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[YinYang]

How do otherwise well-intentioned and rational people end up in a cult?

Cult psychology is a comprehensive subject, and it touches on so many other branches of psychology, that you can't isolate it.

One of the classics in the field is still Lifton's book - Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of 'brainwashing' in China

And then there's Cialdini's Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

(Not specifically a cult psychology book, although the techniques used by advertisers to sell items and cults luring people into harmful movements are remarkably similar.)

Read Cialdini's book, and become immune to snake oil salesmen of every variety, even propaganda! :-)