Cult

:This article does not discuss "cult" in its original sense of "religious practice"; for that usage see Cult (religion). See Cult (disambiguation) for more meanings of the term "cult".

Theories about the reasons for joining a cult

Michael Langone gives three different models regarding joining a cult {{fn|30}}:

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:"The definitional ambiguity surrounding the term cult has fueled much controversy regarding why people join cults and other unorthodox groups. Three apparently conflicting models attempt to account for conversion to unorthodox groups. The deliberative model, favored by most sociologists and religious scholars, says that people join because of what they think about the group. The psychodynamic model, favored by many mental health professionals with little direct experience with cultists, says that people join because of what the group does for them-namely, fulfill unconscious psychological needs. The thought reform model, favored by many mental health professionals who have worked with large numbers of cultists, says that people join because of what the group does to them- that is, because of a systematic program of psychological manipulation that exploits, rather than fulfills, needs."

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According to Gallanter{{fn|11}}, typical reasons why people join cults include a search for community and a spiritual quest.

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Jeffrey Hadden summarizes a lecture named "Why Do People Join NRMs?" (a lecture in a series related to the sociology of new religious movements{{fn|12}}) as follows:

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• Belonging to groups is a natural human activity;
• People belong to religious groups for essentially the same reasons they belong to other groups;
• Conversion is generally understood as an emotionally charged experience that leads to a dramatic reorganization of the convert's life;
• Conversion varies enormously in terms of the intensity of the experience and the degree to which it actually alters the life of the convert;
• Conversion is one, but not the only reason people join religious groups;
• Social scientists have offered a number of theories to explain why people join religious groups;
• Most of these explanations could apply equally well to explain why people join lots of other kinds of groups;
• No one theory can explain all joinings or conversions;
• What all of these theories have in common (deprivation theory excluded) is the view that joining or converting is a natural process.

Stark and Bainbridge have questioned the utility of the concept of conversion. They suggest, instead, that the concept of affiliation is a more useful concept for understanding how people join religious groups.{{fn|13}}

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