I propose that we call dark-arts persuasion “brain hacking” henceforth. (Or ghost-hacking, if you prefer.) It’s an excellent term, and I don’t think that people usually appreciate just how creepy it is to try to hack into somebody’s mind and change it like that.
I don’t think that people usually appreciate just how difficult it is to try to hack into somebody’s mind and change it like that.
FTFY. ;-)
Seriously, it’s hard to change your own mind even when you want with all your heart to do so. Dark arts don’t persuade anybody of anything they don’t already find attractive to believe. (i.e., things that humans are already biased towards thinking are true or useful)
Successful direct marketers advise that you only advertise to people who already want what you’re selling and are inclined to believe you, for this very reason.
(And if anybody had incentive to develop truly “creepy” levels of persuasion capability, it’d be direct marketers, who can make millions more by increasing their persuasiveness a few percentage points.)
In some circumstances, it can be hard to change people’s minds. In others, it can be way too easy. For example, look at bullying in schools: a large number of people somehow come to agree on bullying a certain set of targets, even when they probably would never be so cruel on their own. Or look at political propaganda, when given by a trusted source and decked out in applause-lights-inducing standard rhetoric—preaching a slightly new message to the choir. In both cases, the people being persuaded just weren’t adequately defending themselves from the influence of the people around them.
An obvious example of a case where it’s hard to hack somebody’s mind is trying to get someone to stop being racist. That’s hard; it’s easier to get them to stop being racist in public, by making them ashamed of it.
So, sure, the Dark Arts are not all-powerful, but they’re not weak either. And they are always creepy.
Argument fallacies and rhetorical tactics are used all the time by people who aren’t even aware of it. In a sense, this lack of awareness makes it even creepier. It’s like one zombie fiddling with the brain of another zombie.
I propose that we call dark-arts persuasion “brain hacking” henceforth. (Or ghost-hacking, if you prefer.) It’s an excellent term, and I don’t think that people usually appreciate just how creepy it is to try to hack into somebody’s mind and change it like that.
FTFY. ;-)
Seriously, it’s hard to change your own mind even when you want with all your heart to do so. Dark arts don’t persuade anybody of anything they don’t already find attractive to believe. (i.e., things that humans are already biased towards thinking are true or useful)
Successful direct marketers advise that you only advertise to people who already want what you’re selling and are inclined to believe you, for this very reason.
(And if anybody had incentive to develop truly “creepy” levels of persuasion capability, it’d be direct marketers, who can make millions more by increasing their persuasiveness a few percentage points.)
In some circumstances, it can be hard to change people’s minds. In others, it can be way too easy. For example, look at bullying in schools: a large number of people somehow come to agree on bullying a certain set of targets, even when they probably would never be so cruel on their own. Or look at political propaganda, when given by a trusted source and decked out in applause-lights-inducing standard rhetoric—preaching a slightly new message to the choir. In both cases, the people being persuaded just weren’t adequately defending themselves from the influence of the people around them.
An obvious example of a case where it’s hard to hack somebody’s mind is trying to get someone to stop being racist. That’s hard; it’s easier to get them to stop being racist in public, by making them ashamed of it.
So, sure, the Dark Arts are not all-powerful, but they’re not weak either. And they are always creepy.
Argument fallacies and rhetorical tactics are used all the time by people who aren’t even aware of it. In a sense, this lack of awareness makes it even creepier. It’s like one zombie fiddling with the brain of another zombie.
I saw many comments referring to the dark arts as creepy, and I never understood what they meant* until I read this line :-)
(*: as opposed to, eg, reprehensible)