Post by @corbden@defcon.social

2025-09-12 18:51 UTC

Ok let's get into it. Cognitive dissonance/consonance theory originated when Leon Festinger when asked the question: "Why do core believers in doomsday cults double-down after doomsday never comes?" In his book, "When Prophecy Fails," he outlines the history of such sects (like the Anabaptists and Millerites), describes his theory about why it happens, and then infiltrates a doomsday UFO cult to watch events unfold and confirm his theory. He also performed famous experiments on college students where he tricked them into legitimately believing they'd enjoyed a meaningless, tedious task by paying them almost nothing to lie. The theory works like this: 🧵 #ReligiousTrauma #psychology #MAGA #cults #AbuseCulture

Replies (2)

@corbden@defcon.social 2025-09-12 19:00

Inside your mind there are two wolves: Dissonance and Consonance They are helping you filter all the "cognitions" you come across, to keep you sane, and to keep you from following every whim from moment to moment. Cognitions are any unit of thinking your brain contains. These include thoughts, feelings, experiences, memories, facts you've heard, traumas, Aunt Edna's old stories, and that time Mike beat you up behind the swing set. [Edited to add "behaviors," a very important one I tend to forget.] The cognitions in your head all link up to form connected networks of "truth," that is, things you believe to be true. Your mind is trying to make these cognitions all support one other to form a coherent worldview, and when they do, you will feel a sense of pleasure called "consonance." Consonance isn't any one feeling. It could be any emotion, like happiness, laughter, love, self-righteousness, pride, excitement, security, contentment... As you go through the world, you will encounter new cognitions that could threaten this sense of inner peace. This will generate a force called "dissonance." Dissonance isn't any one feeling, but it feels bad, and the worse it feels, the harder you will scramble to get rid of the feeling to seek a consonance state again. Dissonance may feel like disturbance, confusion, anxiety, grief, guilt, shame, terror, frustration, anger, or even rage. (This is not an all-inclusive list.) 🧵 #ReligiousTrauma #psychology #MAGA #cults #AbuseCulture

Open ##5199791
@MaddieM4@raphus.social 2026-09-27 23:38

@corbden@defcon.social Great thread, and I hope to have some cash to get a copy of your book sometime. It's surreal to see the Millerites mentioned organically in the wild, as someone who had to rebuild her reality after being raised SDA.

Open ##5199809