{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,13]],"date-time":"2026-10-13T23:33:39Z","timestamp":1791934419798,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":79,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,4]],"date-time":"2025-11-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1762214400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/termsAndConditions#vor"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,4]],"date-time":"2025-11-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1762214400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/doi.wiley.com\/10.1002\/tdm_license_1.1"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["onlinelibrary.wiley.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["J History Behavioral Science"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>\n                    In 1954, Dorothy Martin predicted an apocalyptic flood and promised her followers rescue by flying saucers. When neither arrived, she recanted, her group dissolved, and efforts to proselytize ceased. But\n                    <jats:italic>When Prophecy Fails<\/jats:italic>\n                    (1956), the now\u2010canonical account of the event, claimed the opposite: that the group doubled down on its beliefs and began recruiting\u2014evidence, the authors argued, of a new psychological mechanism, cognitive dissonance. Drawing on newly unsealed archival material, this article demonstrates that the book's central claims are false, and that the authors knew they were false. The documents reveal that the group actively proselytized well before the prophecy failed and quickly abandoned their beliefs afterward. They also expose serious ethical violations by the researchers, including fabricated psychic messages, covert manipulation, and interference in a child welfare investigation. One coauthor, Henry Riecken, posed as a spiritual authority and later admitted he had \u201cprecipitated\u201d the climactic events of the study.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1002\/jhbs.70043","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,4]],"date-time":"2025-11-04T18:15:00Z","timestamp":1762280100000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Debunking \u201cWhen Prophecy Fails\u201d"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"62","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8115-6047","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Thomas","family":"Kelly","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Independent Scholar Washington DC"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_12_2_1","volume-title":"Celestial Raise: Tiers of Light Pouring Forth From the Son","author":"ASSK","year":"1987"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_3_1","first-page":"149","volume-title":"Other Words: Essays on Social\u2010Science Methods and the New Testament in Honour of Jerome H. 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