TexasCHLforum.com

Sometimes (and too often) marketers work to manipulate people. I define manipulation as working to spread an idea or generate an action that is not in a person's long-term best interest.

The easiest people to manipulate are those that don't demand a lot of information, are open to messages from authority figures and are willing to make decisions on a hunch, particularly if there's a promise of short-term gains.

If you want to focus on the short run and sell something, get a vote or gather a mob, the easiest place to start is with populations that leave themselves open to manipulation.

There are habits and activities that leave people open to manipulation. I'm not saying they are wrong or right, just pointing out that these behaviors make you open to being manipulated... Here are a few general categories of behaviors that manipulators seek out:

* Believing something because you heard someone say it on a news show on cable TV.
* Being a child (or acting like one).
* Buying penny stocks.
* Repeating a mantra heard from a figurehead or leader of a tribe without considering whether it's true.
* Trying to find a short cut to lose weight, make money or achieve some other long-term goal.
* Ignoring the scientific method and embracing unexamined traditional methods instead.
* Focusing on (and believing) easily gamed bestseller lists or crowds.
* Inability to tolerate fear and uncertainty.
* Focus on now at the expense of the long term.
* Allowing the clothes of the messenger (a uniform, a suit and tie, a hat) to influence your perception of the information he delivers (add gender, fame, age and race to this too).
* Reliance on repetition and frequency to decide what's true.
* Desire to stick with previously made decisions because cognitive dissonance is strong.
* Inability to ignore sunk costs.
* Problem saying 'no' in social situations.

Interesting to note that AM radio used to be filled with ads for second mortgages. And now? Gold.

Manipulating people using modern techniques is astonishingly easy (if the marketer has few morals). You only make it easier when you permit people and organizations that want to take advantage of you to do so by allowing them to use your good nature and your natural instincts against you. It happens every day in Washington DC, online, on TV and in your local community institutions.

SmoothFox wrote:You mean like religion?

SmoothFox wrote:You mean like religion?

Error 404 : Funny not found.

Influence: Science and Practice is an examination of the psychology of compliance (i.e. uncovering which factors cause a person to say "yes" to another's request) and is written in a narrative style combined with scholarly research. Cialdini combines evidence from experimental work with the techniques and strategies he gathered while working as a salesperson, fundraiser, advertiser, and other positions, inside organizations that commonly use compliance tactics to get us to say "yes." Widely used in graduate and undergraduate psychology and management classes, as well as sold to people operating successfully in the business world, the eagerly awaited revision of Influence reminds the reader of the power of persuasion. Cialdini organizes compliance techniques into six categories based on psychological principles that direct human behavior: reciprocation, consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity. New Reader's Reports are included in the Fourth Edition and illustrate how readers have used one of the principles or have had a principle of influence used on them.

C-dub wrote:I wasn't even thinking about religion until Smoothfox mentioned it.

IMHO, religion cannot manipulate anyone, but there are many unscrupulous people that will use religion to manipulate others.

* Believing something because you heard someone say it on a news show on cable TV.
* Repeating a mantra heard from a figurehead or leader of a tribe without considering whether it's true.
* Focus on now at the expense of the long term.
* Desire to stick with previously made decisions because cognitive dissonance is strong.

KC5AV wrote: There are a couple of active threads on this board that popped up in my mind when I read this the other day.

7075-T7 wrote:

C-dub wrote:I wasn't even thinking about religion until Smoothfox mentioned it.

IMHO, religion cannot manipulate anyone, but there are many unscrupulous people that will use religion to manipulate others.

(Away from religion)

You are contradicting yourself. If it can be used for manipulation by others, then it can manipulate.

This is akin to saying: Firearms cannot hurt anyone, but bad guys can use firearms to hurt people.
While firearms in and of themselves cannot hurt anyone, without human interaction is it truly a firearm? Or is it a hunk of metal.

MechAg94 wrote:Didn't you just essentially agree with him?

Blaming a religion because someone bought into a manipulative sales pitch and didn't bother to study or research it's truthfulness is not smart.
Blaming Ford Motors because someone bought a manipulative sales pitch and didn't bother to check out the real price of the vehicle is not smart.
Blaming .................etc, etc, etc.