Many years ago, when I spent a summer proselytizing, we were told to look for loners, for students, for people who seemed to be searching or questioning… because we had the answers.'Ĭults work by brainwashing their members. 'And yes, cults look for people whom they believe are susceptible. 'That is how they survive and grow,' Kohn says. But it's true that many cults prey on this desire.

Of course, that's not to say that people who are looking for new friends, or those who feel lonely, are going to get swept up in a cult. If you've felt like a drifter through life or don't feel like your relationships are deep enough - in other words, you can be surrounded by people and feel terrifyingly lonely - a cult may provide that sense of family which you may have never experienced.' 'When you feel your identity isn't stable, or you're not really sure of who you are, then a cult makes it simple,' Dr. And the same is true for people who are out searching for their identity. Here are a a few personality types cults tend to look for, when they're out recruiting new members.įolks who are desperately searching for approval may be more likely to join a cult, as a way of feeling like they belong. So recognizing which personality traits cults are looking for can be the best course of action, in order to avoid getting sucked in in the first place. While it's certainly possible for a person to leave a cult, it can be tough for them see it for what it is. 'Once you’re in, you know it’s right, and therefore it’s not a cult,' Kohn says. As Kohn says, 'Every right-minded person would most likely say, 'I am not susceptible to a cult.' And every person I know and knew who was in a cult would tell you that they were not in a cult.' But again, this is all part of the brain-washing. People most in need of support are lured in by the prospect of belonging somewhere or to something meaningful.'Īnd that's why cults can seem so great, at first, as well as why it can be difficult for people to realize they're even joining one. 'Cults seek out the disenfranchised and outcasts. Michele Barton, director of Psychology Life Well, tells Bustle.

to facilitate their cause,' psychologist Dr. 'Nearly anyone can be manipulated by the promise of a better tomorrow or the answers to their questions or a sense of their inherent rightness (or sinfulness).' But there do seem to be a few personality traits that can make someone more likely to join a cult, that these organizations (for lack of a better word) often play into.ĭepending on someone's personality and what they're seeking in life, they may be a bit more susceptible to what a cult promises.

'That is the insidiousness of mind-manipulation,' Lisa Kohn, a cult survivor and author of the upcoming memoir To the Moon and Back, tells Bustle. If you are wondering who joins cults and why, the short, but creepy answer is that pretty much anyone can get sucked into them.

Lisa kohn to the moon and back