Cognitive Dissonance and the End of the World
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...harold-camping
"The more someone acts on behalf of a belief (and even suffers for it), the more and more that belief becomes important to them. People think, "I have done so much for this belief. If it weren't important I wouldn't have done that." This is a basic form of dissonance reduction."
Apparently there's a lot of self help information out there for people with end of the world fears and doomsday phobia.
You guys could always start a doomsday/end of the world cult and profit from that?