What Big 5 personality traits do cult leaders have in common?
There
are many different types of cults; the most commonly found are Doomsday,
Destructive, or Apocalyptic cults.
According to religioustolerance.org,
they define doomsday cults as religiously based, very high intensity,
controlling groups that have caused or are liable to cause loss of life among
their membership or the general public.
These
cult leaders possess certain personality traits that attract people to them, to
do whatever they say, even to kill.
Among
the many cult leaders, we have picked four to analyze their Big 5 personality
traits. Generally, we all possess some
of all five of the traits, Extroversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness,
Openness, but we typically are stronger in one or two of the traits.
What
we found is that each leader displayed Extroversion as one of their strongest
traits. Extroverts, according to Allport, are bold, energetic, and
ambitious. They tend to have “big
mouths” and surprise…are highly visible leaders.
The
second trait shown in each leader is Neuroticism, but on a level in which they
function with a way to channel that stress into success. Unfortunately, their success is usually
death. To ease the anxiety and pain,
they tend to use drugs and alcohol in an attempt to combat the negativity they
feel inside.
A
trait that was moderately shown in some of the cult leaders was
Conscientiousness. They have
persistence and a strong sense of purpose.
Each of them believes in what they are doing, whether it be flying on a
space saucer or drinking cyanide laced Kool-Aid.
This
web page will explore different cults, their leaders, and what big 5 personality
traits were present in each leader.
Web Contributors:
Debi U. = Charles Manson
Debi O. = Jim Jones
Maggie P. = Heaven’s Gate
Jenny B. = Branch Dividians
Sarina L. = Webmaster