Manipulation of the human mind. Mind manipulation

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There are a large number of methods of psychological influence (manipulation). Some of them are available for mastering only after a long practice (for example, NLP), some are freely used by most people in life, sometimes without even noticing it; it is enough to have an idea about some methods of manipulative influence in order to protect yourself from them; to counteract others, you yourself need to be good at such techniques (for example, gypsy psychological hypnosis), etc.

The following manipulation techniques will be considered equivalent in terms of efficiency groups. Despite the fact that each block precedes its inherent name, nevertheless, it should be noted that the specific methods of influencing the subconscious are very effective for everyone, without exception, regardless of the specific target audience or typical personality traits of a particular person. This is explained by the fact that the human psyche in general has the same components, and differs only in minor details, and hence the increased efficiency of the developed methods of manipulation that exist in the world.

Ways to manipulate the mental consciousness of a person

1. False questioning, or deceptive clarifications. In this case, the manipulative effect is achieved due to the fact that the manipulator pretends that he wants to better understand something for himself, asks you again, but repeats your words only at the beginning and then only partially, introducing a different meaning into the meaning of what you said earlier, thereby changing the general meaning of what was said to please himself.

In this case, you should be extremely careful, always listen to what they say to you, and noticing a catch, clarify what you said earlier; moreover, to clarify even if the manipulator, pretending not to notice your desire for clarification, tries to move on to another topic.

2. Deliberate haste, or skipping topics. The manipulator in this case seeks, after voicing any information, to quickly move on to another topic, realizing that your attention is immediately redirected to new information, which means that the likelihood that the previous information that was not “protested” will reach the subconscious increases listener; if information reaches the subconscious, then it is known that after any information is in the unconscious (subconscious), after a while it is realized by a person, i.e. goes into consciousness. Moreover, if the manipulator additionally strengthened his information with an emotional load, or even entered it into the subconscious by coding, then such information will appear at the moment the manipulator needs, which he himself will provoke (for example, using the principle of “anchoring” from NLP, or, in other words, by activating the code).

In addition, as a result of haste and jumping topics, it becomes possible to "voice" a large number of topics in a relatively short period of time; which means that the censorship of the psyche will not have time to let everything through itself, and the likelihood increases that a certain part of the information will penetrate into the subconscious, and from there it will influence the consciousness of the object of manipulation in a way that is beneficial to the manipulator.

3. The desire to show one's indifference, or pseudo-inattention. In this case, the manipulator tries to perceive both the interlocutor and the information received as indifferently as possible, thereby unconsciously forcing the person to try at all costs to convince the manipulator of his importance to him. Thus, the manipulator can only manage the information coming from the object of his manipulations, receiving those facts that the object was not going to spread before. A similar circumstance on the part of the person who is being manipulated is inherent in the laws of the psyche, forcing any person to strive at all costs to prove his case by convincing the manipulator (not suspecting that this is a manipulator), and using the available arsenal of logical controllability of thoughts for this - that is, the presentation of new circumstances of the case, facts that, in his opinion, can help him in this. What turns out to be in the hands of the manipulator, who finds out the information he needs.

As a countermeasure in this case, it is recommended to strengthen your own volitional control and not succumb to provocations.

4. False inferiority, or imaginary weakness. This principle of manipulation is aimed at the desire on the part of the manipulator to show his weakness to the object of manipulation, and thereby achieve the desired, because if someone is weaker, the effect of condescension turns on, which means that the censorship of the human psyche begins to function in a relaxed mode, as if not perceiving what comes from manipulator information seriously. Thus, the information coming from the manipulator passes immediately to the subconscious, is deposited there in the form of attitudes and patterns of behavior, which means that the manipulator achieves his goal, because the object of manipulation, without suspecting it, after a while will begin to fulfill the attitudes laid down in the subconscious, or, in other words, carry out the secret will of the manipulator.

The main way of confrontation is the complete control of information coming from any person, i.e. everyone is an adversary and should be taken seriously.

5. False love, or lulling vigilance. Due to the fact that one individual (manipulator) plays in front of another (object of manipulation) love, excessive respect, reverence, etc. (i.e. expresses his feelings in a similar way), he achieves incomparably more than if he openly asked for something.

In order not to succumb to such provocations, one should have, as F.E. Dzerzhinsky once said, “a cold mind.”

6. Furious pressure, or exorbitant anger. Manipulation in this case becomes possible as a result of unmotivated rage on the part of the manipulator. A person who is targeted by this kind of manipulation will have a desire to calm the one who is angry with him. Why is he subconsciously ready to make concessions to the manipulator.

Methods of counteraction may be different, depending on the skills of the object of manipulation. For example, as a result of “adjustment” (the so-called calibration in NLP), you can first stage a state of mind similar to that of the manipulator, and then calm down, calm the manipulator as well. Or, for example, you can show your calmness and absolute indifference to the anger of the manipulator, thereby confusing him, and therefore depriving him of his manipulative advantage. You can sharply increase the pace of your own aggressiveness by speech techniques simultaneously with a light touch of the manipulator (his hand, shoulder, arm ...), and additional visual impact, i.e. in this case, we seize the initiative, and by simultaneously influencing the manipulator with the help of visual, auditory and kinesthetic stimuli, we introduce him into a state of trance, and hence dependence on you, because in this state the manipulator itself becomes the object of our influence, and we we can introduce certain attitudes into his subconscious, because It is known that in a state of anger any person is subject to coding (psychoprogramming). Other countermeasures can also be used. It should be remembered that in a state of anger it is easier to make a person laugh. You should know about this feature of the psyche and use it in time.

7. Fast pace, or unjustified haste. In this case, we should talk about the desire of the manipulator, due to the imposed excessively fast pace of speech, to push through some of his ideas, having achieved their approval by the object of manipulation. This becomes possible even when the manipulator, hiding behind the alleged absence of time, achieves incomparably more from the object of manipulation than if this happened over a long period of time, during which the object of manipulation would have time to think over his answer, and therefore not become a victim of deception ( manipulations).

In this case, you should take a timeout (for example, refer to an urgent phone call, etc.) to knock the manipulator off the pace he set. To do this, you can act out a misunderstanding of a question and a “stupid” questioning, etc.

8. Excessive suspicion, or making forced excuses. This type of manipulation occurs when the manipulator acts suspicious in any matter. As a response to suspicion in the object of manipulation, a desire to justify oneself follows. Thus, the protective barrier of his psyche weakens, which means that the manipulator achieves his goal by “pushing” the necessary psychological attitudes into his subconscious.

A defense option is to realize yourself as a person and volitional opposition to an attempt of any manipulative influence on your psyche (i.e. you must demonstrate your own self-confidence and show that if the manipulator is suddenly offended, then let him be offended, and if he wants to leave, you will not run after him; this should be adopted by "in love": do not let yourself be manipulated.)

9. Imaginary fatigue, or a game of consolation. The manipulator with all his appearance shows fatigue and the inability to prove something and listen to any objections. Thus, the object of manipulation tries to quickly agree with the words given by the manipulator, so as not to tire him with his objections. Well, by agreeing, he thereby follows the lead of the manipulator, who only needs this.

There is only one way to counteract: not to succumb to provocations.

10. The authority of the manipulator, or the deception of power. This type of manipulation comes from such specifics of the individual's psyche as the worship of authorities in any area. Most often it turns out that the very area in which such an “authority” has achieved results lies in a completely different area than his imaginary “request” now, but nevertheless, the object of manipulation cannot do anything with himself, since in his soul the majority people believe that there is always someone who has achieved more than they do.

A variant of confrontation is belief in one's own exclusivity, super-personality; development in oneself the belief in one's own chosenness, in the fact that you are a super-human.

11. Favors rendered, or payment for help. The manipulator conspiratorially informs the object of manipulation about something, as if advising him to make this or that decision in a friendly way. At the same time, clearly hiding behind an imaginary friendship (in fact, they may be acquainted for the first time), as advice, he inclines the object of manipulation to the solution that the manipulator needs first of all.

You need to believe in yourself, and remember that you have to pay for everything. And it is better to pay immediately, i.e. before you are required to pay in the form of gratitude for the service rendered.

12. Resistance, or enacted protest. The manipulator, with some words, excites feelings in the soul of the object of manipulation, aimed at overcoming the barrier that has arisen (censorship of the psyche), in an effort to achieve his own. It is known that the psyche is arranged in such a way that a person wants to a greater extent what is either forbidden to him or what efforts must be made to achieve. Whereas what may be better and more important, but lies on the surface, in fact, is often not noticed.

The way to counteract is self-confidence and will, i.e. you should always rely only on yourself, and not give in to weaknesses.

13. Particular factor, or from details to error. The manipulator forces the object of manipulation to pay attention only to one specific detail, not allowing them to notice the main thing, and on the basis of this to draw the appropriate conclusions, which are accepted by the consciousness of that as an uncontested basis for the meaning of what was said. It should be noted that this is very common in life, when most people allow themselves to make their own opinion about any subject, in fact, having neither facts nor more detailed information, and often not having their own opinion about what they judge, using the opinions of others. Therefore, it is possible to impose such an opinion on them, which means that the manipulator will achieve his own.

To counteract, you should constantly work on yourself, on increasing your own knowledge and level of education.

14. Irony, or manipulation with a grin. Manipulation is achieved due to the fact that the manipulator chooses an initially ironic tone, as if unconsciously questioning any words of the object of manipulation. In this case, the object of manipulation "loses its temper" much faster; and since critical thinking is difficult during anger, a person enters ASC (altered states of consciousness), in which consciousness easily passes through itself the early forbidden information.

For effective protection, you should show your complete indifference to the manipulator. Feeling like a super-human, "chosen one", will help to treat the attempt to manipulate you with indulgence - as if it were child's play. The manipulator will immediately feel such a state intuitively, because the manipulators usually have well-developed sense organs, which, we note, allows them to feel the moment to carry out their manipulative techniques.

15. Interruption, or withdrawal of thought. The manipulator achieves its goal by constantly interrupting the thoughts of the object of manipulation, directing the topic of conversation in the direction the manipulator needs.

As a countermeasure, you can ignore the interruptions of the manipulator, or use special speech psychotechniques to make him ridicule among the audience, because if a person is laughed at, all his subsequent words are no longer taken seriously.

16. Provoking imaginary, or far-fetched accusations. This kind of manipulation becomes possible as a result of informing the object of manipulation of the information that can make him angry, and hence reducing the criticality in assessing the alleged information. After that, such a person is broken for a certain period of time, during which the manipulator achieves the imposition of his will on him.

Protection is to believe in yourself and not pay attention to others.

17. Trapping or ostensibly acknowledging an opponent's advantage. In this case, the manipulator, carrying out an act of manipulation, hints at more favorable conditions in which the opponent (the object of manipulation) is supposedly located, thereby forcing the latter to make excuses in every possible way and become open to manipulations that usually follow from this by the manipulator.

Protection - awareness of oneself as a super-personality, which means a completely reasonable "elevation" above the manipulator, especially if he also considers himself "insignificance". Those. in this case, one should not make excuses that they say, no, I am not now higher than you in status, but admit, smiling, that yes, I am higher than you, you are in my dependence, and you must accept this or ... Thus, faith in yourself, belief in your own exclusivity will help you overcome any traps in the way of your mind from manipulators.

18. Deception in the palm of your hand, or imitation of bias. The manipulator intentionally puts the object of manipulation in certain predetermined conditions, when the person chosen as the object of manipulation, trying to divert suspicion from himself in excessive bias towards the manipulator, allows manipulation to be carried out on himself due to the unconscious belief in the good intentions of the manipulator. That is, it is as if he himself gives himself the installation not to react critically to the words of the manipulator, thereby unconsciously allowing the words of the manipulator to pass into his consciousness.

19. Deliberate delusion, or specific terminology. In this case, manipulation is carried out through the use of specific terms by the manipulator that are not clear to the object of manipulation, and the latter, because of the danger of appearing illiterate, does not have the courage to clarify what these terms mean.

The way to counteract is to ask again and clarify what is incomprehensible to you.

20. Imposition of false stupidity, or through humiliation. The manipulator seeks in every possible way to reduce the role of the object of manipulation, alluding to his stupidity and illiteracy, in order to destabilize the positive mood of the psyche of the object of manipulation, plunge his psyche into a state of chaos and temporary confusion, and thus achieve the fulfillment of his will over him through verbal manipulation and ( or) coding of the psyche.

Defense - pay no attention. It is generally recommended to pay less attention to the meaning of the words of the manipulator, and more to the details around, gestures and facial expressions, or even pretend that you are listening, and think “about your own”, especially if you are an experienced fraudster or criminal hypnotist.

21. The repetition of phrases, or the imposition of thoughts. With this type of manipulation, due to repeated phrases, the manipulator accustoms the object of manipulation to any information that is going to convey to him.

Protective setting - do not fix attention on the words of the manipulator, listen to him "in the floor of the ear", or use special speech techniques to transfer the conversation to another topic, or seize the initiative and introduce the settings you need into the subconscious of the interlocutor-manipulator yourself, or many other options.

22. Erroneous conjecture, or reticence involuntarily. In this case, manipulations achieve their effect due to:

1) deliberate reticence by the manipulator;
2) erroneous conjecture by the object of manipulation.

At the same time, even if a deception is detected, the object of manipulation gets the impression of his own guilt due to the fact that he misunderstood or did not hear something.

Protection - exceptional self-confidence, education of super-will, formation of "chosenness" and super-personality.

23. Imaginary inattention. In this situation, the object of manipulation falls into the trap of the manipulator, who plays on his own alleged inattention, so that later, having achieved his goal, he will refer to the fact that he allegedly did not notice (listen to) the opponent’s protest. Moreover, as a result of this, the manipulator actually puts the object of manipulation before the fact of the perfect.

Protection - to clearly clarify the meaning of "agreements reached".

24. Say "yes", or the path to consent. Manipulations of this kind are carried out due to the fact that the manipulator seeks to build a dialogue with the object of manipulation in such a way that he always agrees with his words. Thus, the manipulator skillfully leads the object of manipulation to pushing through his idea, and therefore to the implementation of manipulation over him.

Protection - knock down the focus of the conversation.

25. An unexpected quotation, or the words of an opponent as evidence. In this case, the manipulative effect is achieved through unexpected quoting by the manipulator of the previously spoken words of the opponent. Such a technique has a discouraging effect on the chosen object of manipulation, helping the manipulator to achieve a result. At the same time, in most cases, the words themselves can be partially invented, i.e. have a different meaning than the object of manipulation had previously said on this issue, if at all. The words of the object of manipulation may simply be made up or have only a slight resemblance.

Defense - also apply the method of false quoting, choosing in this case the supposedly said words of the manipulator.

26. The effect of observation, or search common features . As a result of preliminary observation of the object of manipulation (including in the process of dialogue), the manipulator finds or invents any similarity between himself and the object, unobtrusively draws the attention of the object to this similarity, and thereby partially weakens the protective functions of the psyche of the object of manipulation, after which pushes his idea.

Protection - to sharply highlight with words your dissimilarity to the interlocutor-manipulator.

27. Imposing a choice, or initially the right decision. In this case, the manipulator asks the question in such a way that does not leave the object of manipulation to accept a choice other than the one voiced by the manipulator. (For example, do you want to do this or that? In this case, the key word is “do,” while initially the object of manipulation may not have intended to do anything. But he was left with no choice but to choose between the first and second.)

Protection - do not pay attention, plus volitional control of any situation.

28. Unexpected Revelation, or Sudden Honesty. This type of manipulation consists in the fact that after a short conversation, the manipulator suddenly confidentially informs the object he has chosen as manipulation that he intends to tell something secret and important, which is intended only for him, because he really liked this person, and he feels that can trust him with the truth. At the same time, the object of manipulation unconsciously gains confidence in this kind of revelation, which means that we can already talk about the weakening of the protective mechanisms of the psyche, which, through the weakening of censorship (the barrier of criticality), allows lies from the manipulator into the consciousness-subconsciousness.

Protection - do not succumb to provocations, and remember that you can always rely only on yourself. Another person can always let you down (consciously, unconsciously, under duress, under the influence of hypnosis, etc.)

29. Sudden counterargument, or insidious lie. The manipulator, unexpectedly for the object of manipulation, refers to the words allegedly said earlier, in accordance with which the manipulator, as it were, simply develops the topic further, starting from them. The object of manipulation after such “revelations” develops a feeling of guilt, the barriers put forward in the way of the words of the manipulator, which he had previously perceived with a certain degree of criticality, should finally break in his psyche. This is also possible because most of those to whom manipulation is directed are internally unstable, have increased criticality towards themselves, and therefore, such a lie on the part of the manipulator turns in their minds into one or another share of the truth, which, as a result, and helps the manipulator get his way.

Protection is the cultivation of willpower and exceptional self-confidence and respect.

30. Accusation of theory, or alleged lack of practice. The manipulator, as an unexpected counterargument, puts forward the requirement that the words of the object of manipulation chosen by him are, as it were, good only in theory, while in practice the situation will allegedly be different. Thus, unconsciously making it clear to the object of manipulation that all the words just heard by the manipulator are nothing and are good only on paper, but in a real situation everything will turn out differently, which means, in fact, one cannot rely on such words.

Protection - do not pay attention to the conjectures and assumptions of other people and believe only in the power of your mind.

Ways to influence the mass media audience through manipulation

1. Priority principle. The essence of this method is based on the specifics of the psyche, which is designed in such a way that it takes on faith the information that was first received by the consciousness. The fact that later we can get more reliable information often does not matter anymore.

In this case, the effect of perceiving primary information as truth is triggered, especially since it is impossible to immediately understand its contradictory nature. And after - it is already quite difficult to change the formed opinion.

A similar principle is quite successfully used in political technologies, when some accusatory material (compromising evidence) is sent to a competitor (through the media), thereby:

a) forming a negative opinion among voters about him;
b) making excuses.
(In this case, there is an impact on the masses through widespread stereotypes that if someone is justified, then he is guilty).

2. "Eyewitnesses" of events. There are supposedly eyewitnesses of the events who, with the necessary sincerity, report the information that the manipulators gave them in advance, passing it off as their own. The name of such “eyewitnesses” is often hidden allegedly for the purpose of conspiracy, or a false name is called, which, along with falsified information, nevertheless achieves an effect on the audience, because it affects the unconscious of the human psyche, causing him to intensify feelings and emotions, in as a result of which the censorship of the psyche is weakened and is able to skip information from the manipulator without determining its false essence.

3. The image of the enemy. By artificially creating a threat and as a result of this heat of passions, the masses are immersed in states similar to ASC (altered states of consciousness). As a result, such masses are easier to manage.

4. shift of emphasis. In this case, there is a conscious shift in emphasis in the material being presented, and something not entirely desirable for the manipulators is presented in the background, but the opposite is highlighted - what is necessary for them.

5. Use of "influencers". In this case, the manipulation of mass consciousness occurs on the basis that when performing any actions, individuals are guided by opinion leaders. Opinion leaders can be various figures who have become authoritative for a certain category of the population.

6. Reorientation of attention. In this case, it becomes possible to present almost any material without fear of its undesirable (negative) component. This becomes possible on the basis of the rule of reorientation of attention, when the information necessary for hiding, as it were, fades into the shadows of seemingly randomly highlighted events that serve to divert attention.

7. Emotional charge. This manipulation technology is based on such a property of the human psyche as emotional contagion. It is known that in the process of life a person builds certain protective barriers on the way of receiving information that is undesirable for him. To get around such a barrier (censorship of the psyche), it is necessary that the manipulative impact be directed to feelings. Thus, having “charged” the necessary information with the necessary emotions, it becomes possible to overcome the barrier of the mind and cause an explosion of passions in a person, forcing him to experience at some point the information he heard. Next, the effect of emotional charging comes into play, which is most widespread in the crowd, where, as you know, the criticality threshold is lower. (Example. A similar manipulation effect is used during a number of reality shows, when participants speak in raised tones and sometimes demonstrate significant emotional arousal, which makes you watch the ups and downs of the events they demonstrate, empathizing with the main characters. Or, for example, when speaking on television of a series especially ambitious politicians who impulsively shout out their ways out of crisis situations, due to which information affects the feelings of individuals, and the audience becomes emotionally infected, which means that such manipulators can be forced to pay attention to the material presented.)

8. ostentatious issues. Depending on the presentation of the same materials, it is possible to achieve different, sometimes opposing opinions from the audience. That is, some event can be artificially “not noticed”, but on the contrary, it can be given increased attention, and even on different television channels. In this case, the truth itself, as it were, fades into the background. And it depends on the desire (or not desire) of the manipulators to highlight it. (For example, it is known that many events take place in the country every day. Naturally, coverage of all of them is already physically impossible. However, it often happens that some events are shown quite often, many times and on various channels; while something else , which certainly also deserves attention - as if consciously not noticed.) It is worth noting that the presentation of information through such a manipulative technique leads to artificial inflating of non-existent problems, behind which something important is not noticed that can cause people's anger.

9. Unavailability of information. This principle of manipulative technologies is called information blockade. This becomes possible when a certain part of the information, undesirable for manipulators, is deliberately not allowed on the air.

10. Strike ahead. A type of manipulation based on the early release of negative information for the main category of people. At the same time, this information causes the maximum resonance. And by the time the information arrives and an unpopular decision has to be made, the audience will already be tired of the protest, and will not react too negatively. Using a similar method in political technologies, they first sacrifice an insignificant compromising evidence, after which, when a new compromising evidence appears on the political figure they are promoting, the masses no longer react in this way. (Tired of reacting.)

11. False heat of passion. A method of manipulating the mass media audience, when a false heat of passion is used by presenting allegedly sensational material, as a result of which the human psyche does not have time to react properly, unnecessary excitement is created, and the information presented later no longer has such an impact, because criticality is reduced, put forward by the censorship of the psyche. (In other words, a false time limit is created for which the information received must be evaluated, which often leads to the fact that it almost without cuts from the consciousness enters the unconscious of the individual; after which it affects the consciousness, distorting the very meaning of the information received, and also taking up space for obtaining and appropriately evaluating more truthful information.Moreover, in most cases we are talking about the impact in the crowd, in which the principle of criticality is already difficult in itself).

12. Likelihood effect. In this case, the basis for possible manipulation consists of such a component of the psyche, when a person is inclined to believe information that does not contradict the information or ideas he previously had on the issue under consideration. In other words, if through the media we come across information with which we internally disagree, then we deliberately block such a channel for obtaining information. And if we come across information that does not contradict our understanding of such a question, we continue to absorb such information, which reinforces the early formed patterns of behavior and attitudes in the subconscious. This means that overclocking for manipulations becomes possible, as well. manipulators will deliberately insert into the information that is plausible to us a part of the false, which, as if automatically, we perceive as real. Also, in accordance with this principle of manipulation, it is possible to initially present information that is obviously unfavorable for the manipulator (supposedly self-criticism), due to which the audience’s belief that this mass media source is fairly honest and truthful increases. Well, later, information necessary for manipulators is interspersed with the information supplied.

13. The effect of "information storm". In this case, it should be said that a flurry of useless information falls upon a person, in which the truth is lost. People who have been subjected to this form of manipulation simply get tired of the flow of information, which means that the analysis of such information becomes difficult and the manipulators have the opportunity to hide the information they need, but undesirable for demonstration to the masses.

14. Reverse effect. In the case of such a fact of manipulation, such a quantity of negative information is thrown into the address of a person that this information achieves the exact opposite effect, and instead of the expected condemnation, such a person begins to arouse pity.

15. Everyday story, or evil with a human face. Information that may cause an undesirable effect is pronounced in a normal tone, as if nothing terrible is happening. As a result of this form of presentation of information, some critical information, when it penetrates into the minds of listeners, loses its relevance. Thus, the critical perception of negative information by the human psyche disappears and addiction to it occurs.

16. One-sided coverage of events. This method of manipulation is aimed at one-sided coverage of events, when only one side of the process is given the opportunity to speak, as a result of which a false semantic effect of the information received is achieved.

17. Principle of contrast. This type of manipulation becomes possible when the necessary information is presented against the background of another, initially negative, and negatively perceived by the majority of the audience. In other words, white will always be noticeable against a black background. And in the background bad people You can always show a good person by talking about his good deeds. A similar principle is common in political technologies, when a possible crisis in the camp of competitors is first analyzed in detail, and then the correct nature of the actions of the candidate needed by the manipulators, who does not and cannot have such a crisis, is demonstrated.

18. Imaginary majority approval. The use of this technique of mass manipulation is based on such a specific component of the human psyche as the permissibility of performing any actions after their initial approval by other people. As a result of such a method of manipulation in the human psyche, the barrier of criticality is erased after such information has been approved by other people. The principles of imitation and contagiousness apply here - what one does, others pick up.

19. expressive blow. When implemented, this principle should produce the effect of a psychological shock, when the manipulators achieve the desired effect by intentionally broadcasting horrors. modern life, which causes the first reaction of protest (due to a sharp increase in the emotional component of the psyche), and the desire to punish the guilty at all costs. At the same time, it is not noticed that the emphasis in the presentation of material can be deliberately shifted towards competitors that are unnecessary to the manipulators or against information that seems undesirable to them.

20. False analogies, or diversions against logic. This manipulation eliminates the true reason in any matter, replacing it with a false analogy. For example, there is an incorrect comparison of various and mutually exclusive consequences, which in this case are presented as one.

21. Artificial "calculation" of the situation. A lot of different information is intentionally released to the market, thereby monitoring the public's interest in this information, and information that has not received relevance is subsequently excluded.

22. Manipulative commenting. By means of the emphasis necessary for the manipulators, this or that event is covered. At the same time, any undesirable event for manipulators when using such technology can take on the opposite color. It all depends on how the manipulators will present this or that material, with what comments.

24. Admission (approximation) to power. This type of manipulation is based on such a property of the psyche of most individuals as a radical change in their views in the event that such a person is endowed with the necessary powers of authority.

25. Repetition. Such a method of manipulation is quite simple. It is only necessary to repeatedly repeat any information so that such information is deposited in the memory of the mass media audience and subsequently used. At the same time, manipulators should simplify the text as much as possible and achieve its susceptibility based on a low-intellectual audience. Oddly enough, practically only in this case one can be sure that the necessary information will not only be conveyed to the mass viewer, reader or listener, but will also be correctly perceived by them. And this effect can be achieved by repeated repetition of simple phrases. In this case, the information is first firmly fixed in the subconscious of the listeners, and then it will influence their consciousness, and hence the commission of actions, the semantic connotation of which is secretly embedded in the information for the mass media audience.

26. The truth is half. This method of manipulation lies in the fact that only part of the reliable information is presented to the public, while the other part, explaining the possibility of the existence of the first part, is concealed by the manipulators.

Speech psychotechnics

In the event of such influence, it is forbidden to use methods of direct informational influence, said in an order, replacing the latter with a request or offer, and at the same time using the following verbal tricks:

1. Truisms. In this case, the manipulator says what is really there, but in fact, a deceptive strategy is hidden in his words. For example, a manipulator wants to sell goods in a beautiful package in a deserted place. He doesn't say "buy"! And he says: “Well, it’s cold! Great, very cheap sweaters! Everyone buys, you won’t find such cheap sweaters anywhere!” and fiddling with bags of sweaters.

Such an unobtrusive purchase offer is more directed to the subconscious, works better, as it corresponds to the truth and passes the critical barrier of consciousness. Really “cold” (this is already one unconscious “yes”), really the package and pattern of the sweater are beautiful (second “yes”), and really very cheap (third “yes”). Therefore, without any words "Buy!" the object of manipulation is born, as it seems to him, an independent, self-made decision to buy an excellent thing on the cheap and on the occasion, often without even unwrapping the package, but only asking for the size.

2. The illusion of choice. In this case, as if in the usual phrase of the manipulator about the presence of any product or phenomenon, some kind of hidden statement is interspersed, which flawlessly affects the subconscious, forcing the will of the manipulator to be carried out. For example, they do not ask you whether you will buy or not, but they say: “How pretty you are! And it suits you, and this thing looks great! Which one will you take, this one or that one? ”, And the manipulator looks at you with sympathy, as if the question that you are buying this thing has already been decided. After all, the last phrase of the manipulator contains a trap for consciousness, imitating your right to choose. But in fact, you are being deceived, as the choice "buy or not buy" is replaced by the choice "buy this or buy that."

3. Commands Hidden in Questions. In such a case, the manipulator hides its installation command under the guise of a request. For example, you need to close the door. You can say to someone: “Go and close the door!”, But this will be worse than if your order is issued as a request in the question: “I beg you, could you close the door?” The second option works better, and the person does not feel cheated.

4. moral impasse. This case is a delusion of consciousness; the manipulator, asking for an opinion about a product, after receiving an answer, asks the next question, which contains the installation to perform the action necessary for the manipulator. For example, a manipulative seller persuades not to buy, but to “just try” his product. In this case, we have a trap for consciousness, since nothing dangerous or bad seems to be offered to it, and like full freedom any solution is saved, but in fact it is enough to try, as the seller immediately asks another tricky question: “Well, how did you like it? Did you like it?”, and although it seems to be about the sensations of taste, but in fact the question is: “Will you buy it or not?” And since the thing is objectively tasty, you can’t say to the seller’s question that you didn’t like it, and answer that you “liked it”, thereby, as it were, giving involuntary consent to the purchase. Moreover, as soon as you answer the seller that you liked it, as he, without waiting for your other words, is already weighing the goods and it’s as if it’s already inconvenient for you to refuse to buy, especially since the seller selects and imposes the best that he has (from , which is visible). Conclusion - you need to think a hundred times before accepting a seemingly harmless offer.

5. Speech technique: "what ... - so ...". The essence of this speech psychotechnics lies in the fact that the manipulator connects what is happening with what he needs. For example, a seller of hats, seeing that the buyer is twirling a hat in his hands for a long time, considering whether to buy or not to buy, says that the client is lucky, because he found exactly the hat that suits him best. Like, the more I look at you, the more I am convinced that this is so.

6. Coding. After the manipulation has worked, the manipulators code their victim for amnesia (forgetting) of everything that happens. For example, if a gypsy (as an extra-class specialist in waking hypnosis, street manipulation) took a ring or chain from the victim, then she will definitely utter the phrase before parting: “You don’t know me and have never seen me! These things - the ring and the chain - are alien! You've never seen them!" In this case, if the hypnosis was shallow, the charm (“charm” - as an obligatory part of suggestion in reality) passes after a few minutes. With deep hypnosis, coding can last for years.

7. Stirlitz method. Since a person in any conversation remembers the beginning and end better, it is necessary not only to enter the conversation correctly, but also the right words that the object of manipulation must remember to put at the end of the conversation.

8. Speech trick "three stories". In the case of such a technique, the following method of programming the human psyche is carried out. You are told three stories. But in an unusual way. First, they start telling you story #1. In the middle, they interrupt it and start telling story #2. In the middle, they interrupt it and start telling story #3, which is told in full. Then the manipulator finishes story No. 2, and then completes story No. 1. As a result of this method of programming the psyche, stories No. 1 and No. 2 are recognized and remembered. And story No. 3 is quickly forgotten and unconscious, which means that, having been forced out of consciousness, it is placed in the subconscious. But the bottom line is that just in story No. 3, the manipulators laid instructions and commands for the subconscious of the object of manipulation, which means you can be sure that some time later this person (object) will begin to fulfill the psychological settings introduced into his subconscious, and at the same time there will be consider that they come from him. The introduction of information into the subconscious is a reliable way of programming a person to perform the settings necessary for manipulators.

9. Allegory. As a result of such an impact of mind processing, the information the manipulator needs is hidden among the story, which the manipulator sets out allegorically and metaphorically. The bottom line is that just the hidden meaning is the thought that the manipulator decided to put into your mind. Moreover, the brighter and more picturesque the story is told, the easier it is for such information to go around the barrier of criticality and introduce information into the subconscious. Later, such information “starts to work” often just at the moment, the onset of which was either originally planned, or a code was laid, activating which the manipulator each time achieves the desired effect.

10. The “as soon as…then…” method. A very curious method. This speech trick consists in the fact that a fortune-telling, for example, gypsy woman, anticipating some certain forthcoming action of the client, says, for example: “As soon as you see your life line, you will immediately understand me!” Here, by the subconscious logic of the client's look at her palm (at the "life line"), the gypsy logically attaches an increase in trust to herself and everything she does. At the same time, the gypsy deftly inserts a trap for consciousness with the end of the phrase “understand me right away,” the intonation of which denotes another real meaning hidden from consciousness - “immediately agree with everything that I do.”

11. Diffusion. The method is quite interesting and effective. It consists in the fact that the manipulator, telling you a story, highlights his attitudes in some way that breaks the monotony of speech, including the so-called "anchors" (the "anchoring" technique refers to the methods of neurolinguistic programming). It is possible to distinguish speech by intonation, volume, touch, gestures, etc. Thus, such attitudes seem to be scattered among other words that make up the information flow of this story. And later, the subconscious of the object of manipulation will only respond to these words, intonations, gestures, and so on. In addition, hidden commands dissipated throughout the conversation are very effective, and work much better than otherwise expressed. To do this, you need to be able to speak with expression, and underline - when necessary - the right words, skillfully highlight pauses, and so on.

There are the following methods of manipulative influences on the subconscious (techniques of "anchoring") in order to program the behavior of a person (an object of manipulation):

Kinesthetic methods (the most effective): touching the hand, touching the head, any stroking, patting on the shoulder, shaking the hand, touching the fingers, placing the brushes on the client’s hands from above, taking the client’s brush in both hands, etc.

Emotional ways: raising emotions at the right time, lowering emotions, emotional exclamations or gestures.

Speech methods: change the volume of speech (louder, quieter); change in the pace of speech (faster, slower, pauses); change in intonation (increase-decrease); accompanying sounds (tapping, snapping fingers); change the localization of the sound source (right, left, top, bottom, front, back); change in the timbre of the voice (imperative, command, hard, soft, insinuating, drawling).

Visual methods: facial expressions, eye widening, hand gestures, finger movements, body position change (tilts, turns), head position changes (turns, tilts, lifts), a characteristic sequence of gestures (pantomime), rubbing one's own chin.

written methods. Hidden information can be inserted into any written text using the scattering technique, while the necessary words are highlighted: font size, different font, different color, paragraph indentation, new line, etc.

12. The "old reaction" method. According to this method, it must be remembered that if in some situation a person reacts strongly to any stimulus, then after a while you can again expose this person to the action of such a stimulus, and the old reaction will automatically work for him, although the conditions and situation may differ significantly. from the one in which the reaction manifested itself for the first time. A classic example of the "old reaction" is when a child walking in the park is suddenly attacked by a dog. The child was very frightened and subsequently, in any, even the safest and most harmless, situation, when he sees a dog, he automatically, i.e. unconsciously, an "old reaction" arises: fear.

Such reactions are pain, temperature, kinesthetic (touch), taste, auditory, olfactory, etc., therefore, according to the mechanism of the "old reaction", a number of basic conditions must be met:

a) The reflective reaction should, if possible, be reinforced several times.

b) The applied irritant should, in its characteristics, match as much as possible the stimulus applied for the first time.

c) The best and more reliable is a complex stimulus that uses the reaction of several sense organs simultaneously.

If you need to establish dependence on you of another person (an object of manipulation), you must:

1) evoke a reaction of joy in the process of questioning the object;

2) fix a similar reaction by any of the signal methods (the so-called "anchors" in NLP);

3) if it is necessary to encode the psyche of the object, "activate" the "anchor" at the necessary moment. In this case, in response to your information, which, in your opinion, should be deposited in the memory of the object, the person chosen for the role of the object will have a positive associative series, which means that the barrier of criticality of the psyche will be broken, and such a person (object) will be “programmed” to the implementation of your plan after the encoding you entered. At the same time, it is recommended that you first check yourself several times before fixing the “anchor”, so that by facial expressions, gestures, changed intonation, etc. remember the reflex reaction of the object to positive words for his psyche (for example, pleasant memories of the object), and pick up a reliable key (by tilting the head, voice, touch, etc.)

Interlocutor tricks tactics

In the process of business communication, many things happen that do not fit into the norms of ethics. There are a number of tactics and tricks used in negotiations. Some of these tricks are known to all.

The essence of subterfuge tactics is determined by its purpose. This is a unilateral offer by which one party is willing and able to gain an advantage in negotiations; the other is supposed to know about it or is expected to be patient.

The party that realizes that they have been subjected to subterfuge tactics usually reacts in two ways. The first characteristic reaction is to come to terms with this situation. After all, it is not pleasant to start with a conflict. Somewhere in your heart you will vow to never deal with such opponents again. But for now, you're hoping for the best, believing that by giving in a little to the other side, you'll appease her and she won't demand more. Sometimes it happens, but not always.

The second most common reaction is to respond in kind. In other words, if they try to deceive you, you do the same, and put forward your own counter-threats to threats. The contest of wills begins. Both sides enter into an irreconcilable positional dispute. It usually ends with the termination of negotiations if one of the parties surrenders.

The most characteristic speculative methods and tactics of psychological tricks are presented below.

1.Use of obscure words and terms. This trick can cause, on the one hand, the impression of the importance of the problem under discussion, the weight of the arguments, a high level of professionalism and competence. On the other hand, the use of incomprehensible, “scientific” terms by the initiator of the trick can cause the opposite reaction on the part of the opponent in the form of irritation, alienation, or withdrawal into psychological defense. However, the trick succeeds when the interlocutor is either embarrassed to ask again about something, or pretends to understand what is being said and accept the arguments given.

2.Trap questions. The trick comes down to a set of prerequisites aimed at one-sided consideration of the problem and "closing the horizon" for the choice various options her decisions. Many of them are emotionally oriented and designed to be suggestive. These questions fall into three groups:

• Alternative. This group includes such questions, with the help of which the opponent narrows your choice as much as possible, leaving only one option, according to the “either-or” principle. These artfully worded questions have an impressive impact and are a relatively good substitute for all statements and assertions.
• Extortion. These are questions like: “Do you, of course, admit these facts?” or “You certainly don’t deny the statistics?” etc. With such questions, the opponent is trying to get, as it were, a double advantage. On the one hand, he seeks to convince you to agree with him, and on the other hand, he leaves you only one option - to passively defend yourself. In this situation, do not hesitate to say: “Excuse me, Ivan Vasilyevich, but the course of our business conversation gives me the right to put the question this way: “Are we going to reach a reasonable agreement on the problem under discussion quickly and with minimal effort, or will we engage in a “hard bargaining”, in which will the more stubborn of us win, but not common sense?
• Counter questions. This type of question is most often used in a situation where the opponent cannot oppose anything to your arguments or does not want to answer a specific question. He is looking for any loophole to reduce the weight of your evidence and get away with the answer.

3.Stunned by the speed of the discussion, when a fast pace of speech is used in communication and the opponent who perceives the arguments is not able to “process” them. In this case, the rapidly changing stream of thoughts simply confuses the interlocutor and introduces him into a state of discomfort.

4.Mind reading for suspicion. The meaning of the trick is to use the "mind reading" option to divert all kinds of suspicions from yourself. As an example, one can cite a judgment like: “Maybe you think that I am persuading you? So you're wrong!"

5.Reference to "higher interests" without deciphering them. It is very easy, without pressure, just to hint that if the opponent, for example, continues to be intractable in the dispute, then this may affect the interests of those whom it is extremely undesirable to upset.

6.Repetition- this is the name of the following psychological trick, the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bwhich is to accustom the opponent to any thought. “Carthage must be destroyed,” was how the speech of Consul Cato ended every time in the Roman Senate. The trick is to gradually and purposefully accustom the interlocutor to some unsubstantiated statement. Then, after repeated repetition, this statement is declared obvious.

7.false shame. This trick consists in using a false argument against the opponent, which he is able to "swallow" without much objection. The trick can be successfully applied in various kinds of judgments, discussions and disputes. Addresses such as "You certainly know that science has now established ..." or "Of course you know that a decision has recently been made ..." or "You have certainly read about ..." put the opponent in a state of false shame, it is as if embarrassing for him to say publicly about ignorance of those things that are being talked about. In these cases, most people against whom this ploy is used nod or pretend to remember what is being said, thereby acknowledging all these, sometimes false, arguments.

8.Humiliation by irony. This technique is effective when the dispute is unprofitable for some reason. You can disrupt the discussion of the problem, get away from the discussion by belittling the opponent with irony like "Sorry, but you are saying things that are beyond my understanding." Usually in such cases, the one against whom this trick is directed begins to feel a sense of dissatisfaction with what was said and, trying to soften his position, makes mistakes, but of a different nature.

9.Demonstration of resentment. This ploy also aims to derail the argument, since a statement like "Who do you really take us for?" clearly demonstrates to the partner that the opposite side cannot continue the discussion, as they experience a feeling of obvious dissatisfaction, and most importantly, resentment for some ill-considered actions on the part of the opponent.

10.Authority of the statement. With the help of this trick, the psychological significance of the cited own arguments is significantly increased. This can be effectively done through a statement such as "I tell you authoritatively." Such a turn of speech by a partner is usually perceived as a clear signal of strengthening the significance of the arguments being expressed, and, therefore, as a determination to firmly defend one's position in the dispute.

11.Frankness of the statement. In this trick, the emphasis is on the special trust of communication, which is demonstrated with the help of such phrases as, for example, "I will tell you right now (frankly, honestly) ...". This gives the impression that everything that was said before was not fully direct, frank or honest.

12.Seeming inattention. The name of this trick, in fact, already speaks of its essence, “forgetting”, and sometimes they specifically do not notice the inconvenient and dangerous arguments of the opponent. Not to notice what can harm - this is the intention of the trick.

13.Flattering turns of speech. The peculiarity of this trick is to “sprinkle the opponent with sugar of flattery”, to hint to him how much he can win or, on the contrary, lose if he persists in his disagreement. An example of a flattering turn of speech is the statement "As a smart person, you cannot help but see that ...".

14.Reliance on a past statement. The key to this ploy is to draw the attention of the opponent to his past statement, which contradicts his reasoning in this dispute, and demand an explanation on this matter. Such clarifications can (if it is beneficial) lead the discussion to a dead end or provide information about the nature of the opponent's changed views, which is also important for the initiator of the trick.

15.Reducing an argument to a private opinion. The purpose of this trick is to accuse the opponent of the fact that the arguments he gives in defense of his thesis or to refute your statement are nothing more than just a personal opinion, which, like the opinion of any other person, can be erroneous. Addressing the interlocutor with the words “What you are saying now is just your personal opinion” will involuntarily tune him to the tone of objections, give rise to the desire to challenge the opinion expressed about the arguments he has given. If the interlocutor succumbs to this trick, the subject of the controversy, contrary to his desire and for the sake of the intention of the initiator of the trick, shifts towards a discussion of a completely different problem, where the opponent will prove that the arguments he has expressed are not only his personal opinion. Practice confirms that if this happened, then the trick was a success.

16. Silence. The desire to deliberately withhold information from the interlocutor is the most commonly used ploy in any form of discussion. In competition with a business partner, it is much easier to simply hide information from him than to dispute it in a controversy. The ability to competently hide something from your opponent is the most important component of the art of diplomacy. In this regard, we note that the professionalism of a polemist consists precisely in skillfully moving away from the truth without resorting to lies.

17. Growing demands. It is based on the opponent increasing his demands with each subsequent concession. This tactic has two obvious advantages. The first of them boils down to the fact that the initial need to give in on the whole problem of negotiations is removed. The second contributes to the emergence of a psychological effect that makes you quickly agree with the next demand of the other side, until it put forward new, more significant claims.

18. The charge of theorizing. This trick is consistent with the well-known saying: "It was smooth on paper, but forgot about the ravines." The use of this trick in a dispute, that is, saying that everything the partner says is good only in theory, but unacceptable in practice, will force him to impromptu arguments to prove the opposite, which ultimately can inflame the atmosphere of discussion and reduce the discussion to mutual attacks. and accusations.

19. "Escape" from unwanted discussion. You can get away from unwanted discussion by resorting to lush speech with vivid epithets and eloquent interjections. For example, you ask the interlocutor why payments under the contract are delayed? And he answers as voluminously and convincingly as Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev: “Yes, we agree, there were some delays in payments. We carefully studied the causes, as well as ways to eliminate them. These reasons were varied. There were both objective and subjective factors. Currently, this issue is given special attention. We are working hard in this direction. All this is done in the interests of our common cause. This opens up great prospects for further successful cooperation, which leads us to a brighter future.”

Another very nice way to get away from unwanted discussions is joke. For example, the president of a bank asks the head of an audit firm why a report on the audit of financial activities has not yet been submitted. Instead of long excuses, the auditor can laugh it off: “Have you noticed that every time we prepare a report for you faster and faster?”. Such an answer will hopefully make the banker smile or let go of some caustic witticism.

Lack of a sense of humor is a diagnosis that anyone, even a very powerful person, is afraid of. Responding to a joke is a natural reaction. Agree, it’s better to laugh it off than to start a long presentation of all the reasons that prevented you from conducting an audit on time and submitting this same report. Humiliating excuses can end for you in the saddest way.

20. Known tactics include "waiting", or, in the jargon of diplomats, "salami". This is a very slow, gradual opening of one's positions - it is like cutting thin slices of sausage. This technique helps to find out as much information as possible and only then formulate your own proposals.
So, we have analyzed twenty trick tactics that are often found in business communication. Concluding our review, we will make some recommendations. Responding to gimmick tactics effectively means:

• reveal the very fact of using this tactic;
• directly bring this issue up for discussion;
• to question the legality of its application, that is, to talk openly about this very issue.

Manipulation through television

Mind manipulation

Personality manipulation

Manipulative techniques used during discussions and discussions

1. Dosing of the initial infobase. Materials necessary for discussion are not provided to the participants on time, or are given selectively. Some participants in the discussions, “as if by accident”, are given an incomplete set of materials, and along the way it turns out that someone, unfortunately, was not aware of all the information available. Working documents, letters, appeals, notes and everything else that can affect the process and results of the discussion in an unfavorable direction are “lost”. Thus, incomplete informing of some participants is carried out, which makes it difficult for them to discuss, and for others creates additional opportunities for using psychological manipulations.

2. "Overinformation". Reverse option. It consists in the fact that too many projects, proposals, decisions, etc. are being prepared, the comparison of which in the process of discussion turns out to be impossible. Especially when a large amount of materials is offered for discussion in a short time, and therefore their qualitative analysis is difficult.

3. Formation of opinions through targeted selection of speakers. The word is given first to those whose opinion is known and suits the organizer of the manipulative influence. In this way, the formation of the desired attitude among the participants in the discussion is carried out, because changing the primary attitude requires more effort than its formation. To carry out the formation of the settings necessary for the manipulators, the discussion can also end or be interrupted after the speech of a person whose position corresponds to the views of the manipulators.

4. Double standard in the norms for evaluating the behavior of participants in discussions. Some speakers are severely restricted in observing the rules and regulations of relationships during the discussion, while others are allowed to deviate from them and violate the established rules. The same thing happens with regard to the nature of the allowed statements: some people do not notice harsh statements about opponents, others make comments, etc. It is possible that the regulations are not specifically established, so that you can choose a more convenient course of action along the way. At the same time, either the positions of the opponents are smoothed and they are “pulled up” to the desired point of view, or, conversely, the differences in their positions are strengthened up to incompatible and mutually exclusive points of view, as well as bringing the discussion to the point of absurdity.

5. "Maneuvering" the agenda of the discussion. In order to make it easier to pass the “necessary” question, first “steam is released” (initiate a surge of emotions of the audience) on insignificant and unimportant issues, and then, when everyone is tired or under the impression of the previous skirmish, a question is raised that they want to discuss without increased criticism.

5. Managing the Discussion Process. In public discussions, the floor is alternately given to the most aggressive representatives of opposition groups that allow mutual insults, which are either not stopped at all, or are stopped only for appearances. As a result of such a manipulative move, the atmosphere of discussion heats up to a critical one. Thus, the discussion of the current topic can be terminated. Another way is to unexpectedly interrupt an unwanted speaker, or deliberately move on to another topic. This technique is often used in the course of commercial negotiations, when, at a prearranged signal from the head, the secretary brings coffee, an “important” call is organized, etc.

6. Restrictions on the discussion procedure. When using this technique, proposals regarding the procedure for discussion are ignored; bypass undesirable facts, questions, arguments; the floor is not given to participants who, by their statements, may lead to undesirable changes in the course of the discussion. The decisions made are fixed rigidly, it is not allowed to return to them even when new data is received that is important for making final decisions.

7. Referencing. Brief reformulation of questions, proposals, arguments, during which the emphasis shifts in the desired direction. At the same time, an arbitrary summary can be carried out, in which, in the process of summing up, there is a change in the emphasis in the conclusions, the presentation of the positions of the opponents, their views, and the results of the discussion in the desired direction. In addition, in interpersonal communication, you can increase your status with the help of a certain arrangement of furniture and resorting to a number of tricks. For example, to place a visitor on a lower chair, to have a lot of diplomas of the owner on the walls in the office, in the course of discussions and negotiations, defiantly use the attributes of power and authority.

8. Psychological tricks. This group includes techniques based on annoying the opponent, using a sense of shame, inattention, humiliation of personal qualities, flattery, playing on pride and other individual psychological characteristics of a person.

9. Irritating the opponent. Unbalance by ridicule, unfair accusations and other means until he "boils". At the same time, it is important that the opponent not only become irritated, but also make an erroneous or unfavorable statement for his position in the discussion. This technique is actively used in an explicit form as a belittling of an opponent or in a more veiled one, in combination with irony, indirect allusions, implicit but recognizable subtext. Acting in this way, the manipulator can emphasize, for example, such negative personality traits of the object of manipulative influence as ignorance, ignorance in a certain area, etc.

10. self-praise. This trick is an indirect method of belittling the opponent. Only it is not directly stated “who you are”, but according to “who I am” and “with whom you are arguing”, the corresponding conclusion follows. Such expressions can be used as: “... I am the head of a large enterprise, region, industry, institution, etc.”, “... I had to solve large tasks ...”, “... before applying for it is... it is necessary to be a leader at least...”, “...before discussing and criticizing... it is necessary to gain experience in solving problems at least on a scale...”, etc.

11. Use of words, theories and terms unfamiliar to the opponent. The trick succeeds if the opponent hesitates to ask again and pretends that he has accepted these arguments, understood the meaning of terms that are unclear to him. Behind such words or phrases is the desire to discredit the personal qualities of the object of manipulation. Particularly effective in the use of slang unfamiliar to most occurs in situations where the subject does not have the opportunity to object or clarify what was meant, and can also be exacerbated by the use of a fast pace of speech and a lot of thoughts that change one another in the process of discussion. Moreover, it is important to note that the use of scientific terms is considered manipulation only in cases where such a statement is made deliberately for the psychological impact on the object of manipulation.

12. Oiling up arguments. In this case, the manipulators play on flattery, vanity, arrogance, elevated self-conceit of the object of manipulation. For example, he is bribed with the words that he "... as a person as insightful and erudite, intellectually developed and competent, sees the internal logic of the development of this phenomenon ..." Thus, an ambitious person is faced with a dilemma - either to accept this point of view, or to reject a flattering public assessment and enter into a dispute, the outcome of which is not predictable enough.

13. Disruption or avoidance of discussion. Such a manipulative action is carried out with the demonstrative use of resentment. For example, “... it is impossible to constructively discuss serious issues with you ...” or “... your behavior makes it impossible to continue our meeting ...”, or “I am ready to continue this discussion, but only after you put your nerves..." etc. The disruption of the discussion using the provocation of the conflict is carried out by using a variety of techniques to drive the opponent out of himself, when the discussion turns into an ordinary squabble that is completely unrelated to the original topic. In addition, tricks such as interrupting, interrupting, raising the voice, demonstrative acts of behavior that show unwillingness to listen and disrespect for the opponent can be used. After their application, statements are made like: “... it is impossible to talk with you, because you do not give a single intelligible answer to a single question”; “... it is impossible to talk with you, because you do not give the opportunity to express a point of view that does not coincide with yours ...”, etc.

14. Reception "stick arguments". It is used in two main varieties, differing in purpose. If the goal is to interrupt the discussion by psychologically suppressing the opponent, there is a reference to the so-called. higher interests without deciphering these higher interests and without arguing the reasons why they are appealed to. In this case, statements like: “Do you understand what you are encroaching on?!...”, etc. are used. If it is necessary to force the object of manipulation to at least outwardly agree with the proposed point of view, such arguments are used that the object can accept out of fear of something unpleasant, dangerous, or to which he cannot respond in accordance with his views for the same reasons. Such arguments may include such judgments as: "... this is a denial of the constitutionally fixed institution of the presidency, the system of supreme legislative bodies, undermining the constitutional foundations of society ...". It can be simultaneously combined with an indirect form of labeling, for example, “... it is precisely such statements that contribute to provoking social conflicts ...”, or “... Nazi leaders used such arguments in their lexicon ...”, or “... You deliberately use facts that contribute to incitement of nationalism, anti-Semitism…” and so on.

15. "Reading in the Heart". It is used in two main versions (the so-called positive and negative forms). The essence of using this technique is that the audience's attention moves from the content of the opponent's arguments to the reasons and hidden motives that he allegedly has, why he speaks and defends a certain point of view, and does not agree with the arguments of the opposite side. Can be enhanced by the simultaneous use of "stick arguments" and "labeling". For example: “... You say this defending corporate interests...”, or “... the reason for your aggressive criticism and uncompromising position is obvious - this is the desire to discredit progressive forces, constructive opposition, to disrupt the process of democratization ... but the people do not will allow such pseudo-defenders of the law to interfere with the satisfaction of his legitimate interests ... ”, etc. Sometimes "reading in the hearts" takes the form when a motive is found that does not allow speaking in favor of the opposite side. This technique can be combined not only with “stick arguments”, but also with “oiling the argument”. For example: "... your decency, excessive modesty and false shame do not allow you to recognize this obvious fact and thereby support this progressive undertaking, on which the solution of the issue depends, which our voters expect with impatience and hope ...", etc. .

16. Logical-psychological tricks. Their name is due to the fact that, on the one hand, they can be built on the violation of the laws of logic, and on the other hand, on the contrary, they can use formal logic to manipulate an object. Even in ancient times, a sophism was known that required a yes or no answer to the question “Have you stopped beating your father?” Any answer is difficult, because if the answer is “yes”, then it means he beat him before, and if the answer is “no”, then the object beats his father. There are many variants of such sophism: “... Do you all write denunciations? ..”, “... Have you already stopped drinking? ..”, etc. Public accusations are especially effective, and the main thing is to get a short answer and not give the person the opportunity to explain himself. The most common logical and psychological tricks include the conscious uncertainty of the thesis put forward, or the answer to the question posed, when the thought is formulated vaguely, indefinitely, which allows it to be interpreted in different ways. In politics, this technique allows you to get out of difficult situations.

17. Failure to comply with the law of sufficient cause. Compliance with the formally logical law of sufficient reason in discussions and discussions is very subjective in view of the fact that the conclusion about the sufficient reason for the defended thesis is made by the participants in the discussion. According to this law, arguments that are true and related to the thesis may be insufficient if they are of a private nature and do not give grounds for final conclusions. In addition to formal logic in the practice of information exchange, there is a so-called. "psycho-logic" (argumentation theory), the essence of which is that argumentation does not exist by itself, it is put forward by certain people in certain conditions and perceived by certain people who also have (or do not have) certain knowledge, social status, personal qualities, etc. Therefore, a special case, elevated to the rank of regularity, often passes if the manipulator manages to influence the object of influence with the help of side effects.

18. Changing accents in statements. In these cases, what the opponent said about a particular case is refuted as a general pattern. The reverse trick is that one or two facts are opposed to general reasoning, which in fact may be exceptions or atypical examples. Often during the discussion, conclusions about the problem under discussion are made on the basis of what “lies on the surface”, for example, side effects of the development of a phenomenon.

19. Incomplete rebuttal. In this case, the combination of a logical violation with a psychological factor is used in those cases when the most vulnerable of the positions and arguments put forward by the opponent in his defense is chosen, he is broken in a sharp form and pretend that the rest of the arguments do not even deserve attention. The trick passes if the opponent does not return to the topic.

20. Demanding a clear answer. With the help of phrases like: "do not evade ..", "say clearly, in front of everyone ...", "say it straight ...", etc. the object of manipulation is offered to give an unambiguous answer "yes" or "no" to a question requiring a detailed answer or when the unambiguity of the answer can lead to a misunderstanding of the essence of the problem. In an audience with a low educational level, such a trick can be perceived as a manifestation of integrity, decisiveness and directness.

21. Artificial displacement of the dispute. In this case, having started discussing any position, the manipulator tries not to give arguments from which this provision follows, but suggests immediately proceeding to refute it. Thus, the opportunity for criticism of one's own position is limited, and the dispute itself is shifted to the argumentation of the opposite side. In the event that the opponent succumbed to this and begins to criticize the put forward position, citing various arguments, they try to argue around these arguments, looking for flaws in them, but without presenting their system of evidence for discussion.

22. "Many Questions". In the case of this manipulative technique, the object is asked several different questions at once on one topic. In the future, they act depending on his answer: either they are accused of not understanding the essence of the problem, or that he did not answer the question completely, or of trying to mislead.

Manipulative influences depending on the type of behavior and emotions of a person

1. First type. Most of the time a person spends between the normal state of consciousness and the state of normal night sleep.

This type is governed by his upbringing, character, habits, as well as a sense of pleasure, a desire for security and peace, i.e. everything that is formed by verbal and emotional-figurative memory. In most men of the first type, the abstract mind, words and logic prevail, and in the majority of women of the first type, common sense, feelings and fantasies. Manipulative influence should be directed to the needs of such people.

2. Second type. Dominance of trance states. These are super-suggestible and super-hypnotizable people whose behavior and reactions are controlled by the psychophysiology of the right hemisphere of the brain: imagination, illusions, dreams, dreamy desires, feelings and sensations, belief in the unusual, belief in someone's authority, stereotypes, selfish or disinterested interests (conscious or unconscious ), scenarios of events, facts and circumstances occurring with them. In the case of manipulative influence, it is recommended to influence the feelings and imagination of such people.

3. Third type. Dominance of the left hemisphere of the brain. Such people are governed by verbal information, as well as principles, beliefs and attitudes developed during the conscious analysis of reality. External reactions of people of the third type are determined by their education and upbringing, as well as a critical and logical analysis of any information coming from the outside world. In order to effectively influence them, it is necessary to reduce their analysis of the information presented to them by their left, critical, hemisphere of the brain. To do this, it is recommended to present information against the background of trust in you, and information must be presented strictly and balanced, using strictly logical conclusions, backing up the facts with exclusively authoritative sources, appealing not to feelings and pleasures (instincts), but to reason, conscience, duty, morality, justice, etc.

4. Fourth type. Primitive people with a predominance of right-brain instinctive-animal states. In their main part, these are ill-bred and uneducated people with an undeveloped left brain, who often grew up with mental retardation in socially disadvantaged families (alcoholics, prostitutes, drug addicts, etc.). The reactions and behavior of such people are controlled by animal instincts and needs: sexual instinct, the desire to eat well, sleep, drink, experience more pleasant pleasures. With a manipulative impact on such people, it is necessary to influence the psychophysiology of the right brain: on the experiences and feelings they have previously experienced, hereditary character traits, behavior stereotypes, on the currently prevailing feelings, mood, fantasies and instincts. It must be borne in mind that this category of people thinks mostly primitively: if you satisfy their instincts and feelings, they react positively, if you do not satisfy, negatively.

5. Fifth type. People with an "expanded state of consciousness". These are those who have managed to develop a highly spiritual person. In Japan, such people are called "enlightened", in India - "Mahatmas", in China - "perfectly wise Tao people", in Russia - "holy prophets and miracle workers". The Arabs call such people "holy Sufis." Manipulators cannot influence such people, as "they are inferior to them in professional knowledge of man and nature."

6. sixth type. People with a predominance of pathological conditions in their psychophysiology. Mostly mentally ill people. Their behavior and reactions are unpredictable, as they are abnormal. These people may perform some action as a result of a painful motive or being held captive by some kind of hallucination. Many of these people fall victim to totalitarian sects. Manipulations against such people must be carried out quickly and harshly, causing them fear, a feeling of unbearable pain, isolation and, if necessary, complete immobility and a special injection that deprives them of consciousness and activity.

7. seventh type. People whose reactions and behavior are dominated by a strong emotion, one or more of the main basic emotions, for example, fear, pleasure, anger, etc. Fear is one of the most powerful hypnogenic (hypnotic) emotions that always arises in every person when threatened his physical, social or other well-being. Experiencing fear, a person immediately falls into a narrowed, altered state of consciousness. The left brain is inhibited with its ability to rational, critical-analytical, verbal-logical perception of what is happening, and the right brain is activated with its emotions, imagination and instincts.

PRINCIPLES

EFFICIENT MANIPULATION

CONSCIOUSNESS

Sequence principle

The natural desire of people to be and be considered consistent- a very powerful means of influence. Not infrequently, the principle of consistency leads us to act clearly against our own interests. How does an inconsistent person usually appear in the eyes of others? That's right: fickle, unreliable, windy, capricious, unfounded, unfaithful - but you never know epithets? Who wants to have such a reputation?

But it is much more convenient and pleasant to look consistent: such people have the reputation of reliable, reasonable, decisive, convinced of their views.

In addition, the desire for consistency allows you to avoid constant thinking, decision-making, and protects you from many worries. The mechanical striving for consistency is a kind of protective automatism of our thinking. That is why this principle is a goldmine for manipulators striving for a mechanical, without unnecessary thought, satisfaction of their wishes.

Our own tendency to be consistent pays big dividends to these exploiters.

The leading role here is obligations. Since a person has made an obligation, he, according to the rule of succession, will strive to fulfill it. If his position is determined, then he will automatically act in accordance with it.

One of the clearest evidence of this is the adoption of the military oath. Examples of the use of our commitment to be consistent can be found at every turn.

It is much easier, for example, to borrow money from a person if, when calling him, first of all ask how he is doing or how he feels. But, of course, the purpose of such a call is not participation and not love for one's neighbor. The borrower expects to receive a standard response. To such courteous, formalized questions, people tend to automatically respond with something like, "Thanks, that's fine," "Great," "Good," or "I'm fine, thanks." And as soon as the borrower heard that everything is fine, it is already much easier for him to drive a potential lender into a corner - to force those who have rubbish to come to the rescue: “How nice to hear that! Calling you to ask if you could help me…”

Written commitments have a magical effect in general. Why do we write receipts, sign contracts, put our signatures on agreements? Because a written document, unlike oral statements, cannot be forgotten or denied. It requires strict adherence to the principle of consistency for exactly as long as it exists.

The principle of reciprocity

This is also called the gratitude rule. It is deeply rooted in human consciousness. According to him, if another person has provided us with something, then we should try to repay him for this courtesy in some way. If we were given a gift, rendered a service, invited to a birthday party, responded to our request, then we should pay tribute: take care of the “gift”, if necessary, provide a return service, invite us, etc. This rule, as it were, guarantees us a reward for the benefit rendered. It is universal and powerful. Focusing on the future, people try to make sure that everyone adheres to this rule and believes in it. Charity is, as it were, an investment for the future. Human evolution has made the system of appreciation a social automatism, a stereotype, a feature of human culture. The words “thank you” or “thank you” today mean about the same thing as the phrase “I owe you a lot”.

But if there is a stereotype, then there will always be someone who wants to use it as an instrument of influence for their own benefit. The automatism of the principle of reciprocity is no exception. It's worth just watching. Many requests or demands are fulfilled by us only because a sense of gratitude obliges us to do so.

Look around: there are a lot of manipulators around who can force you to do anything. They just do a little courtesy before they ask you for what they need. It is inconvenient to refuse in this case - the fear of sticking the label of an ungrateful person on oneself works. Those who figured out this secret exploit it at every opportunity. Annoying sellers, crafty employers, selfish colleagues, cunning acquaintances - they are countless ...

The principle of public proof

By nature, the vast majority of people are imitators, and only about 5% are initiators, initiators. Most consider their behavior to be correct if they see other people behaving in a similar way or thinking the same way. We automatically assume that if lots of people are doing the same thing, they must know something that we don't. Most of the time, it's really justified. But "psychological speculators" effectively exploit our automatic tendency to believe that an action is right if it is done by others or if it conforms to accepted norms.

Even in ancient times, hunters realized that it was possible to kill a huge number of animals by driving a herd to a steep cliff. Rushing animals, looking at the behavior of other individuals and not seeing anything ahead, decided their own fate. Those rushing behind pushed those running in front, and thus the whole herd of its own accord became food.

The term "scapegoat" means "a specially trained animal used in slaughterhouses to lure herds to the slaughterhouse."

Professional beggars “salt” their hats and palms with a few coins supposedly already thrown by other people, urging us to follow their example.

The word "authority" comes from the Latin AND uctoritas - power, influence. The consciousness of the need for unconditional obedience to something or someone authoritative is very deeply rooted in the minds of people from childhood. Moreover, from age to age, from a young age, we are instilled with the idea that disobedience to authorities is wrong, abnormal, and even punishable.

Of course, it is even convenient to obey the orders of true authorities: after all, they are actually knowledgeable, wise and strong, which means they know what they are doing or commanding. They have already thought about everything for us and decided. These qualities inspire only respect. Therefore, our subconscious has developed an attitude: to obey the authorities is rational.

But we must be aware that it is not so much the authorities that can influence us and control our behavior as the atmosphere that surrounds them, authority .

Authority is demonstrated by symbols of authority. And the subconscious is accustomed to responding specifically to symbols, and not to the actual authority. The main symbols of authority are titles, clothing, demeanor and attributes.

Well-known scientists, writers, lawyers, doctors, whose contribution to the life of society is generally recognized, enjoy indisputable deserved authority. The authority of the waiter, when he recommends this or that dish to us, is dictated by our understanding that he knows Which dish turned out better today. But the waiter can also use this subconscious setting of ours, recommending not particularly successful, but simply expensive dishes.

If some “Vasya from the street” proves a new economic theory of saving Russia on TV, we will listen to him just enough to smile and forget about his words in 5 minutes. If this is done by an honored doctor of economic sciences or a famous banker, then we will definitely pay attention and think about it. But if the same "Vasya" is presented to us as a talented young talent with a great future, and also begins to argue in the manner of an accomplished economic celebrity, then he can count on our special interest. By the same principle, by the way, the “promotion” of young pop singers is being carried out.

Benevolent Principle

It is difficult for people who are sympathetic to us with whom we have spiritual intimacy to refuse their requests. Manipulation professionals actively use this quality in their influences.

Typical characteristics that affect the attitude of others around a person:

physical attractiveness

Our reaction to the attractiveness of people is mental automatism, which belongs to the category halo effects . This is when one positive feature of a person is more noticeable and, as it were, overshadows all his other qualities.

From year to year in universities, students in the course of a classic experiment describe the character of people only from the photographs presented. More attractive people are consistently rated as more successful in their professional careers and in their personal lives.

The results of the elections show that voters give 2.5 times more votes for candidates with harmoniously built faces and figure than for unattractive ones.

Similarity to the target

The similarity can be anything - in hairstyle, clothes, brand of cigarettes, outlook on life, hobbies, name, etc.

"Masters of manipulation" usually bring to automatism (which sometimes they themselves do not notice) the skills to be in some way outwardly similar to the interlocutor. And in a conversation, they necessarily emphasize a certain commonality of interests, lifestyles ... This greatly facilitates their task of subordinating those around them to their desires.

Employees of travel companies around the world, talking with a potential client, pay attention to all the details. Seeing a mobile phone in the interlocutor's hand, the agent may notice that he, too, has long wanted to purchase just such a model. Having learned that the client is a programmer by education, he will say that his son also dreams of this profession. Seeing the place of his birth in the client's passport, he will report (with practiced surprise) that he or his wife lived in this region for several years.

Praise, flattery and compliments

There is no person in the world whom flattery does not make more accommodating and compliant. People who praise us, admire us, invariably arouse our disposition. A compliment satisfies an important psychological human need for positive emotions. But most of the compliments come from people who need something from us.

Over the millennia, mankind has developed a huge number of varieties of flattery. You can flatter anything - position in society, intelligence, beauty, strength, wit, etc. But you should always consider what is the difference between flattery and compliment: undisguised hypocritical flattery (a strong direct exaggeration of merits) is not trusted by any person, and a compliment is a much more secretive and powerful weapon. It’s one thing for a woman to say: “How beautiful you are!”, And it’s quite another to sigh: “Yes, I understand why your husband returns from work so early ...”.

By achieving spiritual intimacy through approving expressions, manipulators ultimately achieve amazing results. No matter how much they tell the world: “He who gives in to flattery is defenseless,” people still tend to automatically respond to praise.

close acquaintance

The “cooperation” trick is an active demonstration of the fact that the manipulator initially treats a person as his old acquaintance, is ready to break even into a cake for him and therefore expects to create with the client, as it were, one “team” that opposes the outside world: “Yes, I I’ll even argue with my boss for your sake!” Along with this example is the old, like the world, trick "Good - bad cop."

Scarcity Principle

No country in the world likes censorship, which restricts the right to information. And if something in the world is classified, then the topic of the secret automatically becomes a lot of discussion. Think of the same UFO problem.

Anecdotes are most composed in those times when it is dangerous to do so.

In psychology, there is such a thing as the phenomenon of Romeo and Juliet. One must think that the love of young people, immortalized by the great Shakespeare, would hardly have reached the peak of passions, if not for the resistance of parents from two warring families, which only inflamed their attraction to each other.

Modern theaters maintain armies of ushers distributing tickets at enterprises and organizations, but at the same time, a meager amount of them deliberately enters the theater box office. The shortage of tickets not only spurs the audience's desires, but also creates the appearance of popularity and prestige of the theater.

Sellers often stir up interest in a particular product with the message that its quantity is limited and there is no guarantee that there will be enough for everyone, and the demand for this item is huge.

A similar technique is to emphasize that a product is sold only up to a certain date. One of the mottos beloved by merchants is “The unique offer is coming to an end!” and "Right now!". This tactic is aimed at preventing customers from thinking about the purchase properly, "intimidate" them that they will not be able to purchase this item later.

The danger of scarcity and the attractiveness of any object is especially increased if relations of competition arise around the possession of it. As soon as an opponent appears, a lover, indifferent to his girlfriend, again begins to experience true passion.

The same principle of competition for scarcity is used in open auctions, where great inexplicable things truly happen in the battles for a single resource. Inexplicable, if you do not know the principle of scarcity.

Tricks that use the features of the psyche

· DISTURBING SILENCE

Henry Wheeler Shaw once said great words: "Silence is one of the most difficult arguments to rebut." The one who first imposes a pause with his silence receives psychological superiority. The ability to “pause” is a powerful move in the overall strategy for achieving goals.

BRAKING

Ancient wisdom says: "What comes easily, as a rule, is not appreciated." In accordance with it, the one who asks for something quickly is given, on the contrary, by pulling time. The longer they want, the more they value.

ATTENTION DEFICIENCY

One of the methods of psychological pressure is to stop paying attention to the object of manipulation. Despite its simplicity, this is a very painful way of influencing a person.

One way to reflect this technique is to show that you have something that should inevitably interest the manipulator.

TURN ON FUCK

It is very difficult to talk to an amateur. It is easy to confuse and confuse a person if his interlocutor, playing the role of a stupid person, several times in a row says something like: “I don’t understand this, could you explain it again?”

Noticing such a trick, as a defense, you can use the "Delay" trick - say that you will be happy to talk about it later, and the interlocutor will soon understand everything if he listens carefully.

LABELING, or DISCREDITATION, INSINUATION

This trick ensures the creation of obstacles for the opponent to carry out his position. If his arguments are irrefutable, the ultimate goals of their presentation or, in general, his credibility as a specialist and a person are called into question. It can be either a direct accusation, suspicion, “voicing an opinion”, or an insidious hint.

“Yes, this is generally voluntarism!”

“Well, who are you listening to? This is a known liar!

“Listen to him, listen ... Only you don’t know that his daughter is a prostitute!”(Later it turns out that the interlocutor never had a daughter ...)

In the case where such statements take place before the opponent has time to say anything, such a trick is called "Poisoning the well" - the destruction of the enemy before he even starts to act.

· WHIP AND GINGERbread

A well-known cynical trick, but, oddly enough, according to statistics, it is not so often used. Meanwhile, Al Capone said: “With the help of good word and a gun can be made twice as much as with a kind word.” By first offering a reward in response to a necessary action, and then some kind of punishment for an attempt to do an unnecessary one, it is easier to lead a person to the desired actions.

· ACCESSION OF EXPLOITATION

A means of favoring those present during a dispute in a hopeless situation. Instead of admitting defeat, the manipulator blames the interlocutor:

“Of course, anyone can offend an artist”(meaning that people with a creative nature are more vulnerable, they cannot stand up for themselves);

“Saying all this, my opponent knows very well that in the current situation I cannot object to him. Can such a struggle be called equal? Judge for yourself - is he worthy of honor in defeating someone whose hands are actually tied?

Such phrases are aimed at winning the sympathy of the public for themselves and inciting indignation against their opponent.

· STIRLITS METHOD

The name comes from the famous phrase said by the announcer in the famous film: "Stirlitz knew that, according to the laws of human memory, a person remembers the beginning and end of any conversation, and the middle, as a rule, is forgotten and falls out of memory." Only special techniques for working with the human subconscious can use the middle of a phrase, conversation or story. The art of normal conversation is to emphasize the words you need with information and pronounced non-verbal behavior and put them at the end of the conversation. The one who says the last sentence wins the argument.

PROTECTION AGAINST MANIPULATION

Learn to say "no"

One of the easiest prey for a manipulator is a person who is embarrassed to say the word “no” in time. It's better to be wrong sometimes than to doubt all the time. If you don’t like the interlocutor, “no” must be said decisively.

Keep your distance

The most valuable information about a potential victim is given to manipulators by excessive trust and closeness. Mikhail Bulgakov famously wrote: "Don't talk to strangers."

All scams - from small to global - usually use:

· greed;

Desire to get rich quick

curiosity, in particular, the desire to know one's future, destiny;

Thirst for thrills

Desire to impress

indecisiveness.

Awareness of attempts at external control

An essential sign of manipulation is an emerging feeling of discomfort. You do not want to perform any actions, but due to certain moral circumstances, you are forced to perform them: otherwise it will be “uncomfortable”, “selfish”, “boorish”, “ugly”, “awkward”, “You will not justify whose something of trust”, “you will look in a bad light”, etc.

Verbal signs of manipulation

In the statements of manipulators, the following is invariably present:

You are solely responsible for the proposed action;

· Your "fee" outweighs your benefit;

The presence of elements of coercion or coercion;

obligatory preparatory preamble before, it would seem, non-coercive manipulator's words;

lack of time to make a decision.

Guilt

Only fools and the dead never change their minds.

J.R. Lowell

One of the means of manipulation is the formation of a sense of guilt. Traditional upbringing instills a way of life according to certain rules, the violation of which is charged with guilt.

Here are the most dangerous (manipulatively) of these unwritten zombie programs:

a person is obliged to respond to the speech of the interlocutor and answer the questions asked;

It is the duty of everyone to strive to improve themselves, to work on themselves. For example, a person should try to "be good", tactful, accurate in everything, follow the rules, etc.;

Everyone must adhere to the decision made and not change their opinions;

a person is obliged to be understanding, incomprehensibility is condemned;

a person should not make mistakes, and if he made a mistake, he is obliged to realize and experience his guilt;

The person must be logical and predictable.

A person who blindly follows the rules listed above is the best target for manipulation. To protect yourself from feelings of guilt will help formulate relevant counterrule .

So, You don't have to at all:

Answer the question if you do not want to;

Try to always appear attractive;

be a slave to the words you have previously spoken;

understand everything.

Everyone has the right:

· for errors (with the exception of cases of official negligence);

be incomprehensible or not know something;

be illogical;

Say "I don't want"

Change your mind, change your mind

Accept yourself as you are, don't force yourself.

Whether we like it or not, upbringing lays down a program in us: we need to seek the goodwill of others. The costs of this program are manifested in the fact that we are embarrassed to say “no” so as not to offend someone. Having said “yes”, a little later we hate ourselves for being weak-willed.

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People, regardless of their ideology and political preferences, are divided into two types.

Some believe that, in principle, a person is a big child, and the manipulation of his consciousness (of course, for his own good) by an enlightened and wise ruler is not only acceptable, but also a preferred, “progressive” means. For example, many experts and philosophers believe that the transition from coercion, especially with the use of violence, to the manipulation of consciousness is a huge step in the development of mankind.

Others believe that the free will of a person, which implies the possession of a clear mind and allows one to make a responsible choice (albeit an erroneous one), is a great value. This category of people rejects the legality and moral justification of the manipulation of consciousness. In the limit, he considers physical violence less destructive (if not for the individual, then for the human race) than “zombie”, robotization of people.

When a self-respecting person hears about the manipulation of consciousness, he thinks that he can’t be fooled. He is an individual, a free atom of humanity. How to influence him?

There was at one time the film "Leukocytes". The task of these "white blood balls" is to rush to the place where the integrity of the blood vessels is broken and foreign bodies enter the body. Leukocytes attack them, envelop them, die and close the hole with their "bodies". They catch the presence of foreign substances in the blood in completely negligible quantities and rush in the direction of increasing their concentration. So they find their source. They move quickly even against the flow of blood. But this is just one cell, without a nose, without a brain and without legs.

But in the film, shot under a strong microscope, we see them as hordes of strange and very energetic sentient beings. In one scene in the film, a vial of saline (a weak saline solution) is separated by a porcelain partition. Under it, leukocytes are in the solution, and a drop with a foreign protein is carefully brought up into the corner. And here the leukocytes below, having "smelled" the enemy, begin to rush about, then orient themselves, look for pores in the porcelain plate and begin to squeeze into them. At the top, they crawl out of these cylindrical pores, like a man from a sewer well, almost "leaning on his hands", and swim straight to the protein drop. A complex and steadily executed program of behavior.

Here is a virus, a borderline formation between life and inanimate nature. It shows the possibilities of violating someone else's program. The virus has adapted to exploit a certain type of living cells, "knows how" to find them, to cling to their shell. Having clung to it, it pushes only one molecule into the cell - RNA, in which the commands for the "production" of viruses are recorded. And in the cell, a secret, shadow government arises, which subjugates to its will the entire vital activity of a huge system (a cell, compared to a virus, is a whole country). All resources of the cell are now directed to the execution of commands recorded in the matrix embedded in it. The complex production systems of the cell are reconfigured to release the cores of the virus and to dress them in a protein coat, after which the depleted cell dies.

This is the initial, fundamental variant of interaction, in which one participant in the life drama forces others to act in his interests and according to his program in such a way that it is not recognized by the victims and does not arouse their resistance. We have a case of manipulation done by replacing the document in which the entire production program is recorded.

In general no number of ways to influence on the behavior of members of the ecological community surrounding a living entity. The plant frames its stamens and pistil with a luxurious, attractive decoration - a flower that also releases fragrant nectar. Insects flock to smell and color, paying for the nectar with pollination work.

The praying mantis pretended to be a dry leaf, you can't tell. He created an innocent and modest false image that calms the victim.

The scout bee, having found thickets of honey plants, flies into the hive and performs a dance in front of its comrades, accurately indicating the direction to the target and the distance to it.

In principle, human behavior can be programmed

Thus, all living beings influence the behavior of those with whom they coexist in their ecological niche, using natural objects and programs recorded by nature in the form of instincts. But a person in addition to this affects the behavior of other people, influencing the sphere of culture.

Of course, in principle, it is possible to program human behavior by direct external influence on its biological structures and processes. For example, by implanting electrodes in the brain and stimulating or blocking certain centers that control behavior. With some technical sophistication, you can not even implant electrodes, but influence the higher nervous system of a person at a distance - using physical fields or chemical means

Of course, you have to keep your ears open. There are enough enthusiasts with totalitarian thinking under any banner, even the most democratic one. In their conviction that they have been given the right to eradicate the vices of "backward" peoples, they easily slide into plans for the biological alteration of "human material."

Compare these two declarations.

L. Trotsky (1923): “The human race, frozen homo sapiens, will again enter into radical processing and become, under its own fingers, the object of the most complex methods of artificial selection and psychophysical training. But Trotsky still did not go beyond selection and training. His ideological heirs turned out to be cooler.

N. Amosov (1992): “Correction of the genes of germ cells in combination with artificial insemination will give a new direction to the old science - eugenics - to improve the human race. The wary attitude of the public towards radical influences on human nature will change, including compulsory (by court order) treatment of malicious criminals with electrodes... But here we already fall into the sphere of utopias: what kind of person and what kind of society have the right to live on earth.

These are the speeches and thoughts of outright extremists. But they reflect the general and secret desire of the elite (even if it is “enlightened”) - to have a people or population that would behave in all spheres of life in exactly the way that is beneficial, convenient and pleasant for it, the elite. The pair of "outspoken" spiritual leaders I have chosen is notable for the fact that they are the idols of an influential part of the cultural layer of Russia, each in their own historical period. Today, Trotsky's reputation is tarnished (although during perestroika there was an attempt to raise him to a pedestal). But N. Amosov, according to polls, quite recently ranked third among the intelligentsia in the list of living spiritual leaders (after Solzhenitsyn and Likhachev).

But let's not talk about plans to "improve the human race" and treatment by court electrodes, or about zombies with psychotropic rays. By the way, the very concept zombie has become so frequently used to the right and to the left that it is useful to take a little space and define what it is.

Among the superstitions common in Haiti, the interest of scientists has long been attracted by the belief in zombie. This is the revived dead man, whom evil sorcerers free from the grave and force to serve them as a slave. There are material grounds for this belief: sorcerers, using a very strong neurotoxin ( tetrodotoxin), can reduce the visible vital activity of the body up to the complete appearance of death - with complete paralysis. If the sorcerer managed to accurately select the dose, this "dead" person came to life in the coffin and was pulled out of the grave by the sorcerer. The sorcerer gave his slave to eat " cucumber zombie"- a drug containing a strong psychoactive plant Datura stramonium L.., from which he fell into a trance. Anthropologists have found sociocultural the meaning of zombification is the sanctions imposed by the priests of the tribe in order to maintain order and confirm their power. Belief in zombies and the power of zombies was shared by all sections of Haitian society - scary tonton macoutes dictator Duvalier were considered his zombies, which, of course, he did not deny.

But let's not talk about zombies, but let's talk about a simple and really existing - here and now - thing that has become an integral part of our life in culture and in general in the environment. About the manipulation of human consciousness and behavior with the help of legal, explicit and tangible means. Let's talk about the huge technology that hundreds of thousands of professional workers use according to their official duties and for a small salary - regardless of their personal morality, ideology and artistic tastes. This is the technology that penetrates into every home and from which a person, in principle, cannot hide. But he can learn its tools and techniques, and therefore, create his own "individual means of protection."

Man is a social being. As Aristotle said -

only gods and beasts can live outside society .

embedded in us biologically a program of behavior is not enough for us to be human. It is supplemented by a program written in signs culture. And this program is a collective work. This means that our behavior is always under the influence of other people, and in principle we cannot protect ourselves from this influence with some kind of rigid barrier. Although there are such oak heads who are trying to do this.

What kind of influence on our behavior we define as manipulation ?

It is clear that the word itself has a negative connotation. With it, we denote the impact that we are dissatisfied with, which prompted us to do such things that we were the losers, and even the fools. If a friend at the racetrack persuaded you to bet on the horse that came first, then when you receive a prize at the box office, you will not say: “He manipulated me.” No, he gave you sound advice.

On the other hand, not every influence, obeying which you were at a loss, you will call manipulation. If in a dark alley they put a knife to your stomach and whispered: “Money and watches, quickly,” then your behavior is very effectively programmed. But calling a stranger a manipulator does not come to mind. What is the meaning of this concept?

The very word "manipulation" is derived from the Latin word manus- arm ( mani p ulus - a handful, a handful, from manus and ple-fill).

In the dictionaries of European languages, the word is interpreted as handling objects with specific intentions and goals (for example, manual control, examination of a patient by a doctor with the help of hands, etc.). It means that such actions require dexterity and skill. In technology, those devices for controlling mechanisms that are, as it were, an extension of the hands (levers, handles) are called manipulators. And those who have worked with radioactive materials are familiar with manipulators that simply mimic the human hand.

From here came the modern figurative meaning of the word - the deft treatment of people as objects, things.

the main signs of manipulation can be identified.

Firstly, it is a kind of spiritual, psychological influence (rather than physical violence or the threat of violence). The target of the manipulator's actions is the spirit, the mental structures of the human personality.

“Manipulation in most cases should be understood as a mental impact that is produced secretly, and therefore to the detriment of those persons on whom it is directed.

Advertising is the simplest example of this.

So, Secondly, manipulation is a hidden influence , the fact of which should not be noticed by the object of manipulation. As G. Schiller notes, “To achieve success, manipulation must remain invisible. The success of manipulation is guaranteed when the person being manipulated believes that everything that happens is natural and inevitable. In short, manipulation requires a false reality in which its presence will not be felt. When an attempt at manipulation is revealed and the exposure becomes widely known, the action is usually curtailed, since the revealed fact of such an attempt causes significant damage to the manipulator. The main goal is hidden even more carefully - so that even the exposure of the very fact of the manipulation attempt does not lead to the clarification of long-term intentions. Therefore, concealment, withholding information is a mandatory feature, although some manipulation techniques include "ultimate self-disclosure", a game of sincerity, when a politician tears his shirt on his chest and lets a stingy male tear down his cheek.

Thirdly, manipulation is influence which requires considerable skill and knowledge.

Since the manipulation of public consciousness has become technology, there were professional workers who own this technology (or parts of it). There was a system of personnel training, scientific institutions, scientific and popular science literature.

Another important, although not so obvious sign: people whose minds are being manipulated are treated not as individuals, but as objects of a special kind. things. Manipulation is part of the technology of power, and not the impact on the behavior of a friend or partner.

A woman in love can play a very subtle game in order to awaken reciprocal feelings - it affects the psyche and behavior of a man who has conquered her imagination. If she is smart and patient, then up to a certain point she carries out her maneuvers secretly, and her "victim" does not reveal her intentions. This is a ritual of love relationships, the specific image of which is prescribed by each culture. If we are talking about sincere love, we will not call it manipulation. Another thing is if a cunning wench decided to fool a dupe. The trouble is that it is not easy to distinguish between these two cases.

Any manipulation of consciousness is interaction. A person can become a victim of manipulation only if he acts as its co-author, accomplice. Only if a person, under the influence of the received signals, rebuilds his views, opinions, moods, goals - and begins to act according to a new program - the manipulation took place. And if he doubted, stubbornly defended his spiritual program, he does not become a victim . Manipulation is not violence, but temptation. Every person is given freedom of spirit and free will. This means that he is loaded with responsibility - to resist, not to fall into temptation.

One of the surest signs that at some point a large program of manipulation of consciousness is being carried out in the fact that people suddenly stop listening to reasonable arguments - they seem to want to be fooled. Already A. I. Herzen was surprised at “how little logic can take when a person does not want to be convinced.”

Communication of people is a continuous theater

Any gesture, any act, in addition to the obvious, visible meaning, has many subtexts in which different incarnations, different “masks” of a person express themselves. The communication of people is a continuous theater, and sometimes a carnival, of these masks - "persons". Recall, by the way, that the Latin word persona comes from the name of the mask in the ancient theater and literally means "that through which sound passes" ( p er- through, sonus - sound). These masks had a bell-shaped mouth to amplify the sound.

We all know that transmitted information can be embodied in a variety of sign systems. Dress, posture, gesture can be more eloquent than words, these are “non-verbal texts”. According to American psychologists (J. Rush), the sign language has 700 thousand clearly distinguishable signals, while the most complete dictionaries of English language contain no more than 600 thousand words. The acknowledged master of propaganda Mussolini once said: "All life is a gesture." But besides gestures, there are many other sign systems.

Therefore, in principle, we must always interpret, interpret any message, in whatever sign system it may be “packed”. It happens that even when interpreting seemingly transparent and generally accepted signs, there are annoying mistakes. How the woman in the market mourned when a thief pulled out a purse hidden on her chest! She, you see, thought that he climbed "with good intentions."

Many meaningful gestures and actions that seem natural to us (that is, inherent in human nature) are in fact the product of culture. This means that in a different culture they may not be understood or misunderstood. Take such a seemingly simple thing as a slap in the face. This is a purely European gesture, coming from chivalry and rooted in the nobility. Neither antiquity, nor the East, nor the common people knows it. A slap is a "message" with a huge amount of social and personal information.

What is the goal of someone who wants to manipulate our consciousness when he sends us messages in the form of texts or actions? Its goal is to give us such signs that, having built these signs into the context, we change the image of this context in our perception. He suggests to us such connections of his text or act with reality, imposes such an interpretation of them so that our idea of ​​reality is distorted in the direction desired by the manipulator. This means that our behavior will also be affected, and we will be sure that we are acting in full accordance with our own desires.

To say a word or perform an action that would touch the strings of our soul so that we suddenly see reality in a distorted form precisely contrary to our interests is a great art.

The search for hidden meaning is a psychologically difficult process. It requires courage and free will, because it is necessary for a moment to throw off the burden of authority, which the sender of the message often has. Those in power and moneybags - and basically they are the ones who need to manipulate public consciousness - always have the opportunity to hire their favorite artist, respected academician, incorruptible poet-rebel or sex bomb to transmit messages, for each category of the population its own authority.

Unfortunately, very often we experience a narrowing of consciousness: having received a message, we immediately, with absolute certainty, accept for ourselves a single interpretation of it. And it serves as a guide to action for us.

Often this happens because we are from the "economy of thinking" follow the stereotypes familiar stamps, concepts, ingrained prejudices.

manipulation - a way of domination by spiritual influence on people through the programming of their behavior. This influence is aimed at the mental structures of a person, is carried out covertly and aims to change the opinions, motives and goals of people in the direction necessary for power.

Already from this very brief definition, it becomes clear that the manipulation of consciousness as a means of power arises only in civil society, with the establishment of a political order based on representative democracy.

This is a "Western-style democracy" which today, thanks to brainwashing, is perceived simply as democracy- the opposite of many types of totalitarianism. In fact, there are many types of democracy (slave-owning, veche, military, direct, Vainakh, etc., etc.).

In the political order of Western democracy, the sovereign, that is, the owner of all power, is declared to be the totality of citizens (that is, those inhabitants who have civil rights). These citizens are individuals, theoretically endowed with equal particles of power in the form of a "voice". The particle of power given to each is exercised during periodic elections by dropping the ballot into the ballot box. Equality in this democracy is guaranteed by the principle of "one person, one vote". No one except individuals has a voice, does not "take away" their particles of power - neither the collective, nor the king, nor the leader, nor the sage, nor the party.

But, as you know, "equality before the law does not mean equality before the fact." This was already popularly explained by the Jacobins, who sent to the guillotine those who demanded economic equality on the basis that, they say, “freedom, equality and fraternity”, right?

In the property sense, politically equal citizens are not equal. And even they must not be equal - it is the fear of the poor that unites the prosperous part into civil society, makes them "conscious and active citizens." This is the basis of the whole structure of democracy - the "two-thirds society".

Property inequality creates a "potential difference" in society - a strong disequilibrium that can only be maintained with the help of political power. The great moralist and founder of political economy Adam Smith defined the main role of the state in civil society in this way: “The acquisition of large and extensive property is possible only with the establishment of a civil government. To the extent that it is established for the defense of property, it becomes in effect a defense of the rich against the poor, a defense of those who own property against those who have no property."

We are talking here about the civil government, that is, about the government in the conditions of civil society. Prior to this, under the “old regime”, power was not distributed in particles among citizens, but was concentrated in the hands of the monarch, who had an unquestioned right to rule (and to use violence as his main tool).

As in any state, the power of the monarch (or, say, the secretary general) needed legitimation - the acquisition of authority in the mass consciousness. But she didn't need mind manipulation. The relations of domination under such power were based on "open, without disguise, imperative influence - from violence, suppression, domination to imposition, suggestion, order - using crude simple coercion." In other words, the tyrant commands, not manipulates.

This fact is emphasized by all researchers of the manipulation of public consciousness, distinguishing between methods of influencing the masses in democratic and authoritarian or totalitarian regimes.

Here are the opinions of prominent American scientists:

Media specialist Z. Freire: “Before the awakening of the people, there is no manipulation, but there is total suppression. As long as the oppressed are completely crushed by reality, there is no need to manipulate them.”

Leading American sociologists P. Lazarsfeld and R. Merton: “Those who control the views and beliefs in our society resort less to physical violence and more to mass suggestion. Radio programs and advertisements replace intimidation and violence.”

The well-known and even popular specialist in the field of management S. Parkinson gave the following definition: “In a dynamic society, the art of management comes down to the ability to direct human desires in the right direction. Those who have mastered this art to perfection will be able to achieve unprecedented success.

Writer Gore Widal said that "the American political elite had an enviable knack for persuading people to vote against their own interests from the start."

In general, one of the leading experts on the American media, Professor G. Schiller of the University of California, gives the following definition: “The United States can definitely be described as a divided society, where manipulation is one of the main tools of control, which is in the hands of a small ruling group of corporate and government bosses... Since colonial times, those in power have effectively manipulated the white majority and suppressed the colored minorities.”

It can be said that the Americans have accomplished a scientific and intellectual feat. It's no joke - to create in the shortest possible time an innovative technology for managing society. What took shape in other societies for thousands of years, which in European culture was already based on huge, generalizing philosophical works (such as Aristotle's "Politics" and Plato's "Republic"), in the USA was constructed from scratch, in a new way, in a purely scientific and engineering way.

Herbert Marcuse notes this enormous change: “Today, the subjugation of man is perpetuated and expanded not only through technology, but also as technology, which gives even more grounds for the full legitimization of political power and its expansion, covering all spheres of culture.” Submission is not through technology, but as technology! The tyrant could not create technology, he just subjugated people with its help, and using very primitive systems (an ax and a chopping block are already technology).

The notion that the presence of "democratic mechanisms" in itself ensures human freedom, and their absence suppresses it - the fruit of naivety, almost indecent. To some extent, this naivety was still excusable for the Russians at the beginning of the century, but even then

Berdyaev wrote: “For many Russian people, accustomed to oppression and injustice, democracy seemed to be something definite and simple - it was supposed to bring great benefits, it should free the individual. In the name of some indisputable truth of democracy, we were ready to forget that the religion of democracy, as proclaimed by Rousseau and as implemented by Robespierre, not only does not liberate the individual and does not affirm his inalienable rights, but completely suppresses the individual and does not want to know his autonomous existence.

State absolutism is just as possible in democracies as in the most extreme monarchies. Such is bourgeois democracy with its formal absolutism of the principle of democracy... The instincts and habits of absolutism have passed into democracy, they dominate in all the most democratic revolutions.”

So, Russia has never been a "civil society" of free individuals. Speaking in cloth language, it was a corporate, estate society (peasants, nobles, merchants and clergy - not classes, not proletarians and owners). More mildly, though derisively, liberal social philosophers call this type of society: warm society face to face". Frank ideologists cut honestly: totalitarianism. How do people behave in such a society when they suddenly have to create power (they are obliged to be "democrats")? This is what we see today and are amazed, not understanding - people choose worthless people, preferably non-Russians, and very often criminals. Meanwhile, there is nothing to be surprised at. This archetype, this subconscious craving manifested itself already at the initial moment of the formation of Rus', when the Varangian robbers were invited to manage it.

The main ways of manipulating consciousness.

In many ways, the manipulation of public consciousness resembles the war of a small, well-organized and armed army of foreigners against a huge civilian population, which is not ready for this war. Sometimes they even say that the manipulation of consciousness is "the colonization of one's own people." Gradually, weapons systems were created in this particular war, and gradually, as knowledge of man and his behavior was accumulated, doctrines of mind manipulation were formed.

what emotions does the color scheme of the election poster excite in the subconscious in decent quarters and in slums, among people of different ages, with different incomes and levels of education, different nationalities, etc.

In the field of radio broadcasting, extensive research has been carried out on how the gender of the speaker, the tone and timbre of the voice, and the pace of speech affect the subconscious. All these parameters began to be selected depending on which strings in the subconscious needed to be touched with a particular message. During Kennedy's campaign, psychoanalysts predicted that in radio debates he would lose to Nixon in certain states because of his high-pitched voice and "Harvard accent," where Nixon's low, gruff voice would be perceived as more sincere. Kennedy was advised to avoid the radio whenever possible and use television - with visual perception, he lost the image of Nixon. After the elections, the analysis of voting in different audiences confirmed the analysts' calculations.

The West has experienced a huge experiment - fascism. It turned out that the mastery of the media allows you to carry out a complete, total manipulation of consciousness and involve almost the entire society in the most absurd, suicidal project. Hitler's ally A. Speer, in his last speech at the Nuremberg trials, admitted: "With the help of such technical means as radio and loudspeakers, independent thinking was taken away from eighty million people."

Language as a system of concepts, words (names), in which a person perceives the world and society, is the most important means of subjugation. "We are slaves of words," said Marx, and then Nietzsche literally repeated it. This conclusion has been proven by many studies as a theorem.

The cultural baggage of modern man has included the idea that submission begins with knowledge, which serves as the basis of belief. However, in recent years, more and more scientists are inclined to believe that the problem is deeper, and the original function of the word at the dawn of mankind was its suggestive influence - suggestion, submission not through reason, but through feeling. This is BF Porshnev's conjecture, which finds more and more confirmations.

It is known that even a modern, rational person feels the need for suggestion. In moments of everyday troubles, we seek advice from people who are not at all experts in the problem that has arisen for us. It is their “meaningless” consolations and exhortations that we need. In all these “do not worry”, “pull yourself together”, “everything will work out”, etc., there is no information useful for us, no plan of action. But these words have a great healing (sometimes excessive) effect. It's the words, not the meaning.

Suggestibility through the word is a deep property of the psyche that arose much earlier than the ability to think analytically. This can be seen in the development of the child. In early childhood, the words and prohibitions of adults have a great suggestive effect, and the child does not need any justification. “Mom didn’t tell me” is the main thing. When enlightened parents begin to logically prove the need for a ban, they only confuse the child and undermine the power of their word.

Before the child begins to understand articulate speech, he is able to correctly perceive the "predecessors of the word" - sounds made with different intonations, facial expressions, in general, "body language". Ethologists - researchers of animal behavior - have thoroughly described this language and the power of its influence on the behavior of, for example, flocks of birds.

How was the “correct” language of the West created? From science to ideology, and then to ordinary language, a huge number of “amoeba” words passed, transparent, not related to the context of real life. They are so unrelated to concrete reality that they can be inserted into almost any context, the scope of their applicability is exceptionally wide (take, for example, the word progress). These are words, as if having no roots, not connected with things (the world). They divide and multiply without drawing attention to themselves - and devour old words. They seem to be unrelated, but this is a misleading impression. They are connected like the floats of a fishing net - the connection and the net are not visible, but it catches, confuses our understanding of the world.

An important feature of these amoeba words is their seeming “scientific nature”. Will you say communication instead of the old word communication or embargo instead of blockade- and your banal thoughts seem to be supported by the authority of science.

You even begin to think that these very words express the most fundamental concepts of our thinking. Amoeba words are like small steps for climbing the social ladder, and their use gives a person social benefits. This explains their "devouring" ability. In "respectable society" a person is obliged to use them. This filling of the language with amoeba words was one of the forms of colonization - of one's own peoples - by bourgeois society.

The separation of the word (name) from the thing and the meaning hidden in the thing was an important step in the destruction of the entire ordered Cosmos, in which the man of the Middle Ages and antiquity lived and stood firmly on his feet. Having begun to speak “in words without a root”, a person began to live in a divided world, and in the world of words he had nothing to rely on.

What do we see in Russia? A phenomenon has already matured and has been deposited in social thought, a whole cultural project of our democrats - forcibly, through social engineering, to strangle our native language and fill the minds, especially of young people, with amoeba words, words without roots, destroying the meaning of speech. This program is being implemented so powerfully and stupidly that there is no need to even illustrate it - we are all witnesses.

When a Russian person hears the words " stockbroker" or " payed assassin”, they raise whole layers of meanings in his mind, he relies on these words in his attitude to the phenomena they denote. But if you tell him broker" or " killer”, he will perceive only a very meager, devoid of feeling and not awakening associations meaning. And he will perceive this meaning passively, apathetically. The methodical and careful replacement of the words of the Russian language with such amoeba words alien to us is not a “clogging” or a sign of lack of culture. It's a necessary part of mind manipulation. .

The secretary of the Spanish Communist Party, Julio Anguita, wrote in the early 1990s: “A well-known politician said that when a social class uses the language of those who oppress it, it becomes completely oppressed. . The language is not harmless. Words, when spoken, directly indicate that we are oppressed or that we are oppressors.”

He then parses the words supervisor and leader and indicates that it is no coincidence that the press persistently seeks to obsolete the word supervisor. Because this word historically arose to refer to a person who personifies the collective will, he is created by this will. Word leader originated from the philosophy of competition. The leader personifies the individualism of the entrepreneur. It is amazing how the same techniques are repeated to the smallest detail in different parts of the world. And in Russia television will no longer say supervisor. Not, leader of Belarus Lukashenko, Communist Party leader Zyuganov...

In large numbers, words are introduced into the language that contradict obviousness and common sense. They undermine logical thinking and thereby weaken the defenses against manipulation.

Now, for example, they often say "unipolar world." This expression is absurd, since the word "pole" is inextricably linked with the number two, with the presence of the second pole.

In October 1993 . in the Western press, the expression "rebellious parliament" was introduced - in relation to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. This expression is absurd when applied to supreme body legislature (which is why they usually say “presidential coup” in such cases). There are no such cases.

Turgenev wrote about the Russian language: “in days of doubt, in days of painful reflections, you are my only support and support.” In order to deprive a person of this support and support, it was absolutely necessary for the manipulators, if not to cancel, then at least to spoil and dishevel the Russian language as much as possible. Knowing this, we can use all these linguistic subversions as a reliable sign: beware, consciousness is being manipulated.

Back in the last century, Le Bon (“Machiavelli of mass society,” as he was recently called) wrote: “The crowd thinks in images, and the image conjured up in its imagination, in turn, causes others that have no logical connection with the first ... A crowd capable of think only in images, receptive only to images. Only images can captivate her or give rise to horror in her and become the engines of her actions.

The effect of combining a word and an image is clearly visible even on the simplest combination. It has long been known that the addition of at least a small portion of artistic visual signs to the text sharply reduces the threshold of effort required to perceive the message. The illustrations make the book accessible to a child or teenager who could not handle it in the "no pictures" edition. Graphs and diagrams make the article interesting (in fact, understandable) for a scientist.

A brilliant invention for conveying messages to people who were not accustomed to reading were comics - short simplified texts, each fragment of which is provided with an illustration. Having become an important part of US popular culture, comics were at the same time, until the advent of television, a powerful tool of ideology. It can be said that the entire history of modern American ideology is inextricably intertwined with the history of comics. Umberto Eco, a culturologist who studied the phenomenon of comics, wrote that comics "have given rise to a unique phenomenon - mass culture, in which the proletariat perceives the cultural models of the bourgeoisie in full confidence that this is its independent self-expression."

For sixty years, Russian people have become accustomed to a certain type of "radio voice" as something natural. And few people knew that in reality the USSR developed its own original school of radio broadcasting as special kind culture and even art of the twentieth century.

In the USSR, one of the best schools in the world is that on our radio the same announcer, masterfully owning, as it were, several “voice instruments”, can perfectly read out both a message from the field of medicine and an agricultural topic - and they require different arrangements. It seemed surprising how in such a new field as radio broadcasting it was possible to embody the old traditions of Russian musical and poetic culture.

What are we hearing today? Imitating the Voice of America, the announcers use tonality and rhythm alien to the Russian language. The intonations do not correspond to the content at all and are often simply offensive and even blasphemous. The announcers swallow whole words, and there is no need to talk about minor mistakes like inconsistent cases. Messages are read in such a voice, as if the announcer is having difficulty making out someone's scribbles. All this is a reinforcement of the "semantic terror" on the part of phonetics.

Any feeling is good for manipulating the mind.

If they help to turn off common sense at least for a while. But the manipulators always begin to shake those feelings that are already "actualized" in the public mind.

From the point of view of reasonable salary calculation, top managers in the USSR were the most "underpaid" category

Why did small blessings and weaknesses cause rage, but to the boorish luxury of the nouveau riches or incredible incomes privatizing directors such tolerance?

The fact is that in the depths of consciousness, and even in the subconsciousness of many people, there lived a secret belief that socialism would be precisely the kingdom of justice and equality. That utopia where people will be brothers and equals.

The destruction of this ideal, moreover with great exaggeration and rude etching consciousness, caused an attack of anger, which could not be compensated by the arguments of reason (and they were not allowed to express). The Soviet project was originally based on a utopia that people believed in: the secretary of the district committee is obliged to be our brother, and not a hired manager.

A brother who secretly eats his family causes great hatred, than a street thief, for he is a traitor. He is judged by quite different standards.

And the whole perestroika was based precisely on the exploitation of this utopia and the wounded feeling. Instead of appealing to common sense and saying: the heroic period is in the past, let the secretary of the district committee be just our manager, - the feelings of a devoted brother inflamed in people.

The advantage of the new, democratic nomenklatura is that it "stopped lying." Moreover, television specifically convinces people that the new officials, as a rule, are dishonest. But there are no special claims against them, because being a thief is less criminal than a traitor.

The theft of a priest, even a small one, shocks a person, but the theft of a merchant does not in the least.

Western philosophers who study modernity speak of the emergence of the society of the spectacle. We, ordinary people, have become, as it were, spectators, watching with bated breath the complex turns of an exciting performance. And the stage is the whole world, and the invisible director draws us into extras, and the artists descend from the stage into the hall. And we are already losing a sense of reality, we cease to understand where the acting is, and where is real life. What is it pouring - blood or paint? Are these women and children who fell down like a mowed-down man in Bendery, Sarajevo or Khojaly - perfectly "playing death" or were they really killed?

The value of this technology for power lies in the fact that a person immersed in the performance loses the ability to critically analyze and leaves the mode of dialogue, he finds himself in social isolation.

Adjacent to the deceit, like the ritual of a performance, is an atmosphere of secrecy. Secrecy becomes the most important and legitimized side of life, so asking questions and demanding answers becomes something inappropriate and even indecent. For a long time we no longer know who, where and why makes the most important decisions for our life. No explanations are given, but, miraculously, no one asks for them - neither the opposition nor the free press. We can only look at the stage and guess.

Performance is a very flexible system. The "directors" do not have detailed plans, which are the builder. At the same time, it is impossible to foresee exactly which path the process will take, there are only scenarios. But the "directors" are ready to act on any scenario and quickly determine which one is implemented.

It always seems convincing to a person what he remembers, even if the memorization occurred in the course of a purely mechanical repetition, like an annoying song. The message implanted in the consciousness is already valid regardless of its truth or falsity. A. Mol emphasizes: "All propaganda activities and the processing of public opinion by the press are based on this principle." Even earlier, Goebbels expressed the same idea: "Constant repetition is the basic principle of all propaganda."

The researchers came to the sad for common man conclusion: what is firmly remembered as a result of frequent repetition affects the mind, regardless of whether this statement causes objections or approval: “The effectiveness of persuasion is measured by the number of people in whom a given message causes a certain reaction, but the direction of this reaction is not significant.”

Direction of reaction insignificant! The one who stares at the TV screen and hears the same message ten times a day is being manipulated, even if each time he curses with indignation.

Ad masters know that it doesn't matter if it evokes a positive or negative reaction to its effectiveness, what matters is that it sticks in the memory. So a special kind arose - "annoying advertising", the subconscious influence of which is the greater, the more it angers or annoys people.

Information specialists have done a great deal of research to find out the characteristics of messages that make them easier to remember. So, the presence of a critical time value (“temporary memory size”) was found: a complete message should fit in the interval from 4 to 10 seconds, and individual particles of the message - in intervals from 0.1 to 0.5 seconds.

In order to perceive a reasoning that does not fit in 8-10 seconds, a person already has to make a special effort, and few people want to make it. This means that the message will simply be discarded by memory. Therefore, qualified editors of TV programs bring the text to the primitive, throwing out any logic and coherent meaning from it, replacing it with image associations, wordplay, even with the most stupid metaphors.

The influence of emotional elements of a message on its memorability has been studied in detail. In the whole balance of different types of memory (figurative, verbal, sound, etc.), the main thing for the manipulation of consciousness is precisely emotional memory.

What is remembered and acts first of all is what caused the impression. The word itself speaks for itself imprinted . Any information, if it is not supported by the "memory of feelings", is quickly erased, forced out.

The role of various feelings in memory is carefully "weighted", so that there are a number of mathematical models that allow one to make quantitative calculations, "constructing" broadcasts and speeches of politicians.

Some messages are purposefully inserted into long-term memory, others into short-term memory, and still others are used as a neutral cover that creates an overall believability.

The relationship between emotional memory and recognition. In mind manipulation, recognition plays a key role because it creates a false sense of familiarity. This becomes a prerequisite for the agreement of the audience with the communicator (sender of the message) - he is perceived by the audience as mine.

To "capture" the audience, recognition is much more important than consciously agreeing with his statements. That is why it is so important to irritate people's eyes from the TV screen.

We all see this all the time in politics. In 1989, a whole bunch of boys from television, who simply hosted popular programs, became people's deputies. They weren't politicians, they weren't specialists, butts who voiced the ideas prepared by the editors. And now, on you, they became deputies, they decided the fate of the country.

Has this situation changed in ten years of hard life? To a small extent. In 1999, young A. Burataeva was elected a State Duma deputy - only because her pretty face was remembered as a television announcer.

Sensationalism is technology. Criteria have been developed for selecting those events that can be turned into a sensation. This is expressed in famous aphorism: "If a dog bites a man, it's not news; if a man bites a dog, it's news." Advertisers, including political ones, are interested, as mentioned above, in high memorability their signal, at least on a subconscious level. So they require the media to link their ads to a message that will stick in their memory.

The constant bombardment of the mind with sensory sensations, especially "bad news," has the important function of maintaining the necessary level of "nervousness." This nervousness, a feeling of continuous crisis, sharply increases the suggestibility of people and reduces the ability to critical perception. Violation of the usual, stable social environment always increases situational suggestibility b (in contrast to general suggestibility, this is the name given to special states that arise under the influence of abnormal situations).

The preparation of the sensation is painstaking and expensive work performed by professional experts. It is remarkable that the information presented as a sensation on television, with all the reports from the scene, live interviews, etc., as a rule, fundamentally distorts the event. This is noted in the specialized literature on this topic. But this is not important, what is important is the effect for which the sensation is launched. At the same time, the viewer is fascinated precisely by the fact that he observes the “unexpected”, unselected life material, so that there is no mediator between it and reality. This illusion of authenticity is a strong property of television.

Where does TV have such power in the manipulation of consciousness? The first important property of television is its "lulling effect", which ensures the passivity of perception. The combination of text, images, music and a homely environment relaxes the brain, which is facilitated by the skillful construction of programs. A prominent American specialist writes: “Television does not annoy you, does not force you to react, but simply frees you from the need to show at least some mental activity. Your brain works in a non-binding direction.”

The text read by the announcer is perceived as an obvious truth if it is given against the background of a video sequence - images taken "on the spot". Critical comprehension is drastically difficult, even if the video sequence has no connection with the text. Never mind! The effect of your presence "in the text" is achieved.

In fact, it's not just television, but the fact that it has become the technical basis for the application of complex doctrines of mind manipulation. First of all, we are talking about creating an entire industry of television political advertising. Why did television in politics turn out to be a much more effective means of suggestion than print and radio? Because: that it was discovered, although not yet fully explained -

the amazing ability of the TV screen to "erase" the difference between truth and falsehood.

Even a blatant lie presented through a television screen does not cause an automatic alarm signal in the viewer - his psychological defense is disabled.

The creation of a television image as the main technology of the political struggle had terrible consequences for culture and society as a whole. They say that "image dominates speech" - there has been a change of language in politics. The language has become such that a politician can speak fluently for half an hour, but after that it is impossible to briefly repeat the main content of his speech. The very category of contradiction and conflict is eliminated from politics. Television has turned the political language (discourse) from conflict to conciliation - a politician, creating his image, always promises to "cooperate with all healthy forces."

Clinton once said, "I want TV executives to show films and programs that they could tell their own children and grandchildren to watch." The fact is that a broad study in Europe showed that the TV elite do not allow their children and grandchildren to watch TV, except for a very small number of programs, and precisely those that were characteristic of Soviet TV - calm, decent and educational. So, for your children, censorship, and other people's children must be fooled. The accusation implicitly thrown by Clinton at the top of TV is risky, but it was precisely the mass TV viewer that attracted him to it.

Adam Smith ends the first volume of his major book, The Wealth of Nations, with this warning: “Any proposal for a new law from this class of people must be met with the utmost disbelief and can only be accepted after a detailed and most careful study, carried out not only with every possible conscientiousness, but also with the most incredulous attentiveness. For this proposal comes from a class of people whose interest can never coincide completely with the interests of the entire population, and consists only in leading society and even burdening it, which they have repeatedly managed to do at every opportunity.

Used materials from sites koob.ru and lib.aldebaran.ru

Recently, the problem of manipulating people, imposing other people's opinions and views, turning society into a thoughtless mass has been increasingly discussed on the Web. Look At Me has compiled a shortlist of the most common techniques and rules that help to convince, dispose, inspire and influence people in every possible way, as well as ways to protect yourself from social manipulation.

social security,
or the principle of social proof

In the Soviet Union, people first stood in line and only then wondered where it was leading. “If all these people are waiting, then the product is good,” everyone thought. The very presence of the queue signaled the value of the product being offered. Thus, the principle of social proof manifested itself in Soviet society. Based on the herd instinct, it consists in imitating the behavior of the majority and is a protective function of our brain, freeing the latter from the need to process unnecessary information. It is in it that the nature of the mainstream lies.

The principle of social proof works especially effectively when a person finds himself in a confusing or ambiguous situation, and he does not have time to really understand it. “In any incomprehensible situation, do like everyone else” - Social Proof solves all problems at once. When we want to buy a new gadget and are puzzled over which model to choose, the decisive criterion for us is often reviews and ratings. The principle of social proof is deeply rooted in modern business. It is no longer necessary to prove to a potential client how good the product is, it is enough to note that the majority thinks so.

Today, marketers strongly recommend that the owners of sites and various pages do not advertise the counters if the indicators on them are modest. A large number of subscribers is the best sign of quality and a reason to subscribe too. This also applies to site traffic.

Another sore example of using the principle of social proof is sketches and humorous series. Viewers often complain that they are annoyed by background laughter after every joke. However, this does not affect the effectiveness of the method. People tend to rely on the reaction of others when determining what is funny, and often react not to a joke, but to the accompanying off-screen laughter.

By the way, Social proof served as the basis for the emergence of some professions. For example, a clacker is a person who comes to a performance for a fee, applauds the loudest and shouts “Bravo!”, Or a classic example is mourners who “set the mood” at a funeral in Brazil or the Philippines.

Group reinforcement method

This technique in some places echoes the previous one, but, unlike it, is focused on changing human beliefs rather than behavior. According to this principle, with repeated repetition of the same thesis (ideas, concepts) within a group, its members will eventually accept this statement as true. The American academic and writer Robert Carroll emphasizes that the repeated judgment does not have to be true. It will be believed, regardless of how theoretically or practically proven it is. Moreover, it is believed that people accept on faith, without critical evaluation, any group values, ideas, doctrines, if they identify themselves with this group and do not want to be branded as outcasts. This mental phenomenon and manifestation of conformity is called indoctrination. Phenomena opposite to indoctrination: "social autonomy", "criticality", "non-conformism".

A colorful example of the work of the group reinforcement method are stereotypes, myths and legends that wander from generation to generation. In addition, the technique is actively used by the media and is effective tool in information wars. With the help of deft manipulation of facts and various verbal tricks, the media impose certain beliefs on us by systematically repeating the same thoughts. To counter these trends, some countries are introducing a media education course in their curricula to develop critical thinking in people of all ages.

Reciprocity rule

The rule of reciprocity says: a person is obliged to repay what another person has provided to him. In simple words - to return kindness for kindness. And since any obligations are oppressive, you want to get rid of them as quickly as possible. Therefore, the rule works and is actively used by some "initiates". Such people may intentionally provide a small favor with the expectation that in the future they will make a larger request.

Fragment from the TV series
"Force Majeure" (Suits)

People say: "they take advantage of someone's kindness." It is noteworthy that knowledge of the rule of reciprocity does not exempt a person from the desire to return his "debts".

Fragment from the TV series "The Mentalist» (The Mentalist)

Why do supermarkets give food for free to try? Why do various companies distribute pens, notebooks and other souvenirs to their guests? And how to explain free promotions in bars and chewing gum in restaurants after dinner? Employees want to make customers happy? No matter how.

Request
for help, or the method of Benjamin Franklin

One day, Benjamin Franklin needed to make contact with a man who openly disliked him. Then Benjamin turned to this man with a request to lend him a rare book. Franklin was as polite as possible in his request and even more politely thanked the man when he agreed. After this incident, they became good friends.

The essence of the method of the same name is that people love to be asked for help. First, starting from the rule of reciprocity, a person thinks that, if necessary, he can count on a reciprocal favor. Secondly, helping, he feels needed and useful. And that, as they say, is priceless.

By the way, it is believed that in the beginning it is better to ask for more than you want to receive. If you are suddenly refused, the next time you try, you can voice a real request, and this time it will be inconvenient to refuse.

Logic rule
chains

Psychologists have come to the conclusion that the desire to be or seem consistent in one's actions is an innate feature of a person, which often forces him to go against his own interests.

The point is that in modern society consistency is considered a virtue. It is associated with honesty, intelligence, strength and stability. English physicist Michael Faraday said that consistency is more valuable than being right. Inconsistent behavior is usually considered a negative quality and mistaken for duplicity.

In order to make a person act in a certain way, it is necessary to start the sequence mechanism in his thinking. The starting point in this mechanism, social psychologists call the obligation. The person who made the commitment (even if unconsciously) will do everything to fulfill it.

For example, if a person is recognized as the best chess player in the city, after this incident he will train three times more, just to justify the obligation and status entrusted to him. The sequence mechanism is launched: "If I am like this, then I must do this, this and that ...".

positive reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is positive consequences for a person. his actions: praise, reward or reward that encourage a person to perform these actions in the future.

Once a group of Harvard students conducted a curious experiment. At one of the lectures, the guys agreed that when the teacher moves to one side of the hall, everyone will smile, and when in the opposite direction, they will frown. It doesn't take a brain to guess in which part of the audience the lecturer spent most of the lesson. This experiment was fixed in history under the name "Verplank experiment" and became a confirmation that positive feedback has an educational effect on a person.

According to the American psychologist Skinner, praise educates a person more effectively than punishment, which rather harms the individual. Freud confirms his colleague's theory and, in describing the pleasure principle, emphasizes that a person's desire to receive positive emotions pushes him to perform actions that reinforce them and are thus associated with pleasure. Consequently, the absence of the chain "action - pleasure" deprives a person of motivation and desire to do something.

Motivation by fear

aikido method

The peculiarity of the martial art of aikido is to use the opponent's strength against him. Adapted to the communication environment, this method is used in tense negotiations or conflict situations and involves returning to the opponent his own aggression in order to get what he wants from the interlocutor.

Newton's law states that the force of action is equal to the force of reaction. Consequently, the more rudely a person responds to an opponent, the more fiercely he defends his position, the more retaliatory aggression he receives in his address. The main principle of aikido is to win by yielding. In order to persuade a person to his point of view, first of all, you need to agree with him, moreover, by “mirroring” his manner of speaking and behaving. And then, in a calm tone, offer your own version of the development of events. Thus, a person retains his strength, does not irritate his opponent, and ultimately wins.

A slightly exaggerated example might look like this: “You are a fool. You're doing everything wrong. - Yes, I'm doing everything wrong, because I'm a fool. Let's try to find a way out of this situation together ... ".

Vertical principle

All the world's famous dictators convinced their opponents before they even spoke. They knew how to position their body in space in such a way that in the eyes of the interlocutor they looked like a “living argument”.

First, they were always vertically one level above those they were talking to. There is a psychological explanation for this. The fact is that the subconscious initially perceives those who are higher as authorities. Our parents have always been above us. But it was they who were our authorities for many years. This explains why many managers arrange chairs and tables in their offices so that they look down on their subordinates.

Also, for our subconscious, a person who takes up a lot of space seems more convincing and right. Sweeping gestures, outstretched “T-shaped” arms on the back of a chair or active movement around the hall during a presentation - all this helps to embrace the maximum amount of space and grow in the eyes of the beholder.

Built-in voice commands

Built-in speech commands help the initiator of communication create a certain mood in the addressee, evoke the desired emotion and, accordingly, direct his thoughts in a given direction. An embedded message is a fragment of a phrase that is distinguished by gestures or intonation. In this case, the impact occurs on the subconscious of a person who may not pay attention to the phrase itself.

Introducing positively colored vocabulary into your speech (words like "pleasant", "good", "happiness", "success", "trust", etc.) we make the interlocutor feel happier and more successful. At the same time, it does not matter what the speech is about and in what context these words are used, the main thing is to highlight them with intonation or gesture.

Spiral of Silence

In the theory of mass communication, there is such a thing as a spiral of silence. Proposed by the German political scientist Elisabeth Noel-Neumann, this concept boils down to the fact that people can share a certain point of view, but are afraid to admit it because they think they are in a minority. The spiral of silence is based on the fear of social exclusion and begins to work at the moment when someone confidently expresses his point of view on a socially significant topic. Those who disagree with what they have heard prefer to remain silent and not speak out, because they are convinced that they are in the minority and are afraid of isolation.

There is a pattern that established mature individuals do not succumb to the fear of social isolation and are able to express their opinion without regard to the public. It is these people who drive progress and stimulate global change. The second half of humanity is the guarantor of strength and stability in society.

Every day every person manipulated from stronger individuals.

These individuals master NLP techniques for managing people and use their knowledge and abilities for selfish purposes, more often this is a material goal.

If you know the basics of these techniques, then you can, psychics and hypnotists.

How to manipulate men to achieve what you want? find out right now.

Concept definition

The term "manipulation" comes from two Latin words "hand" and "fill".

That is, the manipulator, using various techniques, tries to “fill his hand” - achieve the goal.

How to stop manipulating people?

Often a person is so addicted to manipulation that uses it unknowingly in relationships with loved ones.

Sometimes, this is very harmful to personal and social relationships.

To get rid of addiction, you should stop playing, put pressure on pity. Characteristic of the victim blame everyone around for your troubles: spouse, boss, children, state.

Such people try to achieve goals in different ways:

• through scandal;
• with the help of tears;
• through threats;
• faking illness.

Sometimes the individual is so fused with the role of the victim that he cannot remove this mask. He should take responsibility for his actions, then the events of life will begin to take shape differently.

Manipulation of people simple science. In order not to become a victim of gross manipulation, it is necessary to turn off emotions and connect the mind when communicating with people. The less a person knows about the life of his opponent, the more difficult it will be for him to apply the influence.

Hidden human control. NLP in action - video:

About this in book "Safe communication, or How to become invulnerable!" say psychotherapists Dmitry Kovpak and Andrey Kamenyukin.

Manipulations and manipulators

Manipulation is a type of psychological influence that is used to covertly introduce into the psyche of the victim the goals, desires, intentions, attitudes or attitudes of the manipulator that do not coincide with the actual needs of the victim. ... A person can become a victim of manipulation only if he himself acts as a co-author, an accomplice in the process. Manipulation is not so much violence as temptation, playing on human weaknesses and vulnerabilities. These weak spots are determined by the characteristics of the psyche and worldview of a person, his system of values ​​and system of relations.

There is no person who would not encounter the manifestation of someone else's influence. Anyone can be a manipulator - a business partner, boss, family member, TV host, politician, or even ourselves.

Below we will take a closer look at the most common types of manipulation and methods of resisting them, which we will call antidotes.

"Foot in the Door"

This method of manipulation is often used by market traders and traveling salesmen. It consists in the fact that at first the seller persuades not to buy, but only to “try” or “try on” his product. In this case, there is a simple but effective trap for consciousness. On the one hand, we are not being offered anything dangerous or bad; it seems that we retain complete freedom of any decision. But one has only to taste or put on what is offered, as the seller immediately asks another crafty question: “Well, how did you like it?” It is generally not easy to answer such a question in the negative, and even more so if you have already “tried on” the product and you liked it. Most often in such a situation, of course, you answer in the affirmative. And thus, as it were, you give involuntary consent to the purchase. Indeed, although it would seem that it is only about taste sensations or external impression, in fact, another question is hidden behind the seller’s interest: “Will you buy?”

So, for example, sellers of vacuum cleaners for a long time in the West, and now in our country, often offer to use carpet cleaning for free in the expectation that once they get to the owners’ house, they will be able to convince them of the need to buy this particular vacuum cleaner. The main thing for them is to get a face-to-face meeting, and there they will already be able to deploy their arsenal of "home-made" various manipulations.

Antidote: Do not feel embarrassed by refusing an imposed offer. Your guilt and discomfort in this case is only a product of false views and irrational attitudes, which are skillfully played by swindlers. You can remove the strings that the manipulators play in this case by giving up the desire to please everyone without exception. Stop striving to "always be on top" - this will help prevent many problems.

Solution here and now

This manipulation technique aims to get the person to make a decision immediately. The manipulator provokes and sometimes directly insists that it is imperative to decide "here and now", since "tomorrow it will be too late." "Grab your bags, the station is leaving!" and similar verbal threats form demands for quick and thoughtless decision making. Creating fuss and emotional stress reduces the degree of awareness of behavior and reasonable control over the situation. This is used by a lot of swindlers, from railway station thieves to participants in financial pyramids.

Antidote: It is worth working out for yourself the rule "do not make hasty decisions." You can get ten times the small gain from a hasty decision, but suffer a much larger loss from the next such rash decision. No wonder folk wisdom claims that "the morning is wiser than the evening." In order not to “burn out”, one should not decide immediately, but take the information into account, postponing the decision for the time necessary for its reflection. Hurry don't rush.

"Carthage must be destroyed"

The repetition technique is another effective way to manipulate people's minds. During the Punic Wars - a life-and-death struggle between Carthage and Rome - the stern Roman senator Cato the Elder became famous for his adopted habit. Speaking in the Roman Senate, no matter what he was talking about - about elections to the commission or about the prices of vegetables in the Roman market - Cato invariably ended each speech with the same phrase: “And besides, I think that Carthage should be destroyed!" The senator had a goal - to accustom listeners to this idea. Such repeated repetition of the same phrase, in the end, really made the senators get used to the thought behind it so much that the impending destruction of Carthage became something natural for them. At first, they laughed at the wise old man. But then everything happened as he wanted: as a result of a terrible bloody struggle, Rome won, Carthage was wiped off the face of the earth, and the very place where he stood was plowed up with Roman plows.

Antidote: Monitor the pressure exerted on you, including the technique of repetitions. Don't let quantity turn into quality by reminding yourself of the arguments of your own position.

Use of obscure words and terms

Such a trick as saturation of speech clever words and complex concepts, can cause different reactions in the interlocutor. On the one hand, this creates the impression of the importance of the problem under discussion, the weight of the arguments, the high level of professionalism and competence of the speaker. On the other hand, the use of incomprehensible, scientific terms can provoke the opposite reaction of the opponent in the form of irritation, alienation, or withdrawal into psychological defense. However, this trick succeeds when the interlocutor is embarrassed to ask again about something or pretends to understand what is being said and accept the arguments given.

Antidote: Do not be afraid to admit your incompetence, show your ignorance. It is impossible to know absolutely everything. It is not the level of erudition that is important, but only the desire and desire to learn what is necessary and useful. Mindlessly memorizing dictionaries is a mistake like learning the telephone directory. The most reliable antidote to this kind of manipulation is the absence of fear of being exposed and convicted of not knowing anything.

reverse desire

This technique is about getting something by persistently expressing a desire that is the opposite of what you really want. The fact is that focusing attention on the extreme desirability of fulfilling a request (for example, its repeated repetition) induces, on the contrary, to refuse to fulfill it. And often even provokes actions that are strictly opposite. This antagonism is used by manipulators.

Antidote: Before you get annoyed by the importunity of the asker and decide to “do the opposite”, try to ask yourself about the goals of the interlocutor and the true motives for such behavior.

Use of "opinion of the masses"

When using this technique, judgments, statements, phrases are selected that create the impression that everyone does this. The message, for example, may begin with the words: “All normal people understand that ...” or “No sane person will object that ...”, etc. Through a “common platform”, a person is evoked a sense of confidence in the fact that the majority of members of a certain social community with which he identifies himself or whose opinion is significant to him, accept such values, ideas, programs, etc.

Antidote: Watch for overgeneralizations. They are characterized by marker words, such as all, no one, everywhere, nowhere, always, never, and similar signs of the irrational attitude.

Inappropriate questioning or obstructive clarifications

With such manipulation, the effect is achieved due to the fact that the manipulator pretends that he wants to better understand something for himself. He asks you again, but repeats your words only at the beginning. Further, the manipulator only partially says the same thing, bringing a different meaning to what you said earlier. Thus, he changes the general meaning of what was said to please himself.

Antidote: You should be extremely careful when the opponent asks again about something you said. Always listen to what is being said to you, and if you notice a catch, clarify your words and statements. And even in the case when the manipulator pretends not to notice your desire to clarify your position once again and tries to move on to another topic.

Artificial indifference or pseudo-inattention

This technique consists in the fact that the manipulator tries to perceive both the interlocutor and the information received as indifferently as possible. So he evokes in the opponent an unconscious desire to try at all costs to convince the manipulator of his importance to him. The manipulator can only manage the information coming from the object of his manipulations, receiving those facts that the object was not going to spread before.

Antidote: Take your time and don't throw all the cards on the table. Take better control of your emotions and behavior.

Fear Manipulation

Exploiting people's fears is one of the favorite tricks of manipulators of all types and stripes. Very often they play on a person's lack of awareness. As a child, parents scared me: “If you behave badly, your uncle will take away the policeman,” “If you study poorly, you will become a janitor.” Now the authorities scare with the threat of dismissal, the spouse - with the threat of divorce, friends or girlfriends - with the loss of relationships. Even TV scares us with gloomy news, and advertising with carious monsters, germs in the toilet bowl and the smell of sweat.

Antidote: Find out how real the threat is. Specify for yourself the degree and likelihood of danger by referring to independent and reliable sources of information, preferably several.

Manipulation with Presupposition

The human brain is designed in such a way that it automatically thinks out information that is missing in a sentence. Partners may offer each other the illusion of choice: "Will you give me money now or tomorrow?" The presupposition is "you'll give me the money anyway." What currency would you prefer to pay in? The presupposition is "you will pay". Another example: “Write to us why you love Galina Blanca.” Love for this brand is declared as an axiom. The options are artificially narrowed down to an assessment of “for what”? And one more modest choice - to write or not to write. Or, as Carlson cunningly formulated his question: “Have you stopped drinking cognac in the morning?” The answer "yes" or "no" equally puts the interlocutor in an awkward position. There may not be enough time and arguments to defend against presuppositional accusations in a comprehensive manner. This technique is often used in the "black" PR of political technologists.

Antidote: The tactic of avoiding this type of manipulation is similar to that used in the case of opposition to closed questions. It consists in the following: do not agree with the imposed framework of manipulation, voice your version of events and view of the situation.

the site thanks the publishing house "Peter" for the provided excerpt.