Why People Join Cults If cults are such defective organizations, why is it that so many young, intelligent adults are attracted to them?
Singer gives two answers to this question. She first explains that the general cultural condition of our times encourages the rise and spread of new religious movements. Cults come into being during “periods of unusual turbulence in human history” (West and Singer, 1980, p. 3247). Modern young adults, she observes have adopted a neo-romantic, anti-intellectual posture. They have become skeptical of the large institutions of our society (West and Singer, 1980, p. 3253). Our age is experiencing a period of philosophical materialism and of rapid culture change (Singer, 1978, p. 16). It is not surprising that modern youth has become vulnerable to the lure of the cults. Secondly, Singer stresses the individual psychological make-up of the people who actually join these movements. Those who join a cult are vulnerable people (note 2). Shyness, home-sickness, uncertainty of purpose, alienation, loneliness, depression, and unchannelled idealism are the characteristics she notes in those attract
