Review of The Brainwashing Thesis

1. The concept was introducted during the Korean War to explain defections to communism by a few American soldiers.
2. Research conducted after the war failed to find any evidence to support the brainwashing hypothesis.
3. The concept was reintroduced in the 1960s and 70s as an "explaination" for joining "cults."
4. Brainwashing is a metaphor that is widely and effectively promoted by a small group of anti-cultists.
5. Contemporary research is consistent with the studies of soldiers in the Korean conflict:
   • influence is a common feature of interpersonal relations, but
   • there is no scientific evidence to advance the idea of brainwashing (by whatever name)
6. In summary, brainwashing is not a viable concept:
   • there is no systematic theory; and
   • there is no body of empirical research to lend support to the phemenon that has been characterized by the anti-cultists and the mass media as "brainwashing"
7. Notwithstanding the evidence, the idea persists, and many people believe that "cults" do have unusualy powers to manipulate people by the use of extraordinary powers.

There is an alternative explanation that allows us to acknoweledge the fact that "cults" and "sects" can have very significant influence on individuals without having to resort to the presuppositions and false premises of the brainwashing metaphone.

Social influence is an alternative concept that helps us better understand the techniquess of persuasion utilized by NRMs in the broader context of persuasion and manipulation in human cultures.

Robert Cialdini, a social psychologist, has written a book entitled Influence, which digests much of what the social sciences know about how influence works.

It is a wonderful primer on how we are all simultaneously victims and vultures in everyday life.

It is a rare day when any of us is not influenced and does not influence others.

In short, influence is ubiquitous in everyday life.

Six orienting premises.

1. Influencing others is part of the eperience of being human;
2. Some people are extremely skilled at getting others to do what they want;
3. All of us are "had," ......not just occasionally......but often;
4. All of us regularly engage in behavior aimed at gaining compliance from others; and
5. All of us possess training and skills to assist us in this task
6. The exercise of influence takes many forms.

• Cialdini organizes his discussion of influence in terms of six forms, tactics, or strategies.

If all are engaged in acts to influence others, it necessarily follows that religious leaders, and others acting in the name of a religious cause, will seek to influence others.

Religious leaders have been among the most skilled influencers

• In the 19th century evangelists virtually made a science of getting people to step out into the isle and come forward to "receive salvation" when the invitation was given at the end of a sermon. Charles Finney, Dwight Moody and Billy Sunday were not just skilled preachers, they were skilled in creating the social context that would make people receptive to their invitation.
• Billy Graham, the most successful and revered evangelist of the second half of the 20th century, systematically built upon these techniques developed by Finney, Moody and Sunday.
• Norman Vincent Peale, a liberal Protestant minister, similarly influenced millions with he books (e.g. The Power of Positive Thinking) , periodicals and radio broadcasts.

We make a serious misjudgment if we fail to recognize that the techniques of religious leaders are not superior to those who seek to influence in the social, political and economic spheres of culture. Furthermore, it is arguable whether religious leaders techniques of persuasion are different in any significant way from others who seek to influence us.

Each chapter of Cialdini's book draws examples from religious groups, most of which sociologists would classify as "cults" or "sects." This does not mean that the influence techniques of NRMs are superior or "less creditable" than the techniques of mainstream religious leaders, political leaders, etc. In fact,

• The influence techniques of some of the highly controversial "cult" leaders of the past few decades can be judged as "crude" and "amateurish" compared with the "mainstream" Christian evangelists.

How Cialdini got interested in influence.

Cialdini's answer is candidly honest: and straightforward in saying that all of his life, "I've been a patsy."

How Cialdini investigated influence.

He employees the social science technique of "participant observation,"

Participant observation involves taking the role of participants in a group. In this instance, the group consisted people Cialdini called "compliance professionals." Very broadly, a compliance professional is a person gainfully employed in work that consciously seeks to impact the public, or some segment thereof, so that they comply with the professional. Most of the time, this involves getting people to buy a product or seek a service.

• as Cialdini puts is so succinctly, the compliance professional is engaged in the act of "getting people to say yes" ....preferably automatically, a kind of mindless compliance without first thinking.
• to learn this world, Cialdini sought employment as a salesmen (or various products), blackjack dealer in Las Vegas, waiter, etc. As participant observer, Cialdini gained access to the "insiders" views and strategies for influencing others.

Six major tactics or strategies for gaining compliance:

Cialdini identifies six major types of influence. The organization of his book devotes a chapter to each type or tactic:

1. Reciprocation
2. Consistency/Commitment
3. Social Proof
4. Authority
5. Liking
6. Scarcity

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Reciprocity

Rule of reciprocation:

• Repaying in kind what another person has provided us.
  • If somebody does something nice, we feel we owe them the return of that kindness in some appropriate form.
• The compliance professional is looking to create uninvited debts. The debt incured, the compliance professional seeks to manipulate us to reciprocate in a manner than reeps a net benefit to him or her.
• Reciprocal concession is the act of asking for something that could not reasonably be expected and then agreeing to take less. Again, the net gain goes to the compliance artist.

[Class illustration: the wonderful "deep discounted" Spring break week-end at Hilton Head]

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Commitment and Consistency
It is normal to strive to be consistent.

"Once we have made a choice or taken a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment"

• Consistency is probably learned (as opposed to innate)
• We strive to behave in whys that are consistent with our values and principles; and
• We similarly strive to avoid being perceived as inconsistent

The fact that others engage in a particular behavior constitutes a kind of "social proof" that it is OK or appropriate

• The principle of social proof says: "the greater the number of people who do something, the greater the proof that it is correct.
• There is a reciprocal dimension to this: if I do something and others follow me, it must be alright.
• In the face of uncertainity, we invoke the principle: "convince and ye shall be convinced"

We are likely to comply when we believe someone someone to be an authority.

• Authority can provide a shortcut to decision -making. If we accept someone as an authority, and that person advocates certain behaviors, then we do not have to go through what might otherwise be a difficult decision-making process.
• Compliance professionals seek to create the appearance of authority to gain our compliance: e.g.
  • trappings
  • titles

We are much more likely to comply with another when we like that person and/or perceive that he or she likes us.

• It is much easier to say "no" to someone who is a stranger, or someone we don't like.
• The compliance "professional's are about the business of constructing a world that will quickly move themselves from the role of stranger to one whom we like and can consider a friend.
• Here are a few of the techniques they use:
  • creating similarities of background, beliefs, tastes;
  • showers of compliments;
  • cognitive consistency linking

Scarcity Principle:

"if an item is available in limited quantities, or for a lmitied time, that knowledge psychologically increases its desirability."

• If there are not many left, we want them.....
• If we can't have something we want it

Cialdini's perspective:

The pace of the modern world demands that we frequently use shortcuts to beliefs, decisions and action.

Indeed, Cialdina says, "the blitz of modern life demands that we have faithful shortcults" (emphasis added)

There is nothing inherently wrong with shortcuts, he argues.

"The problem comes when something causes the normally trustworthy cues to counsel us poorly."

Instructor's perspective:

Honest people and con-artists alike present themselves to us as trustworthy.

There are no easly rules for deciding whether our best interests are served by accepting the "compliance professional" definition of the situation. We can almost be certain that compliance professional will not act contrary to his or her interests.

Sorting out or, more appropriately, discerning shades of gray, goes to the heart of the matter

But how do we discern good (honest) counsel from poor (dishonest) and self-serving counsel?

What is Cialdini's solution to the problem?

"I am at war with the exploiters...."

"....we all are."

While Cialdini says "I would urge [a] forceful counterassault," is he really saying something more than caveat emptor?

Instructor's response.

My sense is that he is not. Or, if he is, Cialdini's criteria for when to engage in "forceful counterassault" t are not set forth. Consider the following from his book:

"Compliance professionals who play fairly by the rules of shortcut response are not to be considered the enemy; on the contrary, they are our allies in an efficient and adaptive process of exchange. The proper targets for counteraggression are only those individuals who falsify, counterfeit, to misrepresent the evidence that naturally cues our shortcut responses." (228)

How would Cialdini deal with the techniques of "integrated saturation marketing?"

Examples:

• The packaging and advertising of a wide array of products that surround the release of a Disney movie?
• The use of morning news/entertainment television programming to promote evening news, or primetime programming; promoting the books of a publishing hourse the holding company of the network also owns by having authors as guests;
• Mass media hyping of the Super Bowl to create large television audiences, greater sales of newspapers and magazines, which raise the price of advertising. And this is to say nothing of the t-shirts, sweaters, and other logo inscribed consuables which add up to megabucks

Or how would Cialdini deal with the promotion of socially "evil" products?

Examples:

• Lottery tickets
• Tobacco products
• Negative political advertisements

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