{"id":80836,"date":"2018-08-12T12:02:33","date_gmt":"2018-08-12T19:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=80836"},"modified":"2026-02-27T14:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T22:58:13","slug":"the-brainwashing-myth","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=80836","title":{"rendered":"The Brainwashing Myth"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Editor\u2019s note<\/strong>: This article was originally published in The Conversation<\/a> on July 18, 2018. The article was later republished by phys.org<\/a>, The Independent<\/a> (U.K.), RealClearScience<\/a>, rawstory.com<\/a>,salon.com<\/a>, and alternet.org<\/a>. The article was also the subject of a critical podcast by the Open Minds Foundation<\/a>, a blog which was reinforced in an article by Steven Hassan of Freedom of Mind<\/a>. It was also translated into Portuguese for the Brazilian newspaper Gazeta do Povo<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Nearly 40 years ago, my two sisters, Carolyn Layton and Annie Moore, were among those who planned the mass deaths in\u00a0Jonestown<\/a>\u00a0on Nov. 18, 1978.<\/p>\n

Part of a movement called Peoples Temple, which was led by a charismatic pastor named Jim Jones, they had moved with 1,000 other Americans to the South American nation of Guyana in order to create a communal utopia. Under pressure from concerned relatives and the media, however, they implemented a plan of group murder and suicide. Jonestown is remembered in the phrase \u201cdrinking the Kool-Aid,\u201d because more than 900 people died after drinking poison-laced punch. My two sisters and nephew were among those who died.<\/p>\n

In the wake of this tragedy, you might think that I would be amenable to the idea that they had been brainwashed. It would absolve their heinous actions and offer an easy explanation for their behavior.<\/p>\n

Many argue\u00a0that people join \u201ccults\u201d \u2013 or \u201cnew religious movements,\u201d the term scholars prefer \u2013 because they\u2019ve been brainwashed. The thinking goes that they\u2019ve undergone some sort of programming that allows others to manipulate them against their will.<\/p>\n

How else to explain why people become immersed in fringe groups that seem so alien to their previous, more socially acceptable lives? How else to account for the fact that \u2013 in some cases \u2013 they\u2019ll even commit crimes?<\/p>\n

But\u00a0like the word \u201ccult,\u201d\u00a0the term brainwashing seems to only be applied to groups we disapprove of. We don\u2019t say that soldiers are brainwashed to kill other people; that\u2019s basic training. We don\u2019t say that fraternity members are brainwashed to haze their members; that\u2019s peer pressure.<\/p>\n

As a scholar of religious studies, I\u2019m disheartened by how casually the word \u201cbrainwashing\u201d gets thrown around, whether it\u2019s used to describe\u00a0a politician\u2019s supporters, or\u00a0individuals who are devoutly religious.<\/p>\n

I reject the idea of brainwashing for three reasons: It is pseudoscientific, ignores research-based explanations for human behavior and dehumanizes people by denying their free will.<\/p>\n

No scientific grounding<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brainwashing is used so frequently to describe religious conversions that it has a certain panache to it, as if it were based in scientific theory.<\/p>\n

But brainwashing presents what scientists call an \u201cuntestable hypothesis.\u201d In order for a theory to be considered scientifically credible, it must be falsifiable; that is, it must be able to be proven incorrect. For example, as soon as things fall up instead of down, we will know that the theory of gravity is false.<\/p>\n

Since we cannot really prove that brainwashing does not exist, it fails to meet the standard criteria of the scientific method.<\/p>\n

In addition, there seems to be no way to have a conversation about brainwashing: you either accept it or you don\u2019t. You can\u2019t argue with someone who says \u201cI was brainwashed.\u201d But real science seeks argument and disagreement, as scholars challenge their colleagues\u2019 theories and presuppositions.<\/p>\n

Finally, if brainwashing really existed, more people would join and stay in these groups. But\u00a0studies have shown\u00a0that members of new religions generally leave the group within a few years of joining.<\/p>\n

Even advocates of brainwashing theories are abandoning the term in the face of such criticism, using more scientific-sounding expressions such as \u201cthought reform\u201d and \u201ccoercive persuasion\u201d in its stead.<\/p>\n

Conversion, conditioning and coercion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once we move beyond brainwashing as an explanation for people\u2019s behaviors, we can actually learn quite a bit about why individuals are drawn to new ideas and alternative religions or make choices at odds with their previous lifestyles.<\/p>\n

There are at least three scientific, neutral and precise terms that can replace brainwashing.<\/p>\n

The first is \u201cconversion,\u201d which describes an individual\u2019s striking change in attitude, emotion or viewpoint. It\u2019s typically used in the context of religious transformation, but it can describe other radical changes \u2013 from voting for the \u201cwrong\u201d candidate to joining Earth First!<\/p>\n

It can be sudden and dramatic, as in\u00a0the case of St. Paul, who had been persecuting the early church but then stopped after supposedly hearing a voice from heaven. Or it can be a slow and gradual process, similar to the way\u00a0Mahatma Gandhi\u00a0came to understand his role and mission as a leader for Indian independence.<\/p>\n

We usually think of conversion as a voluntary process. But when we look at accounts of well-respected converts \u2013\u00a0St. Augustine\u00a0comes to mind \u2013 we find exactly what the philosopher William James\u00a0said we would: Converts begin by being passive recipients of a transcendent, life-changing event. They don\u2019t plan for it; it just happens. But they cannot go back to the way things were before their experience.<\/p>\n

Next, there\u2019s conditioning, which refers to the psychological process of learning to behave in a certain way in response to certain stimuli. As we grow up and experience life, we become conditioned by parents, teachers, friends and society to think and feel in certain predictable ways. We get rewarded for some things we do and punished for others. This influences how we behave. There is nothing evil or nefarious about this process.<\/p>\n

Studies have shown that many of the people who seek out new religions may be\u00a0predisposed or conditioned\u00a0to finding a group that fosters their worldview.<\/p>\n

But what about the nice people who, in rare cases, end up doing terrible things after joining a new religious movement?<\/p>\n

Again, the process of conditioning seems to offer some explanation. For example, peer pressure has the powerful ability to condition people to conform to specific roles they are assigned. In\u00a0the Stanford Prison Experiment, participants were randomly assigned the role of guard and prisoner \u2013 with the guards soon becoming abusive and the inmates becoming passive. Meanwhile, deference to authority, which Stanley Milgram studied in his\u00a0famous 1961 experiment, may encourage people to do what they know is wrong. In the case of Milgram\u2019s experiment, participants applied what they believed were electric shocks to individuals, even as they heard simulated screams of pain.<\/p>\n

And finally, coercion can also help explain why people may act against their own values, even committing crimes on occasion.<\/p>\n

If someone is told to do something \u2013 and threatened with physical, emotional or spiritual harm if they don\u2019t \u2013 it\u2019s coercion. Just because someone carries out an order, it doesn\u2019t mean they agree with it. Prisoners of war\u00a0may publicly denounce their home country\u00a0or claim allegiance to the enemy just to survive. When they are released from captivity, however, they revert to their true beliefs.<\/p>\n

In other words, coercion \u2013 or exhaustion, or hunger \u2013 can make people do things they might not otherwise do. We don\u2019t need a theory of thought reform to understand the power of fear.<\/p>\n

A denial of agency<\/strong><\/p>\n

True believers certainly exist. My sisters fall into that category. They sincerely promoted the cause of the Peoples Temple \u2013 no matter how misguided it was under the leadership of Jim Jones \u2013 because of their deep commitment to its ideals. This commitment arose from their conversion experiences and their gradual, conditioned acceptance of ethical misbehavior.<\/p>\n

I do not consider them brainwashed, however. They made decisions and choices more or less freely. They knew what they were doing.\u00a0The same is true for members of the Branch Davidians<\/a>: They accepted and believed the word of God as interpreted by David Koresh.<\/p>\n

If brainwashing actually existed, we would expect to see many more dangerous people running around, planning to carry out reprehensible schemes.<\/p>\n

Instead, we find that people frequently abandon their beliefs\u00a0as soon as they leave coercive environments. This fact does not address\u00a0the difficulty of leaving certain groups, whether they\u2019re political parties, religious movements, social clubs or even business organizations.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, people can leave these groups and abandon their beliefs \u2013 and do.<\/p>\n

Should we consider situational hurdles and peer pressure forms of brainwashing? If that were the case, then everything \u2013 and nothing \u2013 would constitute mind control.<\/p>\n

We have studies that illuminate processes of conversion and conditioning. We have historical examples that demonstrate what people do under compulsion.<\/p>\n

The brainwashing explanation ignores this social scientific research. It infantilizes individuals by denying them personal agency and suggesting that they are not responsible for their actions.<\/p>\n

The courts don\u2019t buy brainwashing.\u00a0Why should we?<\/p>\n

(Rebecca Moore is Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at San Diego State University. She is currently Reviews Editor for\u00a0<\/em>Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions\u00a0and Co-Director of The Jonestown Institute.\u00a0 Her other articles in this edition of<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>the jonestown report\u00a0are<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>The Forensic Investigation of Jonestown Conducted by Dr. Leslie Mootoo: A Critical Analysis<\/a>; Cult, New Religious Movement, or Minority Religion?<\/a>; Nesci Book Offers Psychoanalytic Portrait of Jim Jones<\/a>; Cue the Kool-Aid: Watching Jonestown Docs in the \u2018Fake News\u2019 Era<\/a>; and Jonestown Journal<\/a>. <\/em>Her complete collection of articles on this site appears\u00a0<\/em>here<\/a>. She may be reached at remoore@sdsu.edu<\/a><\/em>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Editor\u2019s note: This article was originally published in The Conversation on July 18, 2018. The article was later republished by phys.org, The Independent (U.K.), RealClearScience, rawstory.com,salon.com, and alternet.org. The article was also the subject of a critical podcast by the Open Minds Foundation, a blog which was reinforced in an article by Steven Hassan of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":81151,"menu_order":17,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-80836","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/80836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80836"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/80836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134312,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/80836\/revisions\/134312"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/81151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}