Editing Cult (section)

=== Doomsday cults ===
{{Main|Doomsday cult}}
''Doomsday cult'' is a term 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.{{sfn|Jenkins|2000|pp=216, 222}}{{sfn|Chryssides|Zeller|2014|p=322}} 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.{{sfn|Stangor|2004|pp=42–43}}{{sfn|Newman|2006|p=86}}{{sfn|Petty|Cacioppo|1996|p=139}} 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]]''.{{sfn|Stangor|2004|pp=42–43}}

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.{{sfn|Jenkins|2000|pp=215–216}} 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.{{sfn|Pargament|1997|pp=150–153, 340}}