September 2018
Intermediate to advanced
392 pages
10h 16m
English
Be the change that you wish to see in the world.
HAHATMA GANDHI
In 1954, Leon Festinger, a US social psychologist, read about a cult that believed the end of the world was nigh. The cult was led by ‘Mrs Keech’, a housewife from Chicago who claimed to have received a message from extra-terrestrials that on 21 December a great flood would extinguish all life on earth, although all ‘true believers’ would be rescued the night before by a flying saucer. Mrs Keech attracted a large group of followers who gave up their jobs, sold their homes and gave away all their possessions. Given the followers’ strong beliefs, Festinger wondered how they would react when Mrs Keech’s claim turned out to be ...
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