to retain them as members of the group. Each of the items we
included on the scale was related to one or the other of the
six principles of influence. And what we found is that, in every
case for every one of the principles of influence, former cultic
group members reported having more intensive and frequent
exposure to these forms of tactics than any other group
member.
Moestue 2016: “Group Psychological Abuse: Taxonomy and
Severity of its Components,” by Alvaro Roderiguez-Carballeira
et al., was published in 2014 in The European Journal of
Psychology Applied to Legal Context (Roderiguez-Carballeira
et al., 2014). This taxonomy of the GPA strategies consists
of six scales: (a) Isolation, (b) Control and manipulation of
information, (c) Control over personal life, (d) Emotional
abuse, (e) Indoctrination in an absolute and Manichean belief
system, and (f) Imposition of a single and extraordinary
authority (2014). The researchers found that these tactics
and their ultimate aim, to subjugate the individual, had
adequate content validity. The operationalization of the
strategies as detailed in this research study contributes to our
understanding of radicalization as a phenomenon, and of how
to deradicalize victims of abuse. But it is also useful when we
are studying the tactics in the …Art of Recruitment manual
(Abu ‘Amr, 2010).
CM: In Norway, we recently had a type of pyramid group called
Five Present Community, I think…, where lots of people lost
their money. When the media writes about these victims, they
call them greedy and naïve, [implying] that somehow because
of their greed they deserve to lose their money…. Do you
think greed is an issue here?
RC: I have infiltrated these types of pyramid organizations, and
they were very clever in the way they described what being
wealthy would allow. They said to us, “If you had all the money
you wanted, what would that allow you to do?”
And do you know what these people said? “It would allow
me to buy my mother a home that she had never had, and it
would allow me to give my children the education that I am
afraid that I can’t do now.” So their intention wasn’t just to be
greedy.
The organization let people talk about how the goal of this
organization would allow them to achieve purposes that
transcended their own personal interest, which made it
acceptable, and made it legitimate to do the things they were
then asking of people—to work 15 and 16 hours a day, to
get friends and relatives into it because they came to believe
that… [these friends and relatives] could get wealthy too and
achieve their goals.
So these organizations are never selling a product they are
never selling whatever it seems that they are selling. They
can sell anything from motivational tapes and information, to
hammers, to air cleaners—anything. They are always selling
people dreams that will allow them to extract themselves from
their worries and concern, and …achieve their grander goals.
So it is a very persuasive technique.
CM: How can we defend ourselves against undue influence?
RC: I think it is necessary to be knowledgeable of what these
six fundamental dimensions are within us that cause us to
decide…. These are things that guide our behavior. If we
are aware of them, and we encounter a situation where, for
example, we like someone more than we should under the
circumstances—he or she has done something to cause
us to feel … more positively than we should under those
circumstances—[then we will] have a flag go up in our minds
[to] take a step back from the situation and analyze the merits
of what is being requested rather than the way it is being
requested or who is requesting. For example, if we buy a new
computer in a store, and we like the sales person, we have
to remember that we are carrying the computer out of the
store and not the salesperson. Separate the thing from the
presentation of the thing.
Moestue 2016: In Influence… (1984/2009), Cialdini outlines
a number of creative strategies for resisting compliance,
obedience, and conformity, and each chapter ends with
advice on how to resist manipulation. But for people living
in isolation who are under constant cognitive overload, such
as people living in cults or terrorist groups, the mindful and
reflective state of mind necessary to resist these subtle social
pressures is not likely to happen.
CM: Are you afraid that people would use the knowledge in
your book for unethical purposes?
RC: This is an excellent question. The book was written initially
for consumers to learn how to recognize and resist these
principles when they are used on us in unwelcome and undue
fashion. Here is the interesting thing: Not a single consumers’
group has ever called me since the publication of that book.
But my phone hasn’t stopped ringing with requests from
advertisers, marketers, attorneys, fundraisers, and political
lobbyists who say, “Come and talk to us about how we can
harness these principles.”
When the purpose changes from rejection of these principles
to employing them, then ethical issues become very
important. So when I do talk to business entities or other
professional associations, the talk is on ethical influence.
How can we become effective without exploiting? The same
...former cultic group members
reported having more intensive
and frequent exposure to these
forms of tactics than any other
group member.
