Vander-Zanden (1990) defines cults as loosely organized forms of religious organizations with several specific characteristics. These characteristics include the facts that their: a) members are called to live a totally different lifestyle; b) leaders are strongly charismatic leaders around whom the membership is built; c) doctrinal emphasis is upon the individual rather than on society although there is often a component of cults that is highly critical of the dominant society; d) religious perspective holds that the source of unhappiness and injustice is incorporated within each person and thus it is the individual who first has to change; e) promises are that the individual will find contentment through following its tenets; f) organization lacks ties to any established religion (unlike a sect); and g) view of the Divine is commonly a secularized perspective with both personalized and individualized elements or components.
According to Vander-Zanden (1990), cults exert social influence in two basic ways: (1) at the level of the individual (the most common form of social influence used by a cult); and (2) at the level of society. The purpose of this paper is to examine the research on the cult's social influence at both of these levels.
Social Influence at the Individual Level
Calle (1990) has discussed how cults and other non-mainstream religious organizations exert social influence on the individual level. According to the author, social influence is often exerted by having a new member begin to break emotional bonds with external groups (e.g. family, school, community, clubs, etc.) and to then reform social bonds with people in the cult community.
One interesting point made by Calle (1990) is that the secularization of society (where secularization is defined as the explanation of phenomena without recourse to God) is associated with the proliferation of cults. Specifically, Calle states that secularization pr...