The Flying Saucer Study That Fooled Psychology for 70 Years
On the night of 20 December 1954, a small group sat in a house outside Chicago, waiting for a flying saucer to collect them before a world-ending flood. Midnight came. Nothing arrived. According to the famous book that told the story — When Prophecy Fails — the believers didn't give up. They believed harder, and started recruiting. That story helped launch one of the best-known ideas in psychology: cognitive dissonance.
Several of the people in that house were researchers, pretending to believe. In 2025, a researcher working through newly unsealed archives published what their own notes show…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.