WHAT IS MANIPULATION?
a. What is Manipulation and Why do People Manipulate.
Manipulation is a part of life’s struggles and all animals use it. They can be negative or positive, but use emotions as the driving force. This means that if an emotion is triggered by another – be careful. It is the “tall tail” signal of manipulation. Emotions are the hidden elements and the driving force to keep it from being detected.
Several practice exercises are provided in the link below to help with identifying when it pops up. Emotions have a way of obscuring the discovery of someone’s nefarious activities. Manipulation is simultaneously the most chronic as well as the most hidden.
b. Signs of Manipulation and How to Spot it.
Because it has been around for a very long time, people use hundreds of different techniques. The ones most repeated have received its own name known as a fallacy.
There are over a hundred commonly practiced fallacies. The link below discusses the top 14 that are the most commonly used. These fallacies are discussed with examples and red flags. There are two that dominate the group. They are used every day, i.e. the Name Calling and the Confusing Fact with an Opinion.
Spotting when these fallacies help and educates people against the many traps and consequences.
c. Media Manipulation.
Entertainment Industry builds it entire success around selling emotions. They are meant to manipulate. (Buy a ticket or subscribe to this service, and we will make you feel better.) The number of sensory inputs increases the effect of emotions. A detailed discussion of these sensory inputs, including books, movies, video games, music, and humor, are set forth in the link below.
The Entertainment Industry bears a responsible for accentuating many specific fears, including death, spiders, snakes, heights, and closed spaces.
And yet they are the last to step forward to aid in reducing fears or the manipulation of people with fears.
c. Propaganda
All advertisements, all commercials, and all political ads are propaganda. All are designed to manipulate; even the ones that appear to recite facts. They are opinions cleverly disguised as facts.
Several practice ads provide convenient and easy to follow practice exercises. Hands on analysis of each ad reveal hidden manipulations. There are several websites set forth in the link that reveal where to go to find complaints against various manufactures and sellers as well as the various products and services being marketed. A few remedies are identified.
There are state laws that prohibit misleading propaganda including the reimbursement of attorney fees.