Why Slimming World Members Live In Denial
posted on: February 07, 2017. posted in: Weight loss
The evidence against Slimming World is clear for all to see. From the endless pictures of junk food their members share on social media, to the wave of Slimming World consultants who are quitting in protest, to the fact that nobody knows anyone who has maintained the weight loss for longer than 5 years.
And with Channel 4 about to release a documentary proving their members regain all the weight, the evidence will soon be beyond any reasonable doubt.
So why will so many Slimming World members ignore it?
Why... when faced with clear evidence that this plan doesn't just deliver temporary results, but actually makes you more addicted to food and fatter longer term... will so many members still stick with this shocking slimming club?
The answer lies in some fascinating psychology.
I'd like to take you back in time, to some research carried out by a psychologist by the name of Leon Festinger.
Back in the 1950s he studied an apocalyptic cult led by Dorothy Martin, who believed superior beings from another planet had told her a flood would end the world on December 21, 1954. She was able to convince many others of this, who joined her cult and began the process of preparing themselves for the end.
Festinger and his team of psychologists observed the cult members, and witnessed them quit their jobs and give away their possessions because their belief that the world would end was so strong.
As you probably might have guessed, the doomsday came and went, the world did not end, and everything the cult stood for was proved wrong. That they all woke up on December 22, 1954 was 100% indisputable evidence the cult was a lie. However, what happened next is quite unbelievable...
Rather than admit they were wrong.
Rather than admit the doubters were right.
The cult members DEFENDED their belief, and Dorothy Martin claimed the world had been spared because of the "force of good and light" spread by the cult members themselves. So instead of abandoning their wacky beliefs, they clung onto them more strongly and sought to recruit more people to the cult.
Why?
Why not just admit it was all a con?
The answer lies in Festinger's theory of "Cognitive Dissonance".
In short, when people invest in a belief that is then proved to be wrong (i.e. believing in the end of the world), the TRUTH HURTS. Knowing that you've been misled or conned is painful, and for many, too humiliating to admit. The result is that they naturally seek to this ease this pain and justify their belief more aggressively (i.e. by explaining that the world was saved because the cult was so good).
In the example of this apocalyptic cult, the reason they sought to recruit more members is because the more people who believed what they believe, the more they eased the "cognitive dissonance" of being proved wrong.
In other words, thinking... "if all these other people believe in alien doomsday predictors like me, it must be true"... is easier and less painful than thinking "the evidence is clear, I've been conned and wasted my life".
Cognitive Dissonance is something we're all familiar with.
The woman who is told and given clear evidence that her husband is a cheat, might seek alternative explanations to ease her "cognitive dissonance", the pain of realising she has been cheated. For example, she might accuse the woman who has provided her with evidence of her husband cheating of wanting to have him for herself.
In this instance, it is easier and less painful to believe the cheat exposing woman is trying to steal her husband, than it is to believe that all her years invested in her marriage have been wasted.
This makes "cognitive dissonance" a kind of DEFENCE MECHANISM.
Nobody wants to feel stupid. Nobody wants to feel like they've been conned. Nobody wants to feel like they've been lied to and mislead. And perhaps most of all, nobody wants to feel like they've invested time, energy, money, friendships, their life and their health in something that turns out to be a LIE.
Which is why when I present Slimming World members with the truth, and when Channel 4 exposes Slimming World in this documentary next week, thousands of their members will experience "cognitive dissonance" in the extreme.
They will attack me.
They will attack Channel 4.
Just as they did when MuscleFood was forced to delete a blog post exposing Slimming World. Just as they did when Closer Magazine was forced to delete a blog post exposing Slimming World. Just as they did when they got me banned from Facebook for for exposing Slimming World.
Slimming World members would rather attack the people trying to help them and save them from this shocking company, than admit they've been CONNED.
I hope at least a few Slimming World members will read this, experience a "lightbulb moment" and embrace the hard, harsh truth. They've been conned, but they can undo the damage if they stop dieting and choose fitness.
My suspicion?
Their cult will only grow stronger.
I've come the realise that the more you challenge Slimming World, the stronger and bigger and more entrenched it becomes. Because when millions of obese food addicts are faced with admitting their lives have been ruined by this company...
It's easier and less painful to group together...
To recruit more members who will defend their cultish belief...
And pretend it isn't happening.
Liam
p.s. Please, please, please SHARE THIS and let's see whether it will enlighten or entrench the deluded Slimming World masses.
