Why are some people so gullible?
As you might have already heard, Donald Trump has recently promoted the idea that some kind of coup will reinstate him by August which sounds crazy, but according to the Public Religion Research Institute (a non-partisan research and education organization that I’ve never heard of either):
About one-quarter of Republicans, 23%, agree with a set of conspiratorial beliefs linked to the QAnon movement. These believers said they mostly or completely agreed that “the government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation,” that “there is a storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders," and, finally, that "because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.”
Belief in QAnon conspiracy theories is also strongly associated with consumption of far-right media, the report finds.
No shit?
(The paragraphs in italics come from CNN’s website; the “No shit?” was all mine.) Now here’s another quote from the same story:
A majority of Republicans, 56%, say they believe that the 2020 election was the result of illegal voting or election rigging, per an Ipsos/Reuters poll released last week, with about 6 in 10 agreeing with the statement that "the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump." Republicans also say, 54% to 30%, that they agree with the myth that the January 6 riot at the US Capitol "was led by violent left-wing protestors trying to make Trump look bad.
No word on what the majority of Republicans believe about the Easter Bunny, Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, but anything is possible if 23% of them believe Satan worshipping pedophiles are running the world. That’s completely crazy because as we all know it’s actually money worshippers who are occasionally pedophiles, but that’s a different topic for a different day.
Today, we’re going to talk about gullibility, which is defined as: “a tendency to be easily persuaded that something is real or true.”
On more than one occasion a Democrat or Sane Republican reader will say something like: “I just don’t get how anyone can still support Donald Trump after seeing mountains of evidence that Trump is a liar, a cheater, completely delusional and an All-Around Horse’s Ass.”
This might explain it.
When Prophecy Fails
I recently read Malcolm Gladwell’s The Bomber Mafia and in it he tells this story about a completely different book, so I guess I’m not the only writer who gets caught up in digressions:
When Prophecy Fails is a book written by social psychologist Leon Festinger and I think we have to hand it to Leon for making it all the way through college with that name.
Leon and a couple colleagues studied a cult called the Seekers, who eventually went on to form a folk-influenced pop group that had hits with “I’ll Never Find Another You” and “Georgy Girl” which isn’t true at all and if you didn’t realize I was joking before that last part of the sentence, you really need to stop being so gullible or failing that, buy me a hamburger because I’ll gladly repay you next Tuesday.
(And yes, that’s a reference to Popeye and his pal Wimpy and I can’t explain why that’s stuck in my head and I have a hard time remembering my kids’ birthdays.)
Anyway…
The Seekers (cult Seekers, not singing Seekers) followed a woman named Dorothy Martin, a Chicago housewife who practiced “automatic writing” which is writing without conscious thought and I think my body of work proves it’s possible.
Dorothy claimed to be in touch with a group of aliens called the Guardians, who then went on to star in a couple movies in which they protected the Galaxy. (Geez, if you keep falling for this gag I’m never gonna stop, which I don’t think either of us wants.)
Anyway…
The non-movie making Guardians supposedly told Dorothy that the world was going to be destroyed by a flood on December 21, 1954, but since they were cool aliens and not the kind that jump out of your chest at dinner and scare the living shit out of everybody, a few days before the flood they said they’d drop by and rescue Dorothy and her followers.
So the Seekers quit their jobs, left their families, gave away their possessions and being gullible as shit, bought Wimpy a hamburger.
BECAUSE A CHICAGO HOUSEWIFE WHO CLAIMED TO BE IN TOUCH WITH ALIENS TOLD THEM TO.
Then they all went over to Dorothy’s house because she said the aliens were dropping by at four o’clock on December 17th. Guess what (and you probably saw this coming): no aliens.
So then Dorothy said the aliens sent her another message and said their flying saucer blew a tire, but they were on their way...keep waiting.
Still no aliens.
So then Dorothy said the aliens had sent her yet another message with a new pickup date and time – midnight on December 21st – so the Seekers once again gathered at Dorothy’s house, waiting for their Space Uber ride to arrive which it never did even though the Seekers waited for hours, so they filled time by writing “A World of Our Own” and practicing four-part harmony.
A rare video was made of their impromptu composing session and here it is:
OK, first off: I love the dude in the horn rim glasses playing bass and kinda singing along (I’m almost positive he also played Superman in the 1950s TV show) and the female singer who seems to be dancing her ass off without ever actually moving her feet which is how Overly White People get their groove on, but you can’t tell for sure because she’s wearing a dress inspired by a Ringling Bros. circus tent.
And now back to the non-singing Seekers.
At 4:45 AM Dorothy got yet another message from the aliens, and all these messages from aliens via Dorothy remind me of the evangelists who tell us Jesus told them we should give the evangelists money, which makes me wonder why Jesus didn’t cut out the middlemen and tell us to give the evangelists money.
I don’t know about you, but if the J-Man appeared in my backyard, hovering three feet off the ground while dispensing financial advice, I might be convinced. Guys wearing sharkskin suits with a Porter Wagoner pompadour are somewhat less convincing.
Now back to the highly-suggestible Seekers
So Dorothy told the Seekers the aliens were coming for them three times and the aliens never showed, but now Dorothy said the aliens were calling off the destruction of the world because the Seekers had been such schmucks. (Apparently the aliens spoke Yiddish, another fact I might have made up…your call.)
In reality, Dorothy said the whole End of The World thing had been called off because the Seekers had shown such faith, so “schmuck” is probably the wrong term, they were more like “schlimazels” and I’m only 72% sure I’m using those words correctly because pretty much everything I know about Yiddish comes from the Laverne and Shirley theme song.
And now (at long last) the Social-Psychology-Explaining-Trump-True Believers part of the story.
After observing the Seekers behavior, here’s what Leon Festinger hypothesized from the event: the more invested you are in a belief, the more resistant you will be to changing your mind. Or as Malcolm Gladwell put it: “You don’t give up. You double down.”
If you did something that would be hard to undo like quitting your job, giving away your house or buying a MAGA hat, you’ll be more resistant to changing your mind. You’ve made a big investment and you don’t want to believe it was a dumb one. And groups are harder to sway than individuals because members of a group can keep reassuring each other that they’re not wrong.
And proselytizing (which almost means what it sounds like) becomes more important because if you can persuade other people you’re right, you must be right.
So if you’re one of those Democrats or Sane Republicans who wonder how some people keep supporting Donald Trump, they have to because the alternative is admitting they’re wrong and the aliens aren’t coming and they don’t want to admit that, which is a shame all the way around because I wouldn’t mind seeing some of those Trump supporters carried away in a spaceship.
And if you vehemently disagree with everything I’ve written, I’d like you to buy me a hamburger.
I'm a big fan of the Seekers and the bass player also has a great name: Athol Guy. Just thought I'd throw that in. :) great column as always, Lee.