Craked.com – 6 ways Society Brainwashes You
In this article, 5 different methods of social engineering are explored. The first is “Chanting Slogans”. This is considered a method of brainwashing because when chanting a repetitive slogan, the repetitive task keeps your brain busy, instead of considering what has just been said by the analytical part of your brain. This is often used in political stump speeches and conventions with live audiences. The second method mentioned is “Slipping things into your Subconscious”. A sly technique used by headline writers to place and reinforce a certain idea in the reader’s head without them noticing. Also called “Source Amnesia” this method exploits the brain’s weak capacity to remember things, but not remember the context in which we learned them. The third process of social engineering the author considered was “Keeping You in Line with Shame”. This involves the “appeal to ridicule fallacy” where the speaker ridicules his/or her opponent’s point, and thus the listener is more likely to agree, in fear of being on the side of the ridicule. The fourth method analyzed is called “Black and White choices”. The psychology behind this is that when people are in debate, they paint an idea or person or place as all bad or all good. Therefore, people are less likely to consider the multiple complex layers of an idea if it is wholly labeled as “bad”. The last and final method is “Us versus Them”. This is the idea that humans naturally form groups within society, and erupting an attack on one another helps to cement tribe- mentality and unity within the separate groups. Thus, we feel the need to do whatever we can to defend our tribe- even risk our lives and comply with ideas we don’t necessarily agree