The sneaky language tricks cults use to influence you | Amanda Montell
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. Writer, linguist, and podcaster Amanda Montel says we are living through the cultiest era on record as the hardwired cognitive biases that helped early humans survive brush up against social media and digital communication.
Studies show that social media has damaged our mental health and our attention spans, all the while making cult-ish leaders mega-accessible. Who needs compounds when you have comment sections?
She exposes three sneaky language tactics that cults use to influence us, for better or for worse, revealing why none of us are as cult-proof as we'd like to think. And stick around after the talk. Amanda and I got together to go beyond her talk to discuss what led her to the study of cults, the role of AI in these cultier times, and what to do if we think someone we know and love may be in a cult. That's all coming up right after a short break from our sponsors.
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What makes our current era feel cultish according to Amanda Montel?
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And now, our TED Talk of the day.
Hi, everyone. Or shall I say, greetings, followers. And settle in. Because I'm about to share with you a true story about one of the most zealous cults in the world. This story takes place on the group's holiest day. Acolytes arrived at dawn, some having crossed oceans and sacrificed life savings in order to get there. They came bearing hand-beated offerings inscribed with sacred numbers, 22, 13, 89. But this, my friends, is not the story of an apocalyptic sect on a faraway compound. No, this was a Taylor Swift concert. I said it. The talismans are friendship bracelets, the biblical books are known as eras, and the charismatic leader is a billionaire pop priestess who, let's be honest, could probably rule the free world if she really wanted to.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a deep-dyed, red-album girlie. I'm not here to call out Swifties as cult followers. No, I wouldn't dare. but I'm an author and a cultural commentator with a background in linguistics. And I'm here to share how we're all susceptible to cult-ish thinking, for better and for worse, and our everyday vocabularies are evidence of our devotion. I'm here to share what to pay attention to, what to listen for, so that as we move through these inevitably culty times, we can stay both enchanted and empowered. Now, my fascination with cults is personal.
What are the three language tactics used by cults to influence people?
That's because of my dad. As a teenager, he was forced to join Synanon, a 70s California compound with matching overalls and a traumatizing truth-telling ritual called The Game. But my dad escaped, became a neuroscientist and brought up a nosy kid who became obsessed with understanding how to identify cult-ish influence in everyday life. As I got older, I couldn't help but notice that the same language tactics that my dad described in Synanon could be found kind of everywhere, like in my high school theater program and in the wellness industry and on my social media feed. That's how I came to study the cultish spectrum, degrees of influence, none of which start out with LSD and robes, but instead, sneakily, with words.
I want to point out three cultish language tactics to listen for in everyday life. The first is called the thought-terminating cliché. Coined in 1961 by the psychiatrist Robert J. Lifton, thought-terminating clichés are zingy stack expressions that are easy to memorize, easy to repeat and aimed at shutting down independent thinking and questioning. So let's say you're a member of a group and there's a rule that you want to push back against.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:03–1:19
2
What makes our current era feel cultish according to Amanda Montel?
1:19–3:31
3
What are the three language tactics used by cults to influence people?
3:31–22:03
4
How does Amanda Montel's personal history influence her views on cults?
22:03–27:17
5
What are thought-terminating clichés and how do they function?
27:17–29:39
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from TED Talks Daily
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