An essential to all learning involves risk and doubt. These are often best observed by watching children in ‘free play’. Free play has no fear of failure or not belonging to a group.

The more secure and confident one becomes in beliefs, the less likely one is able to learn.

One of the greatest threats to learning is confirmation bias (https://safetyrisk.net/confirmation-bias-risk-and-being-offensive/ ). Once a belief has been framed and anchored (often by a so-called guru or expert), all that follows can be viewed as either confirmation or challenge. This is the common situation in safety.

Once the myths/symbols of safety (eg. linear causality, safety by choice, root cause or harm as non-safety) have been indoctrinated (usually by slogans) by the traditional safety curriculum, anything the challenges those beliefs are either cause for doubt/learning or, confirmed as true via cognitive dissonance (https://safetyrisk.net/change-in-safety-and-cognitive-dissonance/ ).

Usually belief is confirmed through myth/symbols eg. swiss-cheese causality. The myth is the narrative (interpretation) that accompanies the symbol. Symbol and narrative work together is a similar way to slogans, so that something is made mythically/symbolically true eg. ‘blame fixes nothing’. Once a belief is set in concrete (usually by someone claiming credibility where there is no expertise), it is quickly politicized through membership to a group, that confirms the belief.

It then takes an enormous upheaval (cognitive dissonance) to shift that belief. In this way traditional safety calls things ‘different’ that are not ‘different’ and affirms the same worldview but uses different slogans. All belief is shaped this way (https://safetyrisk.net/building-belief-and-networks-of-belief-in-safety/). Any research in Religious Studies demonstrates this, including how such belief is normalised through cultures/sub-cultures.

When we look at safety as a belief system (https://safetyrisk.net/the-safety-belief-system/), we see how false belief is so easily promoted and anchored. It then becomes critical to create political and social allegiances so such belief must not be doubted and any alternate message must be demonised.

We see this ‘mechanism of belief’ most pronounced in the MAGA cult indeed, in all cults. The latest in the MAGA cult is that if trump was proven a paedophile, it would not change their loyalty (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/27/trump-supporters-middle-america-epstein-files). The same happens with cult leaders who sexually assault those in their ‘flock’, such is the power of belief (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S135917891730246X). This recent case in the UK is typical (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-22/cult-like-christian-group-leader-found-guilty-of-sexual-abuse/105684554).

When it gets to the stage when slogans become ‘principles’, and normal life is called a ‘pre-accident’, one is already using cultic language (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/384636475_Cults_Defining_Criteria ).

Once a new cultic language is normalised then, all the gobbledygook of the cult must be defended and not questioned. This is how myths/symbols of belief are cemented socially and politically.

Then, separation from the group becomes too painful, so doubt must be eliminated, such is the power of confirmation bias. The elimination of doubt and questioning is the elimination of learning.

We also see cultic language, evangelism and belief in AI, all anchored to myth/symbols that are not true eg. promoting AI as sentient and conscious (https://theconversation.com/ai-isnt-close-to-becoming-sentient-the-real-danger-lies-in-how-easily-were-prone-to-anthropomorphize-it-200525).

The key to learning is to interrogate the discourse of the cult ie. questioning the metaphors, language and outcomes of the cult. For example, if you have been led to believe that humans are cogs in a machine (https://safetyrisk.net/its-all-in-the-cogs-for-safety/ ), you have already had your beliefs about personhood shaped by a metaphor. If you believe that causality is linear and ordered, you have already been conned by Reason’s ‘swiss-cheese’. If you believe that fallible humans can be perfect, you have already been seduced by the zero cult. If you believe that normal life is a ‘pre-accident’ you have already turned safety into a search for the negative.

If you want to know more about the nature of belief, cult-ure and how language shapes culture you can download our latest book on culture for free: https://www.humandymensions.com/product/51-stories-in-culture/