The Psychology of Doomsayers

Why do some people always feel that something bad is going happen? Do Doomsayers actually wish for something bad to happen? Have Doomsayers given up on life and desire for something bad to happen to end their lives? Everyday we read doom posts on ATS about Elenin, 2012 or 10/28/11 and other predictions. Is there a reason why these people behave this way? Is this a psychological disease that needs medical attention?

I have been thinking about this for awhile and I think that Doomsayers are

1. Attention seekers who get utility from thinking about death. Somehow their brains keep rewarding them for thinking about doom. I wouldn't be surprised if they suffered from some form of anxiety disorder.

2. Suicidal subconsciously: I think that someone who is always thinking of their death and deaths of other people and actually wants such an event to happen is indirectly suicidal.

I think this abberant behavior needs attention and should be treated like any other pathological condition.

In the book "When Prophecy Fails," social psychologist Leon Festinger describes a famous account of a UFO group in 1954 led by a suburban housewife named Marion Keech. She claimed to have received messages from aliens describing the imminent flooding of Earth and the specific date of the event.

When the time of the destruction came and passed, the group was briefly stunned. They had made massive sacrifices, expecting the world to end, and were speechless when it didn't happen.But then Keech conveyed a new message to the group from the aliens. The disaster didn't occur because their enlightenment delayed the coming apocalypse

Humans are pattern-seeking creatures, and having such a massive resource of events and news makes it easy for us to absorb what fits our fears and expectations, letting us create our own constellations, thick with meaning

Source

Combine that tendency with sometimes justified paranoia about "the powers that be", apply it to situations where there is a gap in what is known by the people concerned (ie humanity as a whole (usually) knows what is going on, but individuals do not), and you get a lot of what is on ATS - especially skunkworks!!

also known as the politics of paranoia

interesting, how this kind of thread doesnt get much attention on a conspiracy website.
i think, most of ats members see doom and gloom like some kind of entertainment. rationality or truth are not very attractive.
good topic, s&f.

I think there is an element of the macabre in all of us.

Gladiator tournaments of the past were very popular entertainment.

Today we can get the same effect through movies with CGI effects, no need for the real thing anymore. Doomsday scenarios will always be with us as we have experienced catastrophic events in our past and we will experience them again in the future.

Tick tock.

Thanks guyz for your posts.

Another reason why doomsayers are the way they are could be purely due to biological reasons. I am just going to introduce a brief background about regions of the brain that i think maybe of importance in contributing to abberant behaviour of doomsayers.

There is a region in the brain called the amygdala that is

is a complex structure involved in a wide range of normal behavioral functions and psychiatric conditions. Not so long ago it was an obscure region of the brain that attracted relatively little scientific interest. Today it is one of the most heavily studied brain areas, and practically a household word.

The amygdala has been implicated in regulation of emotion, memory association with feelings, anxiety disorder, alcoholism, and of course sex drive...
Sex Drive Paper

..We have demonstrated a relationship between contralateral amygdalar volume and sexual outcome in patients undergoing temporal lobe resection. This finding provides evidence for an important role of the amygdala in regulating human sexual behavior

Not to get side tracked with sex drive topics, lets see a video that links amygdala with anxiety





There is also another important chemical in the brain called dopamine. Here is a video to refresh your mind on what dopamine does...



Dopamine receptors are also found in the amgydala. What i wonder is whether Doomsayer "syndrome" is a result of abnormal synergistic dopamine+amygdala functioning. It's just a thought. I understand that fear is necessary for survival but doomsayers expect death as an end without any hope of survival.

2. Suicidal subconsciously:

Yes!

And i think it's also a subconscious GUILT which wants to rationalize the doomsday as a just punishment - since those people KNOW its actually themselves (us all, mankind) responsible for the world we are in....and they feel guilt because they did not do anything about it.

The proposed doom would set an end to it all and also punish everyone - of course its also convenient since AT THE END those doomsday stories are usually presented also as a new beginning. (Of course, first, everyone needs to die...and then after the big cataclysm everything and everyone would be piece, love and happiness etc..)

Conveniently, focusing on a doomsday event also frees us from our own responsibility.

(Because the solution for all the problems and whatever bad happens on Earth is coming "from above", the UFOs, Aliens etc. or some external event like a comet)

Again..it's wishful thinking in disguise because mankind is aware that we are all doing it wrong, and for those people an external doomsday event is the ONLY way for change. Which is actually very sad.

Originally posted by flexy123
Conveniently, focusing on a doomsday event also frees us from our own responsibility...

That is so true. totally agree with you 100%!

I was going to reply to the OP, but felt that my remarks would best serve the entire ATS community and not just someone who wants to apply the political stigma of being a mental case who needs medication to begin thinking like perhaps the OP thinks everyone should act and think like so as not to spread doom and fear to I guess the sensitive types that don't want to hear such things.

I am going to give an example of a someone who seeks to warn and save human life and I will mirror that type of person with someone much like the OP that believes we should all think the same way or else be branded some type of mental case if we attempt to warn about some impending disaster that could harm human lives.

Imagine if you will for a moment that you are standing on a busy corner in any busy city and you are waiting for the bus.

While the OP may not know what riding the bus is all about, Imagine if you will that one sunny day you are waiting at the bus stop along with other people waiting like yourself.

Imagine that you someone perhaps a lady in front of you becomes distracted and for whatever reason begins to step off of the curb and into the street just as the bus is coming along and you suddenly see that her lack of attention is going to perhaps get her killed by stepping in front of a big city bus.

You see what is about to happen even though it has not yet happened and so you shout "Look Out for that Bus" while you perhaps grab the lady and jerk her so hard backwards that perhaps you knock her off her feet.

Such a warning would be seen by most normal people as being needed and anyone who would warn or shout or grab a soon to be victim to some unneeded accident should not be branded some mental case because of his actions.

Such a person like the OP, I fear would call such a moral person a fear monger, a spreader of doom and gloom when all he did is see a situation about to occur and decided to say and do something about it instead of doing nothing.

Now I ask you, are you the kind of person who would act to save a stranger even if you didn't know them and even if you knew they were contributing through their own negligence or lack of paying attention to some sudden accident that could kill them?

Well, I am the kind that has to say and do something when I see it about to happen and if the negative alternative to my way about such matters is the type of person who would say and do nothing because of course he does not want to spread fear or doom or hurt anyone's sensitivity, then I would have to ask you one last question.

Would you want a complete stranger to act to prevent you from being killed or harmed even if that effort hurt your feelings and or even knocked you down to prevent you from being killed or would you want someone so concerned with sensitivities and being mentally normal that you would accept such a person doing nothing?

Well, I for one will continue to discuss and inform others of whatever I feel can help and or contribute to others well being even if there are people that will call it fear mongering or doom spreading.

Anyway, the OP sounds to me as if he would see the bus coming, see the lady step off the curb directly into the bus path and for whatever reason the OP sounds to me like he would say "Have a nice day lady" as she steps to her death.

This is the big difference is some people and I for one am honored to be the type that warns and informs others even the naysayers want to call it fear mongering or spreading doom and gloom.

Besides, anyone who would see a disastrous situation and say and do nothing is not normal in my book, so if you want normal you will probably get the "have a nice day" remark instead of the type of person who would shout at you, grab you and pull you from danger, even if that sudden jerk hurt your sensitivities.

The proper mental term that this whole incident example describes is "indifference" to a situation and if you suffer from indifference, then it is such types that are the mental cases and not someone who would act to save or inform another about an impending danger or dangers.

I will hold to my values and my understanding of what is right and wrong and anyone who wants to call me a fear monger is just showing themselves to be what they are and no amount of sugar coating is going to hide the fact that such a person that would do and say nothing is why society has moved backwards and not forward with what is morally right.

Of course if you are an atheist, then of course doing and saying nothing would be "normal" to such types, but if I had a choice, I will take that alarmist any day to someone who is more concerned with sensitivities and being politically and mentally normal.

Thanks for the thread, but I felt that someone needed to say what needs to be stated to anyone who willingly embraces indifference and wants to call it sane and normal.

Originally posted by MaxBlack
I am going to give an example of a someone who seeks to warn and save human life and I will mirror that type of person with someone much like the OP that believes we should all think the same way or else be branded some type of mental case if we attempt to warn about some impending disaster that could harm human lives.

I do not promote hive mentality. In retrospect, doomsayerism promotes hive mentality and like-mindedness. The example you give is nothing close to the Camping Syndrome (from Harold Camping) characteristic of doomsayers. People get hit by cars all the time. there is substantial evidence for that. You can warn a person about being careful on the road but you dont need to be dramatic about it and tell them they will get hit by an airplane instead of something as small as a car. You might inadvertedly cause them to get hit by the bus.

I guess your argument also suggests that Doomsayers may also have some form of Hero Complex that is clearly evident in your writing.

Perhaps I have this yet to be DSM IV Classified disorder.

I become excited when there is an impending natural or economic disaster. However, I am not excited by war or nuclear/environmental disasters; they disgust me.

I see modern civilization as an environmental disaster. Any chance to end said disaster provides me with feelings of hope.

This hope is all, of course, subconscious. I would never consciously wish doom upon others.

To explain this subconscious feeling further: My 'natural being' has been placed in this unnatural situation I am trapped by obstacles so great that extraordinarily destructive events are the only escape.

This is of course a completely irrational thinking pattern I have developed, since If it bothered me so much, I would not be using this computer and would be living in a hut in some remote tropical location.

I am a very loving and moral person. Most people would not think so if they knew about my doomsday disorder.

Originally posted by numewenon
Perhaps I have this yet to be DSM IV Classified disorder.

I become excited when there is an impending natural or economic disaster. However, I am not excited by war or nuclear/environmental disasters; they disgust me.

I see modern civilization as an environmental disaster. Any chance to end said disaster provides me with feelings of hope.

This hope is all, of course, subconscious. I would never consciously wish doom upon others.

That is very funny sir. All the doomsday prophecies this year have panned out to be false. The latest one is 10.28.11, then it is 11.09.11, and then it is 11.11.11.

But on a serious note, what drives people to desire such tragedies on their fellow humans? why do people want the world to end?