Strange Country Ep. 219: The Seekers
Mar 3, 2022
On Dec. 21, 1954, the world was supposed to be flooded, and true believers taken aboard flying saucers to safety. When that didn’t happen, the Seekers tried to excuse away the no-show aliens, and thus cognitive dissonance entered the American psyche. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly discuss how Leon Festinger put his theory to the test by pretending to be a true believer to study how followers managed their cognitive dissonance when the world kept spinning.
Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands
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Barnes, J. E. (2021, November 24). Pentagon forms a group to examine unexplained aerial sightings. The New York Times. Retrieved March 1, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/24/us/politics/pentagon-ufos.html?searchResultPosition=1
Beck, J. (2016, January 4). The christmas the aliens didn't come. The Atlantic. Retrieved March 1, 2022, from https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/12/the-christmas-the-aliens-didnt-come/421122/
Festinger, L. (1966) When prophecy fails : a social and psychological study of a modern group that predicted the destruction of the world. Harper.
Gabbat, A. (2022, February 5). 'something's coming': Is America finally ready to take ufos seriously? The Guardian. Retrieved March 1, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/05/ufos-america-aliens-government-report
Liddell, E. (n.d.). Apocalypse Oak Park: Dorothy Martin, the Chicagoan who predicted the end of the world and inspired the theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Chicago Magazine. Retrieved March 1, 2022, from https://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/may-2011/dorothy-martin-the-chicagoan-who-predicted-the-end-of-the-world-and-inspired-the-theory-of-cognitive-dissonance/