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![]() As I mentioned on the previous page, one scholar, Dr. Margaret Thaler Singer, provides us with a taxonomy of levels of influence--the basis of the continuum presented below. Notice that upon examination, the continuum defies simple right-or-wrong categorization. |
Education | Advertising | Propaganda | Indoctrination | Thought Control | |
Relationship & Exchange | Limited consensual relationship; logical thinking is encouraged. | Instruction & emotional manipulation which target can ignore. | An authority attempts to persuade the masses. | Authoritarian & hierarchical but also consensual & contractual. | Authoritarian, hierarchical, without target awareness, for indefinite time. |
Deceptiveness | Infrequently deceptive if teacher has no agenda. | Selective information, sometimes deceptive. | Exaggeration, selective, may be deceptive. | Infrequently intentionally deceptive, often selective. | Deceptive. |
Methods | Instructional; indoctrination can occur when the teacher has an agenda. | Mild to heavy persuasion. | Heavy persuasion, compliance tactics. | Coercive compliance (punishment) condoned. | Unethical program of influence. |
Goals | Productive & capable citizenry, actualization. Indoctrination, if an agenda exists. | Sale of product or service. | Political power & control. | A cohesive & effective group. | Perpetuation of the group for money or power. |
![]() Why Influence? Everyday Modern Definitions Ethics I Ethics II Disciplines Approach Bad Info Structure Mindfulness Mindlessness 6 Principles Matrix Cults I Cults II Cults III Framing I Framing II Framing III Framing IV Framing V Framing VI Framing VII Framing VIII Bibliography |
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Although we can all agree that education is
good and thought control is bad, what about advertising, propaganda, and
indoctrination? Take the latter for example. The idea of being indoctrinated
by a group seems unsavory. And yet, we all enjoy the benefits of security
provided to us by our armed forces--which rely on indoctrination to form
effective groups of soldiers who protect us. And I haven't met many Marines
who are unhappy they were indoctrinated into an elite group of warriors.
Given the complexity of the issue, is there no simple guide to ethical influence? I believe there is. Here is the one-sentence guide I use: "If an influence principle isn't inherent in the situation, don't invoke it." This is a meager distillation of a much more elegant and comprehensive treatment of the topic proposed by my mentor, Dr. Robert Cialdini, who treats the subject at some length in the third edition of his book, Influence: Science and Practice. I've excerpted a section from chapter 8, Instant Influence: Primitive Consent for an Automatic Age. Of course, I encourage you to read the following in the context of the original chapter, but these paragraphs quickly illustrate the ethical and unethical uses of influence:
The story becomes quite different, however, when a compliance practitioner
tries to stimulate a shortcut response by giving us a fraudulent signal
for it. The enemy is an advertiser who seeks to create an image of popularity
for a brand of toothpaste by, say, constructing a series of staged "unrehearsed
interview" commercials in which an array of actors posing as ordinary citizens
praises the product. Here, where the evidence of popularity is counterfeit,
we, the principle of social proof, and our shortcut response to it, are
all being exploited. In an earlier chapter, I recommended against the purchase
of any product featured in a faked "unrehearsed interview" ad, and urged
that we send the product manufacturers letters detailing the reason and
suggesting they dismiss their advertising agency. I also recommended extending
this aggressive stance to any situation in which a compliance professional
abuses the principle of social proof (or any other weapon of influence)
in this manner. We should refuse to watch TV programs that use canned laughter.
If we see a bartender begin a shift by salting the tip jar with a bill
or two, that bartender should get no tip from us. If, after waiting in
line outside a nightclub, we discover from the amount of available space
that the wait was designed to impress passersby with false evidence of
the club's I'm pleased you took the time to read about the ethical use of influence. Let's continue the survey by examining the different disciplines in which one can study various facets of influence . . .
![]() If your interest is primarily in resistance to persuasion, you'll want to view the following: The Cult Defense Page
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