When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of A Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World [Paperback]

Leon Festinger (Author), Henry W. Riecken (Author), Stanley Schachter (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Harper-Torchbooks (January 1, 1956)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061311324
• ISBN-13: 978-0061311321
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,108,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Data nearly 50 years old, but still seems valid..., February 19, 2002

By 

William E. Adams (Midland, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of A Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World (Paperback)

This work first saw print in 1956. It is the story of a UFO cult in a large city in the Midwest...how it developed, how the leaders recruited followers, how predictions about the coming end of the world started flowing from the psychic members who allegedly channeled messages from the spacemen/pilots. The cult members were told they would be saved, picked up by saucers on an appointed date. The members quit jobs, sold possessions, and gathered, only to be disappointed. Did they all quit in a huff? No way. The first failure only made them more determined they were right, more anxious to be ready for the next announced departure date. Then a second failure. A few members fell away, a few suffered doubts, a few challenged for leadership themselves. The point of this book is that it takes "three disconfirmations" to kill a movement of true believers, and even then, some still hang on to the discredited "theology" by grasping at excuses. I found this book by accident about 30 years ago, and have read it at least four times. I find it fascinating. In the 1970's I knew two women in Albuquerque who were amateur psychics. They started bringing forth "space brethren messages" and eventually, although they failed to attract a following, they went up into the nearby mountains one night sure they would be lifted off before the coming unspecified disaster. They waited, but no ship appeared. I think people inclined toward UFO beliefs haven't changed much since this book was published. The basic data shown in this study can apply to religious or political groups as well. I am sorry it is out of print, but if you have an interest in this field, get a used copy...the prices are reasonable and the book will not disappoint!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting + Funny = A Great Read!, June 3, 2004

By 

Jolly Roger (El Cerrito, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of A Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World (Paperback)

It's fascinating what we humans can make ourselves believe! And frequently hilarious, too!

This is partly a study of how followers of cult movements can paradoxically become more committed even when the central tenet has been disproven. The first few chapters are fairly dry, but they move quickly and are very interesting, especially since the hypothesis is so counterintuitive.

Things really pick up once they get into the day-to-day details of the flying saucer group they've infiltrated. The group goes to extremes of self-deception to keep believing (and they want to believe so badly) that "the boys upstairs" (ie, flying saucer people) are in contact with them. The dry, scholarly tone reads as subtle dry humor when describing, for example, a woman in a suburban living room bellowing "I AM THE CREATOR" (she is supposedly "channeling" the Creator) and then complaining about the chair she is forced to sit in. I didn't expect this book to be laugh-out-loud funny but it certainly was in places.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great sociological study of a modern millenarian group., July 31, 1998

By 

H. Olsen (San Antonio, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of A Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World (Paperback)

For anyone interested in the psychology and group dynamics of millenarian/prophetic groups, this book is essential reading. Sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s the authors stumbled upon and infiltrated a group based on a prediction of imminent world destruction. When the prediction failed (after all, we are all still here in the late 1990s), the group underwent a severe crisis. This study details how that crisis developed and was resolved, drawing from it some general ideas about how groups based on prophecies survive the failure of those prophecies.