Story of Psychology - Morton Hunt [419]
Advertisers can, for example, “compress” a thirty-six-second commercial into a thirty-second time by running the ad at 120 percent of its normal speed. Psychologically, time-compressed ads are harder to argue against. Metaphorically, the advertiser is persuading at 100 miles an hour while you maintain the speed limit and try to defend yourself at 55 miles an hour. You are bound to lose.71
TV viewers may wonder why so many recent commercials are a pell-mell series of brief flashes of images plus a rat-a-tat-tat of words; that’s why.
—A particularly immoral method of covert persuasion is the use of symbols based on repressed hatreds or fears. A notorious example is the series of commercials conceived of by the late Lee Atwater, architect of George H. W. Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign, charging that Michael Dukakis was responsible for the weekend furlough of the convicted murderer Willie Horton, who, while out of prison, tortured a man and raped his fiancée. But the real intent of the commercial was the impact created by the picture of Horton, an ugly, fierce-looking, dark-skinned black man.
—In a brand-new ploy, demonstrated in two experiments at Simon Fraser University, participants who had to solve an anagram (GANECY) before seeing the name of a brand of product were more likely to say they had seen the brand before than participants who were not asked to solve the anagram, and when shown a list of brand names in the same category, preferred the one they thought they had seen before. Why did they? The researcher, Antonia Kronlund, says the “Aha!” experience of solving the puzzle (AGENCY) generates a good feeling that is then misattributed to the first brand name seen. Says Ms. Kronlund, “Such techniques can be used by marketers in magazine layouts, in store displays—the possibilities are endless.”72
—Finally, the ethos of covert persuasive techniques is candidly, almost proudly, displayed in the online ad of John Wiley publishers for its 2006 book Covert Persuasion: Psychological Tactics and Tricks to Win the Game by Kevin Hogan and James Speakman:
A guide to all the tricks salespeople need to turn “no” into “yes”!
Covert Persuasion synthesizes the latest research in the field of influence with the extensive experience of psychologist and public speaker Kevin Hogan to produce an unbeatable guide to the psychological tricks that win sales battles. Based on cutting-edge science, Hogan and James Speakman reveal dozens of previously unknown verbal and nonverbal tricks and tactics that will have customers saying “yes” before they even realize it. A salesperson fully aware of all the nonverbal and verbal cues and hints that lead a customer to a particular response will always have the upper hand. Covert Persuasion reveals more than ten keys to subtly elicit agreement from even the most stubborn customer.
This is but a sampling of the use of unconscious persuasive factors in advertising and propaganda. We have seen others in our journey through psychological history, among them the foot-in-the-door technique of fund raising (asking for a small favor, then returning for a larger one), and Kahneman and Tversky’s experiments in skewed decision making (an alternative couched in terms of the chance of winning was chosen by many more people than a statistically identical alternative couched in terms of the chance of losing). Thousands of studies have investigated all sorts of other factors affecting persuasion, and many of the findings have been and are being used by advertisers, politicians, religious leaders, activists of all sorts, and others in the persuasion business. To the extent that these findings are used to manipulate Americans into making consequential decisions on the basis of unconscious motivations and fears, they are misuses of psychology—not as serious as the misuse of physics in nuclear bombs or of biology in germ warfare, but neither trifling nor innocuous.
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