Jon Atack

Questioning our Unquestionable Assumptions

If we can be patient with our feelings of unease, and learn to question our assumptions, no matter...

I read Oliver Sacks’ seminal The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat in 1984. But, twenty or so...

Cognitive dissonance is perhaps the most fundamental concept for an understanding of undue...

Undue influence has been recognized in law for more than 500 years. It is a legitimate legal...

There is a general belief that only weak people are taken in by authoritarian groups, but this...

The process of undue influence follows a predictable series of steps. First comes contact. This...

Any examination of history shows that people can be brought to believe almost anything. So,...

It is not just the Internet that is rife with scams. Trickery is an aspect of human nature, and it...

Psychological studies have repeatedly shown how easily rational thinking is bypassed. Our...

With more than 8,000,000 purported members, it is likely Jehovah's Witnesses are the foremost...

The great problem with undue influence is that it has a before and an after, but no during. While...

Opening Minds by Jon Atack shows how we can be cajoled into accepting unethical, uninvited and...

Let’s Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky: the new, unexpurgated, unabridged version of the...

The Open Minds Foundation is not a counter-cult group, though totalist cults are part of our...