Cult

===Doomsday cults===
{{Main|Doomsday cult}}
''Doomsday cult'' is an expression which is used to describe groups that believe in [[Apocalypticism]] and [[Millenarianism]], and it can also be used to refer both to groups that predict [[disaster]], and groups that attempt to bring it about.<ref name="jenkins">{{cite book |last=Jenkins |first=Phillip |title=Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]], US |year=2000 |pages=216, 222 |isbn=0195145968}}</ref> In the 1950s, American [[social psychology|social psychologist]] [[Leon Festinger]] and his colleagues observed members of a small [[UFO religion]] called the Seekers for several months, and recorded their conversations both prior to and after a failed prophecy from their charismatic leader.<ref name="stangor">{{cite book |last=Stangor |first=Charles |title=Social Groups in Action and Interaction |publisher=Psychology Press |year=2004 |pages=42–43: "When Prophecy Fails" |isbn=184169407X}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Newman |first=Dr. David M. |title=Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life |publisher=Pine Forge Press |year=2006 |isbn=1412928141 |page=86}}</ref><ref name="petty">{{cite book |last=Petty |first=Richard E. |author2=John T. Cacioppo |title=Attitudes and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches |publisher=Westview Press |year=1996 |isbn=081333005X |page=139: "Effect of Disconfirming an Important Belief"}}</ref> Their work was later published in the book ''[[When Prophecy Fails|When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World]]''.<ref name="festinger">{{cite book |last1=Festinger |first1=Leon |author-link2=Henry Riecken |author1-link=Leon Festinger |last2=Riecken |first2=Henry W. |last3=Schachter |first3=Stanley |author3-link=Stanley Schachter |title=When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |year=1956 |url=http://www.whenprophecyfails.org/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030203224945/http://www.whenprophecyfails.org/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2003-02-03 |isbn=1591477271 }}</ref> In the late 1980s, doomsday cults were a major topic of news reports, with some reporters and commentators considering them a serious threat to society.<ref>[[Philip Jenkins|Jenkins, Philip]]. 2000. ''Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History.'' Oxford University Press. pp. 215–216.</ref> A 1997 psychological study by Festinger, Riecken, and Schachter found that people turned to a cataclysmic [[world view]] after they had repeatedly failed to find meaning in mainstream movements.<ref name="pargament">{{cite book |last=Pargament |first=Kenneth I. |author-link=Kenneth Pargament |title=The Psychology of Religion and Coping: Theory, Research, Practice |publisher=Guilford Press |year=1997 |pages=150–153, 340, section: "Compelling Coping in a Doomsday Cult" |isbn=1572306645}}</ref> People also strive to find meaning in global events such as the turn of the millennium when many predicted it prophetically marked the end of an age and thus the end of the world.<ref name=":2" /> An ancient Mayan calendar ended at the year 2012 and many anticipated [[2012 phenomenon|catastrophic disasters would rock the Earth]].<ref>[[Matthew Restall|Restall, Matthew]], and Amara Solari. 2011. ''2012 and the End of the World: the Western Roots of the Maya Apocalypse''. [[Rowman & Littlefield]].</ref>

====Aum Shinrikyo====

In 1995, members of the Japanese doomsday cult [[Aum Shinrikyo]] murdered a number of people during a [[Tokyo subway sarin attack|sarin attack on the Tokyo subway]]. Aum Shinrikyo has been involved in several violent incidents. In 1990, members of Aum Shinrikyo murdered the family of a lawyer who was involved in a legal action against them. There were several other murders besides that brought the death toll associated with this group's acts to 27. Some were surprised by the group's ability to recruit educated young people. Scholars have attempted to explain the cause of this as feelings of social alienation that make young Japanese vulnerable to mind control techniques.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bouma |first1=Gary |last2=Ling |first2=Rodney |last3=Pratt |first3=Donald |title=Religious Diversity in Southeast Asia and the Pacific: National Case Studies |date=2010 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-90-481-3388-8 |page=27}}</ref>
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