Are You Being Trapped by Clever Tricks Today Without Even Noticing!?
To make your way through life in a chaotic world, you need to keep absorbing new knowledge and thinking, and reading is indispensable for that.
However, it is often hard to carve out time for reading, it is unproductive to waste money and time on a mediocre book, and with so many titles published, you often don't know which one to read.
So I'll be sharing reviews and summaries of books I recommend here on the blog.
I'd be glad if they serve as opportunities for "new insights" and "deeper thinking" in your life.
"Propaganda" set up around us without our noticing in daily life
This time, I'm covering "Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion" by Anthony Pratkanis, an expert in consumer behavior and persuasion techniques, and social psychologist Elliot Aronson.
What makes this book worth reading?
It unravels modern propaganda techniques, which are used in more refined forms than ever before, and introduces
- what techniques propaganda uses
- how we can counter them without falling into distrust
- how we can learn to judge consciously rather than being unconsciously led by propaganda
From it, you can gain both "better propaganda techniques as a creator" and "better judgment skills as a receiver."
If you haven't read it yet, be sure to read it closely, even alongside this one.
What is propaganda?
Weblio defines propaganda (propaganda) as "an advertising strategy that intentionally leads people toward a particular doctrine or ideology".
In the broad sense, thought control and political activities by a state are propaganda, and in the narrow sense, so are advertising and PR; either way, it means "promotion with political (closer to strategic) intent."
Persuasion in everyday life
What has been revealed about modern propaganda
Of course, this doesn't hold for every product, but results like the following tend to occur.
- Advertising words that make products sell well: "new," "quick," "easy," "improved," "now," "suddenly," "amazing," "announcing."
- In supermarkets, products placed on shelves at customers' eye level sell best. (Apparently, if products at eye level are 100, products at waist level sell only 74% as much, and products near the floor only 57%.)
- Advertised products that use animals, babies, or sex appeal sell well.
- In supermarkets, products placed at the ends of aisles or near the checkout sell well. Changing an item priced at 500 yen each to two for 1,000 yen leads to higher perceived product value.
How to increase persuasiveness
It has been shown that making a request with some kind of reason attached increases persuasiveness.
If you think about it, this is a meaningless reason, yet even a meaningless reason like this made the request more persuasive.
So when you ask someone for something, I recommend giving a reason, since it makes it easier to get their consent.
The book also covered an example where stating a specific amount when asking increases persuasiveness.
In a charity fundraiser, saying "Please donate 17 yen" doubled the donation collection rate compared with saying "Please give me one 100-yen coin".
It is thought that presenting an odd number can make the other person wonder, "Does that mean something?", which increases persuasiveness.
In any case, people are easily swayed by a reason.
Setting the stage for persuasion
To increase persuasiveness, advertising often uses the magic of words.
For example:
- Labeling something "75% lean" rather than "25% fat" gives consumers a better impression
- Writing "fresh frozen" to make it less noticeable that a product is frozen food gives consumers a better impression
When you try to explain one thing, some words give a good impression and others don't.
In that case, even though the meaning doesn't change, advertisers choose the words that come across well and put them out as advertising.
The communicator's credibility
It is known that when introducing something or giving a speech, "who is communicating it" matters.
For example, the people used to introduce products in commercials are not experts in the field but celebrities.
They are using the influence of celebrities. The more likable the person, the more persuasive they are.
The same goes for building a politician's image. For example, when interviewed, answering pre-prepared questions fluently and confidently will improve viewers' impression.
In modern politics, it is becoming possible to collect votes through personal popularity even if one is not politically well regarded.
That is why citizens need to see through to the true nature of politicians without being fooled by advertising and the like.
The message
It is said that the more arguments an advertisement contains, the more effective it tends to be.
This works not only when the message is read, but also when it is read carelessly or not read at all.
The book states that when people are not thinking carefully about the message, using a long message is more persuasive, regardless of the quality of the arguments it contains.
Humans unconsciously judge by the principle that "the length of a message equals the correctness of its arguments."
Persuasion that appeals to emotion
When people are made to feel extreme fear, they stop paying attention. And they look for a way to escape that fear.
Fear appeals are most effective when the following conditions are met:
- Giving people strong fear
- Providing specific recommendations for overcoming the threat that the fear creates
- The recommended action being perceived as effective in reducing the threat
- The recipients of the message believing they can carry out the recommended action
Scams are what make the most skillful use of this kind of fear arousal.
It stokes fear in the other person and sells them products. I hope you keep what you learned here in mind and avoid becoming a victim.
To defeat persuasion strategies
According to one opinion poll, an overwhelming majority of adults believe that TV commercials contain untrue claims.
They also believe that the more educated a person is, the more skeptical they become, and the more skeptical a person is, the more resistant to persuasion.
From these results, you might think that if you are suspicious you won't be influenced by advertising messages, but that is not the case.
That's because thinking you are immune to persuasion and actually being immune to it are different things.
With that in mind, here is what you can do to escape persuasion.
- Think about what the persuader gains.
- Think about why these choices are being presented to me in this way.
- Think about whether there are other options, and whether there are other ways of presenting these options.
- Think about what happens if you choose an option other than the recommended one.
- Think about the arguments supporting another option.
When information strategies fail
Information strategies fail when the appeal to the intellect becomes too dominant.
Advertisers narrow down the key points and keep appealing repeatedly through every means — commercials, hanging train ads, and so on — until the public understands the slogan or message.
By reading the creators' thinking and the background and intent of their messages, you will become harder to fool easily.