http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-scientology062590b,1,279442.story?coll=la-news-comment

For the past several years, the Church of Scientology has received a great deal of media attention. Tom Cruise publicly proclaiming his alliegance to the church and the increase in the membership of high-profile celebrities are some of the examples. According to the article on the L.A. Times, the Church of Scientology sees active recruitment of celebrities as one of their highest priorities. The Church attempts at attracting new celebrities by providing them with first-class treatment and by convincing them through the Church’s influential celebrity members. They are using the theory of information cascade to their advantage in drawing in more interest, which ultimately results in new memberships. The church’s use of information cascade is similar to the example of restaurant A and B given in the lecture. Following the herd to the crowded restaurant B over the empty restaurant A is seen as a rational behavior, whether or not restaurant B is superior to restaurant A.

In the last several years, the church of Scientology was successful in converting celebrities such as Jerry Seinfeld, Beck, Nancy Cartwright (voice of Bart Simpson), Brandy Norwood, Katie Holmes and hundreds of others. We can attempt at explaining this phenomena by applying it to the simple model given in the textbook. Celebrity #1 joins the church after he observes a benefit in the first-class treatment provided by the church. Celebrity #2 observes the benefits of joining himself and he observes the celebrity #1’s action. Since both signals are high, celebrity #2 joins the church. When it’s celebrity #3’s turn to decide, he observes his signal along side the actions taken by the first two celebrities. Even if he does not receive a high signal, celebrity #3 joins the church since celebrity #1 and #2 joined. Celebrity #3’s low signal cancels out with one of the high signals received by the first two, which results in #3 being in the same situation as celebrity #1.