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What happens when prophecies fail? Timothy Jenkins´ re-reading of Leon Festinger´s classic work on "cognitive dissonance" seeks to answer this question by studying a 50s doomsday group. This volume explores the relations between anthropology and psychology, and between social scientific and natural scientific accounts of human behavior.

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Preface Introduction: The issue of the scale of the event - one object or three parties? PART I: THE PRESUPPOSITIONS OF THE VARIOUS PARTIES The social scientists The group and the mediums The press PART II: THE EVENTS AND THEIR RATIONALE The sociology of secrecy. Language of science, language of secrecy. A dialogue of the deaf. Gains Bibliography

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Timothy Jenkins is a Reader in Anthropology and Religion, University of Cambridge

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