My husband and I didn’t just wake up one sunny morning and say, “Let’s join a polygamist cult.” Over time, a convergence of psychological and social factors ripened us for the picking. Insecurities played a part. So did classic, cultish appeals. So did mainstream Mormonism, not just by laying a doctrinal foundation, but by training members to tolerate cognitive dissonance, and through its own, albeit far less extreme, cultish tendencies. This presentation will examine those factors through my experiences and the work of psychologists such as Frank Sulloway.

Joanne Hanks