Methods Used in Brainwashing

1. Attitudinal inoculation: The process of making people immune to attempts to change their attitudes by initially exposing them to small doses of the arguments(opposition) against their position. This process gives explanations to behavior, arguments, and beliefs of opponents. The explanations may be highly biased and inaccurate but depending on the source of the misinformation may significantly add to credibility of a belief system.

2. Fear inoculation: The process of making people immune to attempts to change their attitudes by initially exposing them to the consequences (often fraudulently created consequences) of rejecting the initial belief system in favor of another.

3. Creative personal situation interpretation: The process of subtly acquiring enough information to deliver a believable explanation of an individual's personal situation such that it is consistent with a belief system, thus adding to credibility of an individual and swaying others towards their belief system. Techniques can be demonstrated by calling a psychic network using a 1-900 number. The motive may be money rather than recruiting a cult member, but the techniques are the same.

4. Creative history interpretation: The act of interpreting history in such a way that it is consistent with the belief system, thus adding to the credibility of a belief system.

5. Selective vision: The tendency to acknowledge only those things that are consistent with one’s belief system. Anything that contradicts or conflicts with the belief system are irrationally interpreted such that they are consistent with the belief system or entirely disregarded.

6. Group think error: The tendency to accept or continue to accept a belief system due to the overall credibility of the members in a group. This is based on an erroneous faith that an entire group including those who you may trust implicitly can not be deceived or wrong. This is the strongest influence on credibility of a belief system.