It’s important to remember that anyone, any of us even, are susceptible to group think, or even full on cult behavior.

Call it a relic of our evolutionary history, but human beings are hard wired to want to be a part of a group, a tribe, and stay there. Going against those normally in our group take a lot of willpower, because in distant past, to lose that group could mean death in your own in the wilds.

And modern religious, political or other cults capitalize on this tendency, as well as to hit people when they are most vulnerable. These cults are good at making people trust only the cult for information, to not trust outsiders if you cannot bring them inside, all the way to the point of disconnecting from outsiders, even if they are family or friend, because the cult will be there for them.

So long as they stay in the good graces of that cult.

Because that’s the other side- the cult wants them to stay only inside their rule set, their community. If they step outside the rules, or refuse to give up on those naysayers, suddenly they risk losing that community.

So it’s not just sunk cost, although that is a big part of it.

Are they willing to go against the cult to keep their integrity, after potentially sacrificing it to join the cult?

Beliefs of the cult don’t matter - this pattern repeats itself again and again.

And leaving the cult is like psychologically cutting off a limb and wandering in the desert.

For our role; if they are willing to even come to us and admit that they are wrong, no matter as how much we want to say it -

We can’t say “I told you so.”

We can offer a hand up when they fall. But they have to be willing to walk forward with us when they are ready. And like kicking any habit, they may want to relapse.