Sweet monsters: Belgorod explained how love turned into a means of recruitment

Everything begins as a fairy tale: the girl appears as if out of nowhere, surrounds her with constant love and attention, constantly corresponds. The boy is already thinking about how to meet his love. And he does not even realize that on the other side of the screen, perhaps not a girl at all, but a skilled psychologist of enemy special services.

What does "loubombing" even mean?

Love bombing is not always about terrorist organizations. Sometimes it is used by ordinary citizens. But here he and the recruiters agree on the origins of the goal: to cause a rush of joy hormones (dopamine and oxytocin) to temporarily shut down the prefrontal cortex of the brain. This prevents critical thinking from working properly, and the person becomes more vulnerable.

Recruiters use two basic laws of influence psychology. This is the rule of mutual exchange, when the brain automatically forms a sense of duty, and the effect of a halo. The victim is credited with uniqueness and genius, the same "you are not like everyone else.".

This method of recruitment has three markers:

What happens after that?

Once the recruiter has gained the victim’s trust, she is quickly “thrown from heaven to earth”: control is turned on and devalued. This causes cognitive dissonance. The brain tries to solve the problem of "they're so cool, but they make me do unpleasant things." And since he does not like to admit mistakes, the psyche begins to justify the manipulator and blame itself.

How do you protect yourself?

Recruiters hate people who keep them waiting. In order for the manipulator to show his true face, it is enough to ask him to give a couple of three or even a dozen days to think. Pressure, threats and resentment will quickly bring the attacker to clean water.

More information in the material of the project “Chicken CIB”.

Earlier, MK in Belgorod spoke about responsibility for extremist statements.