> [...]if you want to subtly influence perceptions and ultimately behaviors, you shouldn’t approach people with the goal of educating them or increasing their a

> [...]if you want to subtly influence perceptions and ultimately behaviors, you shouldn’t approach people with the goal of educating them or increasing their awareness of something, but rather, you should aim to tap into their unconscious mind to evoke emotions, and then use their emotional response to direct behavior. It's crazy that we spend so much time on Psychology research when all you need to do is go to sales seminars and have people that may or may not have a high school education teach you exactly this. The best education I got in human behaviour was a stint in door-to-door sales during a period of tech burn-out. Once you are aware of how people are trying to sell you, advertising and marketing is unlikely to phase you. > If a message triggers anger or fear, your brain flags it as urgent; if it confirms your existing beliefs, your mind treats it as more likely to be true (confirmation bias); if others are sharing it, your confidence in it increases (normative bias; illusory truth effect). This pattern is observable in basically every viral disinformation event. For shady nefarious uses, propaganda/disinformation -- being aware of what and when something triggers/activates us makes it is easier to not get swept away by where it's trying to lead (this would be the apt time to turn off and go "touch grass", literally) My observations of people doing 180s in terms of personality happened because they are unaware of having ever been "activated". They tend to think they are "not emotional", are rational etc. An example I found difficult to believe at first was: The easiest, most profitable sales were the people that told us up front they were absolutely not buying and won't/can't be persuaded or sold -- they are too $cognitive_identity. I didn't connect it then, but thinking about it now, they were already emotionally activated/involved and believed they weren't, more importantly didn't know/recognize it. Personally, I believe some Stoicism (Epictetus mostly, maybe Aurelius) practices would help give people the tools to combat this assault on the mind/emotions.