This article will guide you on how to create an Ex-Cult Member survey about Reasons For Joining. With Specific, you can build tailored surveys for any topic or audience in seconds—just generate your own survey now.
Steps to create a survey for Ex-Cult Member about Reasons For Joining
If you want to save time, just generate a survey with Specific.
Tell what survey you want.
Done.
You honestly don’t even need to read further. AI will create the survey for you with expert knowledge of best practices. It will even ask your respondents follow-up questions to gather deeper insights in real time.
If you prefer, you can always compose surveys from scratch with our conversational survey builder.
Why Ex-Cult Member surveys about reasons for joining matter
The importance of understanding why individuals join cults can’t be overstated. Conducting a recognition survey for Ex-Cult Members gives you the data you need to truly grasp the motivators—giving voice to former members while delivering actionable knowledge to researchers and communities.
If you’re not running these surveys, you’re missing out on:
Uncovering common motivators—like the search for meaning and belonging, which are often cited as core reasons for joining cults. In fact, research shows a strong link between personal crisis or transition and the urge to join a group for identity and purpose [1].
Identifying social influences—peer networks and friendships are huge drivers of cult recruitment, yet often overlooked if you don’t ask those with lived experience directly [2].
Spotting warning signs—including manipulation techniques and vulnerabilities during major life transitions, which can only truly be understood by hearing former members’ feedback [3].
The benefits of Ex-Cult Member feedback extend beyond identifying root causes—they help social scientists, therapists, and families support prevention and recovery initiatives.
What makes a good Ex-Cult Member survey about reasons for joining?
We believe the best surveys are designed to be clear, unbiased, and welcoming in tone. You want respondents to share their true experiences—vague, leading, or judgmental questions only get you shallow or skewed answers.
A conversational approach encourages honest responses, making the participant feel safe and respected. At the end of the day, you measure a good survey by both the quantity and quality of insights you get—more honest responses, and more depth in each.
Here’s a simple table showing bad practices vs. good practices for composing Ex-Cult Member surveys about reasons for joining:
Bad Practice | Good Practice |
|---|---|
Leading or loaded questions | Neutral, open-ended phrasing |
Overly clinical or judgmental wording | Conversational, empathetic language |
Too many yes/no questions | Mix of open, closed, and follow-ups |
No follow-ups for context | Dynamic probing for detail |
Remember: you want surveys that people actually finish, and where they feel compelled to share real stories—not just tick boxes.
What question types work for Ex-Cult Member surveys about reasons for joining?
There’s no one-size-fits-all, but here’s what works especially well:
Open-ended questions are ideal when you want Ex-Cult Members to put their experiences in their own words—this surfaces nuance you can’t predict in advance. Use these when exploring complex motives or “tell me your story” moments. Two examples:
What motivated you to join the group or community?
Can you describe what you were seeking at the time you decided to join?
Single-select multiple-choice questions help when you want structured data on common reasons, such as the influence of friends or a search for belonging. Format like this:
What was the main factor that led you to join the group?
Personal crisis or transition
Invitation from a friend/family member
Desire for community
Spiritual or philosophical exploration
Other
NPS (Net Promoter Score) question types can be powerful for gauging regret or advocacy—use this structure to quickly quantify sentiment. You can instantly generate a NPS survey tailored for Ex-Cult Members. Example:
On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to encourage someone to join a similar group, given your experience?
Followup questions to uncover “the why” are critical. When someone shares that they joined for “community,” it’s smart to follow up with, “What was it about the community that appealed to you?” or “Did anyone play a key role in your decision?” AI-powered surveys—like those made in Specific—do this automatically.
What did “belonging” mean to you at the time?
Can you give an example of a support you found within the group?
If you’re looking to explore more question ideas—or want tips on how to refine questions for richer insights—see the guide on best questions to ask in Ex-Cult Member surveys about reasons for joining.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey feels less like a dull form and more like a thoughtful chat. With an AI survey generator, you can compose, edit, and launch such surveys faster than ever—a huge leap from traditional manual survey tools. Rather than handing out static forms, you’re engaging former cult members in a natural back-and-forth that builds trust and reveals true motivations.
Manual Surveys | AI-Generated Surveys |
|---|---|
Time-consuming to compose | Survey built in seconds based on your prompt |
Static questions, no follow-up | Dynamic follow-ups tailored to answers |
Stale, impersonal tone | Conversational, engaging flow |
Manual analysis later | AI distills insights immediately |
Why use AI for Ex-Cult Member surveys? In short: context-aware, probing interviews that feel natural and deliver better data. If you want an AI survey example or want to experiment with an AI conversational survey, we make it a breeze. Specific is designed with best-in-class user experience for both feedback givers and survey creators, making every step—from question composition to results analysis—smooth and intuitive.
To dive deeper into crafting your first survey, check out this straight-to-the-point how-to guide on survey analysis for Ex-Cult Member surveys about reasons for joining.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions turn one-dimensional replies into meaningful stories. Specific’s AI interviews automatically ask smart follow-ups based on people’s actual responses and context, just like an expert facilitator. That’s a huge upgrade: without automated follow-ups, teams need to chase respondents via endless DMs and emails—and even then, the conversation can feel forced. With AI, the chat is seamless.
Ex-Cult Member: “I joined because it felt right at the time.”
AI follow-up: “Can you share more about what felt right to you, or what was happening in your life then?”
How many followups to ask? Typically, 2–3 are plenty. That’s enough to reach true depth without overwhelming people. It’s smart to enable a skip setting for moving to the next question once you’ve got the insight you need—Specific handles this by default so you get just the right balance of detail and flow.
This makes it a conversational survey: it adapts in real time, probes deeply but naturally, and makes the respondent feel heard, not interrogated.
AI survey response analysis and insights: Even though open-ended and follow-up replies produce lots of unstructured feedback, analyzing it is a cinch with AI. See the walk-through on AI survey response analysis for Ex-Cult Member conversation surveys.
These automated AI follow-up questions are a new approach—generate a survey now and see how it transforms the whole feedback experience.
See this Reasons For Joining survey example now
Ready to experience data-rich, conversational surveys? Create your own survey for Ex-Cult Members and leave clunky forms in the past—get deeper insights and richer stories with smarter, more human AI-powered surveys.