My first week at (world famous) college, they used this fear of loneliness technique to make us conform to their lame ideology in a clever way. They had group facilitators come to each small group (maybe 20 people) during orientation and discuss various hot button topics, asking us to stand either on one side of the room or the other depending upon our opinion on the matter. Everyone kept ending up on the same side because nobody, regardless of their true belief, wanted to be the one person visibly singled out on the “wrong” side in front of their new friends, to be picked on (“why are you on that side!?”) by the group counselor. It was, as I later realized, cult forming behavior 101 - so creepy!

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