Ep 30. Cognitive Dissonance - Book Review ”When Prophecy Fails”.

Today We take a very deep dive into Festinger, Riecken & Schacter's seminal work "When Prophecy Fails". This episode is packed with crazy stuff; exploration of the 1800's Millerite movement (to later inspire Jehovah's Witnesses and others), automatic writing, UFO cults, dianetics practitioners, flood prophecies, flying saucers, Atlantis with a bit of 'The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu' thrown in for good measure. Not to mention Venusian footprint interpretation.

The idea of cognitive dissonance and its affect on followers facing disconfirmation of the end of the world has become well known, but the research has some real problems as well as some moments of comedy gold. 

To help follow the characters in the story you can download a table here (or from copy and paste the link below). 

https://3e3480ad-2b0d-4112-8174-0fdd614840ec.filesusr.com/ugd/4c85e9_f1e86bb90c5f40b6a627de8751849978.pdf