To examine examine this theory further, Seife presents a study done by psychologist Leon Festinger on an apocalyptic group in the 1950’s. The leader of the cult, Dorothy Martin, claimed that she received letters from aliens on the planet Clarion which said there would be a global catastrophe on December 21, 1995. She and her followers would be saved from this disaster by the aliens in their saucer. Martin and her followers were very convicted in their belief. When the sun came up on December 22nd Seife commented that it would be “a clearcut case of immovable belief versus irresistible fact” because the cult would have to mentally deal with being wrong about the disaster. Festinger coined a term for this situation: cognitive dissonance. He defines it as when someone is forced to face two opposing ideas simultaneously (224).…show more content… Since the second option can not be accomplished with truthful information, it is accomplished through connecting with other people with the same belief. This allows for individuals who otherwise would have changed their belief to accommodate the irresistible fact to stand true in their incorrect and immovable belief together. Networking like this has become easier and easier as the years have gone by. The internet has created a frenzy of interconnections all over the world that allows people, such as Dorothy Martin, to spread their ideas and grow their groups to sizes that in the 1950’s would have been unheard