MANIPULATION TECHNIQUES Emotional manipulation 2 FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) 3 Thinking 5 Language 6 Information 8 Needs 9 Encourage and hindrance 10 Chaos principle 12 Inertia principle 15 Traps principle 16 Subconscious mind 17 The principle of "reacting instead of acting autonomously” 19 EMOTIONAL MANIPULATION Most partners in a relationship are to be influenced. However, this can also be applied to other people, such as friends. How this works exactly you can see under examples. Reasons: Fear of loss: uses emotional blackmail because he is afraid of losing you. Feeling of neglect: When either partner in the relationship feels neglected. Lack of support: the blackmailer feels that he or she is being treated unfairly and is not being supported enough. Lack of communication: If there is too little communication in the partnership, misunderstandings quickly arise. A breeding ground for emotional blackmail. Exampeles: - Convincing feelings of guilt: "Because of you, I have done without so much ...", "You make me sick with your behavior.", "What have I done for you and what do you do?" - Unfair accusations: "You're always thinking of yourself - what about my needs?" "Because of you, I feel so bad." - Threats: "If you leave me, I'll kill myself," "If you leave now, you'll never have to come back," "If you split up, you'll never see the kids again," "If you leave now, it's over between us." - Setting ultimatums: "If you really loved me, then ...", "If you really loved me, you wouldn't behave this way." - Holding up duties: "For you, does that mean being there for someone?" - Drawing comparisons: "Others can do it, too." FUD (FEAR, UNCERTAINTY AND DOUBT) Reasons: Influencing one or more people by subconsciously manipulating them. Fear: Fear is the price of our consciousness. Examples: - When a class assignment is handed out, the student may assess possible dangers such as a punishment, anger or teasing. It is the piece of paper that causes fear; it is the grade and the dangers that may be associated with it. - Threat of atomic bombs or violence. Possible bad decisions in dangerous situations of any kind lead to anxiety. The manipulator can use existing fears (possibly intensify them) or create new ones. Example: - Churches invented fears such as those of eternal damnation, hell, or purgatory. Further, the church exploits this fear by presenting compliance with its goals as protection against this danger. Uncertainty: Triggered by various things to unsettle people and raise concerns. Which usually amounts to fear. Examples: - Pushing people to focus on possible negative outcomes. - Overwhelming people with information that is difficult for them to process - With unfair techniques of dialectics Doubt: The strategy of purposefully sowing doubt about scientific knowledge was introduced by the tobacco industry and has now been used for several decades. Targeted, yet subtle and rather subliminal disinformation, scaremongering or misinformation is used to raise doubts. Frequently, these are disseminated via seemingly neutral sources ("third party strategy"), whose connection to the actual originator is not immediately apparent. Examples: - Delaying political decisions on environmental issues such as climate change. - Press releases - sales/marketing (that the product suffers from technical problems) - public relations (that the competitor is rumored to be struggling finacially, so they might shut down and leave customers with no support) - polling - cults THINKING Thinking is for the most part an unconscious process. Only a small part of the process takes place consciously. The most common manipulation techniques are aimed particularly at unconscious thinking: Examples: - Buzzwords are used to make more out of something than is actually behind it ("super white," although it doesn't get any whiter than white!). - With foreign words or terms, which are only insufficiently defined and/or completely inaccurately applied, the person is made the victim of its own value conceptions and conceptualizations. - Through an "intellectual" presentation above the level of the listeners, it is suggested to them - although they only understand half of it - that they would at least be intelligent enough to understand this or that; the lack of understanding is thus used to manipulate thinking in a certain direction. - Important facts are deliberately concealed or generalities are used. - With unfair techniques of dialectics (exaggeration, trick questions, syllogisms, twisting of opinions, etc.) individual participants are unsettled and misled. - Confirmation of the opinion of "vain" participants, who thus become open to manipulation. - Visualizing the elements that are significant to the speaker rather than those that show the overall context. - The use of auditory or visual anchors. LANGUAGE - The use of a familiar term for something new creates the illusion as if it is something known or familiar. Schönhuber used this method when choosing the name "The Republicans," which is already familiar from the United States. - The use of a new term for something old is supposed to cause it to be perceived as something new or special. In the book of a psycho sect, this trick is used non-stop by packaging psychological banalities in new terms, which is supposed to create the illusion of having something new to offer. - Just a few years ago, new things had to be given Greek or Latin names, or names that sounded like them. This resulted in such word monstrosities as "automobile" (Greek-Latin gibberish). More harmless words were "video" and "audio". - Trivializing terms are chosen to meet less resistance. The word "waste disposal park" sounds more pleasant than "landfill". - The use of overly harsh terms is intended to create outrage or exclude people. It seems a bit ridiculous to call someone who is speeding in a town at 60 km/h a "speeder". Also the assertion that soldiers are "potential murderers" uses this method. - The consistent misuse or misapplication of a term can lead to the transformation of its meaning. The word "idiot" comes from the Greek "idiotes," meaning "private man" or "ordinary, common man." There is no trace of mental illness there. - Through consistent misuse, a term can also acquire a connotation. The word "demagogue" (= leader of the people) has a connotation, which the word "pedagogue" (= leader of children / boys) does not have. Why is a pedagogue more harmless? - Artificial words are often used for new products that did not exist before. This gives the illusion of something new and special. Art words can be chosen or designed in such a way that a specific association is achieved. It can be checked in extensive tests whether the desired effect is achieved. - The targeted use of unknown words creates the surprise effect and aims to present the product as something special. Which body care product already has "Ginko extract"? For me, the question is rather what this extract is actually supposed to be good for. - If one does not have to say much factually, then one can cover this nevertheless skillfully by foreign words or foreign words or high use of language and thus pretend competence. INFORMATION The basic problem with this form of information manipulation technique is not so much that someone consciously or intentionally gives false information, but that information is presented in a "special light" depending on the interest. Examples: - Consciously or unconsciously, only information of a certain kind is provided (e.g., coverage of the former GDR over West Germany). - The listeners are bombarded with too much information until they no longer know what it is all about. - Important information is made a minor matter and thus devalued; rather unimportant information is widely trodden on. - Information is withheld in order to achieve certain goals. - The information is simultaneously assigned a rating. NEEDS Each of us permanently strives for the satisfaction of some need. Manipulators could take advantage of this by observing the following things. - Presenting to the manipulated person what he or she is to be influenced to do as a step toward satisfying those needs. - Breaking down the person's need into small individual needs and then offering opportunities for satisfaction for the corresponding individual needs. - Arousing the need first (classically in advertising, which suggests to us that we absolutely must have this, otherwise we will not be able to live another day). In connection with fear this manipulation technique is almost always effective. ENCOURAGEMENT AND HINDRANCE The chapter could also have been called "Praise and Blame" These are the most elementary forms of influence. Where is the human being vulnerable? This knowledge is relevant for effective obstruction or punishment by withholding or taking away important things like freedom or possessions from the human being or for effective reinforcement or praise by making these things accessible to the human being. - Man is most vulnerable when it comes to his life and health . Threats of physical violence, murder, and the death penalty are the most direct assaults on a person's basic rights. Other examples include life-threatening punishments such as keelhauling, punishments that result in mutilation such as chopping off the hand, or severely painful punishments such as flogging. - Other punishments target the absolute necessities of life, such as deprivation of food, housing, money, and medical care. Examples would be banishment to an island, imprisonment in a dungeon, or forced labor for inadequate care. But even a dismissal can lead to the deprivation of an adequate livelihood through the loss of salary, if the victim is in debt, for example. - No longer immediately life-threatening is the deprivation of minimal basic rights, as in the case of deprivation of liberty, forced labor, forced resettlement, deportation, prohibition of assembly, prohibition of speech and prohibition of occupation. - Some amenities have become a matter of course, so the deprivation is also very painful. Mainly the fine and the revocation of the driver's license fall into this category The free choice of profession is made more difficult for those with a criminal record. Prisoners are not allowed to read to the full extent. Students are threatened with expulsion from school, thus deprivation of education. - Examples of deprivation of privileges or special amenities include exclusion from associations, deprivation of titles, or revocation of teaching licenses. Obstruction of higher goals or self-realization also belongs to this group. - In the past, there was still the punishment of defamation of character through pillorying. Today, some political magazines seem to have taken over this function, but with the restriction that here punishment is inflicted without a trial. - Even apparent rights and freedoms can be taken away, like titles without value. Examples: - Praise and blame have a double effect, once on the one who is praised or blamed and once on those who are present. One creates thereby models or deterrents. That is why commendations are often public, e.g. awards with medals or merit badges and prize-giving ceremonies. Executions also used to be public for this reason. - Some award ceremonies are put on as if it was about recognition for services rendered, but instead it is a publicity event for the organizers. An example of this is the Academy Awards. The aim is for everyone to see how good American films are. It is a promotional event for American films. The praise for the actors and others involved is secondary. - The awarding of a title (e.g. honorary doctorate) is relatively cheap for the manipulator. Promotions are somewhat more expensive. - Fiscal betterment is also a form of reinforcement. - Examples for obstructions: lack of information about rights, complication of procedures or approval processes, lack of prospects for success, path through the instances, taxation, disadvantage, punishment, tabooing, slander, social ostracism, reference to non-responsibility or competence problems, reference to existing regulations, reference to unalterable decisions of superiors or higher authorities (e.g. God), civil lawsuits, inundation with lawsuits, deprivation of office and dignity, murder, blackmail, threats against family, attacks on side issues. - Buying up a rival company can hinder new developments. THE CHAOS PRINCIPLE Chaos theory deals with problems of non-computable processes. A process is considered as non-computable, if minimally different initial conditions lead to a completely different result. If you drop a rubber ball on the ground, one can determine how high it will bounce. If you repeat this experiment any number of times you will always get the same result with only minimal differences. If, on the other hand, you let the rubber ball stairs, the trajectory of the rubber ball can no longer be determined, because minimal differences in the starting speed lead to completely different differences in the starting speed leading to a completely different result concerning the trajectory of the rubber ball. Chaos theorists try to recognize structures in these chaotic processes. Also humans in your totality do not behave calculably and thus chaotically. It may be quite interesting to look for structures behind the behavior of people - for the manipulator, however, other questions count. other questions: - How do you influence chaotic processes? - How can you use chaotic processes for your own goals? Thesis 1: Chaotic systems can be aligned. A simple chaotic system is a vibrating tray with peas. The peas dance wildly around on it and their trajectory is indeterminable. If the tray is tilted only minimally and allowed to vibrate, the peas will continue to move wildly and the path of a pea will continue to be indeterminable, but the sum of all the of all movements of all peas will clearly point to the slope. The movement of the peas in the direction of the slope would decrease, provided one reduces the vibration or the slope. However, this does not mean that by arbitrary increase of the vibration the movement can be increased arbitrarily. Above a certain value the peas would hop off the tray. Thesis 2: Chaotic systems can be controlled. Chaotic systems can possibly even be controlled very well. The sum velocity of all peas is related to the frequency and amplitude of the vibration and the inclination of the tray, if all values are in a limited range. The variation of a value produces a determinable change of the velocity. Now what does the manipulator get from both theses? He wants to move people to an action. If he knew people who have fixed views and goals, this attempt would certainly not be successful. successful. The more confusion was created, the higher the influenceability. The chaos in human behavior therefore benefits the manipulator, as long as it takes place within certain limits. The experiment with the tray and the peas show us something else very important: Even a very slight inclination of the tray is sufficient to produce a clear to generate an unambiguous movement. For the manipulator this means: When the chaos has reached the optimal point, minimal influence can be exerted. has reached, minimal manipulation can already lead to success. The method "chaos with low influence" has enormous advantages over the method "strong influence without chaos": - The manipulator and his target are more difficult to recognize. - Due to the chaos, it is not even noticeable that a clear goal exists at all. The actions seem uncoordinated. - The principle is fault-tolerant. Complex plans can fail at a single weak point. The chaos principle uses the errors and deviations to disguise the goal. - Even if many individual actions seem to disprove the goal, it is achieved. - Where there is no discernible goal, there are no opponents to hinder the goal. A variant of the chaos principle are chaos-free areas in a chaotic environment. In our example this would mean that we cut out a piece of the tray and attach it firmly, so that this piece, in contrast to the rest of the tray, does not vibrate. The tray would not be tilted in this example. The peas would continue to bounce around wildly on the rest of the tray and would continue to bounce around wildly. However, as soon as a pea lands on the non-vibrating piece, it remains there. The result is that, on average, more peas accumulate there than on the rest of the tray. Occasionally, however, a landing pea would push other peas away from this chaos-free area, which can be prevented by building a small barrier around this area, over which peas from the vibrating side can just hop. can just hop over. For the manipulator this means that in a chaotic environment he can create tasks, goals, institutions that give people a foothold. Radical parties or strict believing sects can be such points, which mostly give people an orderly and thus a non-chaotic environment through simplified world views. However, such a place of calm can also be drug use. The simplified world view in this case is called: happiness through drug intoxication. Another variant of the chaos principle I would like to call "legislative Darwinism". Darwin's thesis says that the diversity of all living beings is developed by mutation and selection. The mutations occur randomly, thus chaotically. Selection causes only the best adapted species to survive. The same method can also be applied to legislation. Even if a parliament were independent from the interests of the powerful, the laws it creates would occasionally meet the goals of the powerful. The legislature thereby assumes the function of mutation. Now the powerful only have to take over the selection to abolish or erode the laws that run counter to their goals. The laws that best best suit the goals of the powerful thus survive. There are sufficient methods of amending laws retroactively, for example for example, a lawsuit before the Constitutional Court. Of course, ordinary citizens could also sue before the court, but they are defeated for various reasons, if only because, unlike the powerful, they are not unlike the powerful, they cannot constantly pay lawyers who work incessantly for their goals. THE INERTIA PRINCIPLE It's not that conservative people are more successful. But successful people become conservative. The powerful owe their power to certain circumstances and are therefore not interested in changing the situation to change unless it is planned by them and serves their goals. All unplanned changes are prevented or slowed down by using the principle of inertia. The slower a development is, the easier it is to intervene and the easier it is for the powerful to adapt to new developments. If a powerful person himself has planned and achieved a change, his goal is to secure the now achieved state so that the original state does not return. secure, so that the original state does not return. Again, the powerful person will anchor methods that prevent rapid change. TRAPS PRINCIPLE Sometimes the powerful cannot force his victims to become dependent on him. No bank can oblige its customers to take out a loan. However, the powerful can "set traps" for their victims to step into. Examples: - Banks can, for example, make it easier to extend credit. Overdraft facilities for checking accounts are deliberately regulated in a straightforward manner. This lowers the inhibition threshold for taking out a loan to buy a car or for a vacation. Anyone who takes out a loan now has only himself to blame if he becomes over indebted; after all, no one is forced to take out a loan. - In the “Bundeswehr”, you have to commit yourself for a few years in order to make a career there or to be able to study there. No one has to sign up. If you do, it's your own fault. SUBCONSCIOUS MIND You are mistaken if you think you always decide with your mind. We do not have the basic chemical knowledge to choose the best detergent based on its chemical composition. It is hardly possible to detect minimal differences by our own tests. How should we balance cleanliness with environmental protection? There are tests in magazines, but they all come to a different conclusion. Sometimes price remains the only criterion. But is it right to take the cheapest? Nevertheless, we make decisions. But according to which criteria? Why do we actually buy a certain ketchup, detergent, deodorant or ready-made deodorant or a ready-made meal? Since these decisions are not made with the mind, it is difficult to fathom the motives that led us to make them. It is difficult to fathom the motives that led us to make the purchase. When you think about it, at best, you look for and find new arguments, but not the original motives. A ready-made menu can be easier to prepare than a semi-finished product, where the housewife still has to mix the components or season them. mix the components or season them. But can a housewife present a ready-made menu just as proudly as something she has cooked herself, even if it was only a little that she had to make. The housewife will have a different experience when she presents a ready-made meal or a lunch she cooked herself from semi-finished products. The next time she makes a purchase, she will choose accordingly. She will buy the semi-finished products but not the ready-made menu. If you were to ask her why, the answer would be that the semi-finished products taste better to her family. This is also natural. After all, you can't ask a family member to praise them because of a ready-made meal. Once this principle is recognized by the manufacturer of the semi-finished products or the advertising agency, this prejudice is supported by the advertising. One shows, which the housewife by minimum ingredients everything from the product can make and how she is praised for it. The superficial observer might think that this is the product, which shows how versatile the product can be used, but he does not see that the actual core message: with this product you cooked yourself and therefore all the praise of the family is for you. As we can see from this example, it's not about taste at all, but about recognition and praise. Actually, almost all people want intangible goods such as: Praise, recognition, love, tenderness, freedom, dignity, justice, tranquility, peace, knowledge, power and adventure. The tricky thing about these intangibles is: you long for them, but you can't buy them. This longing is almost always unsatisfied, but at the same time very intense. It is therefore a good bait for advertising, which aims to establish a connection between intangible goods and concrete products. concrete products. Examples: - Want to be praised? Then cook this product. - Are you looking for tenderness? Look how gentle this soap is to your skin. Are you lonely? In a pub with a XYZ beer you get much closer. - Do you feel unfree? You can escape civilization with an off-road vehicle. - Are you restless? You can relax with a brandy? - Are you a morning person? With the right coffee, breakfast can be delightful. Most advertising is based on this principle. The art of the advertising agency is to hammer this message credibly to the customer. The manipulator must consider which elements must be seen in a commercial need to be seen so that the overall picture is right. For example, what do you need for peace and comfort? Soft colors, calm music, wooden furniture, pendulum clocks, ornamental writing (cursive or fraktur), a lolling dog, just no technology, plants (old trees). The trick is to get this list as long as possible and to incorporate as much of it as possible into the commercial as unobtrusively as possible. Secondly, it must be made clear that the product is a mandatory part of this overall picture. The need for order can also be exploited by designing the spines of a series of books or magazines so that they form a coherent image or lettering. If one did not buy all the books or magazines, they would look untidy on the shelf. THE PRINCIPLE OF “REACTING OF ACTING AUTONOMOUSLY” First, I would like to clarify the terms. A reaction is an action as a result of a stimulus. Such a stimulus can come from the outside via the sense organs or from the inside through hunger, thirst, heartburn or fatigue. In contrast, autonomous action is not the result of a stimulus, but the result of deliberation, thus it is not externally determined. The main problem in delimiting the term here is the behavioral patterns anchored by education and manipulation. At the moment of acting, there is no direct influence from the outside. outside, nevertheless this action cannot be called really autonomous. This problem of demarcation makes clear how rarely truly autonomous action is present. But even if truly autonomous autonomous action hardly exists, there are nevertheless actions which are less externally determined than pure reactions to various various stimuli. Another problem of demarcation is the fact that hardly anyone is able to distinguish acquired values, needs and behaviors from his or her own. values, needs and behaviors from his own. Much of what one believes to be one's own opinion is externally determined. For the manipulator, autonomous actions of victims have a decisive disadvantage compared to reactions: Autonomous actions are not always predictable. Reactions, on the other hand, are much more predictable. If you address someone, they are likely to look at you in response. It is unlikely that the person addressed will run away, yawn, or start yodeling. The external stimulus of being addressed has the predictable consequence of getting some attention. If the manipulator now has no further stimuli ready, the addressed person will again devote himself to his own goals. So what must the manipulator do? He must overwhelm his victim with stimuli so violently that the victim reacts constantly. If he were to let up, his victim would again pursue his own goals. A simple example of this is the non-stop talking salesman at the front door. Provided the manipulator is a good rhetorician, he can lead the victim through the conversation. The overstimulation in television advertising has the same goal. The viewer is overloaded with so many stimuli that he can only react. As long as he only reacts, his behavior can be controlled. And now comes the most important point: For the manipulator, any form of stimulus overload is useful for his victim. useful. It does not matter whether all stimuli directly serve his goals or not. Really important is for him only that the victim does not return to autonomous action. Therefore, the victim should be constantly busy as possible. Through different activities the victim does not come to rest: - Constant music sprinkling: supermarket, car radio; television, cinema, theater, museums, folk festivals, regulars' table, sporting events - Christmas rush, buying frenzy, consumption - Hobbies, reading, sports, traveling, clubs - Commitments: Family, home, church earning money, work, courses, further education, going to work The manipulator only needs to promote these activities through: - Promoting clubs, sporting events, popular festivals. - Creation of more television channels - Advertising to increase the buying frenzy - Creation of youth centers, discos, sports grounds - Creation of new obligations, taxes - Creation of new needs (CD player, Walkman, Gameboy) The Romans had the concept of "bread and games". The meaning is: the people are calm when the elementary needs are satisfied (bread) and they are busy (games). Once someone is used to only reacting, he will not act autonomously even if he had time to do so in the short term. Like an addict, he will look for new stimuli to which he can then react again. If there is nothing on TV, then one just goes to the cinema instead of thinking about one's real goals and acting according to one's goals. In some cases, further measures are taken by the manipulator with the aim of eliminating autonomous action: - The military relies mainly on concepts such as command, obedience, authority, duty, and on a strongly hierarchical concept. The subordinate has to rule and function. Independent action is not desired. Similar methods can also be found in the Catholic Church and in authoritarian-run companies. - Due to constraints, bureaucracy and laws, the citizen's own actions can seem futile. The frustration principle is at work here. - Religious communities can restrict the independent action of members and employees (lay people and priests) by referring to the divine origin of their rules. Any autonomous and deviant action is thus against God. And who wants to be against God? - Insofar as the victim believes himself to be incapable or unworthy, he is willing to acknowledge experts, superiors, and authority instead of relying on his own intellect and acting accordingly. The goal of the manipulator is to keep the victim ignorant, to emphasize his or her own knowledge advantage, to to stand out from the victim by using appropriate jargon (or Latin) and to show the victim his or her inferiority and various feelings of guilt. The ecclesiastical confession of sins and the confession reinforce these feelings of guilt. - Through education and school, you learn early on not to step out of line, to be well-behaved, and to fit in with the community. - In negotiations, you can direct your counterpart by asking questions. This is one of the messages that supervisors learn on management courses. The subordinate often realizes after a conversation with his or her boss that the conversation did not go as he had planned. All the phrases that were prepared could not be applied. The very fact that the boss asked "What do you want?" puts the subordinate in the position of the responder. And superiors have a large repertoire of such short questions, with which they can engage their subordinates non-stop in a conversation: "What do you suggest?" "How did you determine that?" The subordinate is so busy answering the questions that he or she cannot pursue his own goal. With each answer, he gives the supervisor new opportunities for further questions. Now all the supervisor has to do is direct the subordinate, by asking questions, to a subject that is contrary to the subordinate's goals. In any case, however, the concept that the subordinate by the subordinate is gone.
