Manipulating Minds: The Use of Persuasion and Coercion in Cults, Authoritarianism, and Trumpism-Part 2
Part 2 of a 5-Part Series
Photo by David Trinks on Unsplash
Dear Reader: While my Substack posts normally come to your inbox no more than weekly, I'll be posting twice a week until November 5 because this particular series relates to a phenomenon that plays an integral part in the US election. After that date, I'll return to weekly posting. Thanks for reading!
* * * * *
Note: If you missed Part 1 of this series, it would be a good idea to start there prior to reading Part 2. Click here to read Part 1.
* * * * *
II. PERSUASION AND COERCION
Let’s start with the primary negative psychological element related to cults—coercion—to see how it’s used, how we can recognize it, and how we can determine whether its use signifies that an organization is or might be a cult.
Persuasion is rampant in our culture—in advertising, politics, education and everywhere we look online—but many of us are relatively unaware of how pervasive it is, how it affects our lives, and how skillfully it’s used by those who want to persuade us. Persuasion can be used in a benign or even helpful manner, or it can be used negatively.
Persuasion can appear in several forms. What is the difference in the persuasion used, for example, in advertising, compared with that used in cults? Is coercion different from benign persuasion, and how? Can we really be coerced against our will?
One arena in which persuasion plays an integral role is of course in the cult, and that is probably the easiest place to point out how it can be used effectively. So we’ll examine the role of persuasion in cults and how its use in cults differs from that in other organizations.
And if one of the characteristics of a cult is the use of coercion—i.e., unhealthy persuasion—how can we identify that that type of persuasion is being used so that we can be alert to being coerced and protect ourselves from this form of coercion?
A. What is persuasion?
Let’s start with the most benign form of influence or deliberate manipulation of another person, persuasion. The definition of persuasion given by Wikipedia.com (Persuasion) indicates that it’s a form of non-forceful influence that is meant to benefit one or more parties. The key word there is benefit.
Persuasion can be beneficial, for example when used helpfully in Alcoholics Anonymous, or when a parent persuades a child not to cross the street against the light, thereby ensuring its safety.
B. What is the distinction between persuasion and coercion?
There are forms of persuasion that might not be in our best interest, but which still would not be considered as negative as mind control or brainwashing, namely advertising. You might, though, consider these forms of persuasion to more accurately be deemed coercion. Because advertising is not really meant to benefit you, is it? It’s meant to coerce you into buying a product or idea.
Coercion deliberately influences someone to guide them toward something that is not in their best interest. Other negative forms of persuasion which are sometimes used in cults can be described as mind control, brainwashing or manipulation, but it really is a matter of interpretation in each instance whether what the negative persuasion should called. For our purposes, going forward I’ll refer to mind control, brainwashing and manipulation all as coercion rather than making a distinction.
Whether influence is considered persuasion or coercion is determined by whether the goal is to benefit the person being influenced or the influencer. Mind control, brainwashing and manipulation are always harmful, while persuasion is usually not harmful. Coercion might not be harmful in all cases, but it benefits the influencer and not the influenced individual.
The negative forms of persuasion—coercion, manipulation, brainwashing and mind control—all fit within this definition in that the benefit goes to the influencer and not the individual being influenced. The coercion used in cults shares something with the manipulation and coercion used by sociopaths, narcissists and authoritarians: they see people only as objects to be manipulated to their ends.
For our purposes here, influence with the intention of benefiting the influenced individual will be the definition of persuasion, and influence which is not in the best interest of the person influenced and/or can cause harm to them will be referred to as coercion. So, to put it simply, persuasion is helpful, while coercion is harmful.
C. How does persuasion work?
There are two methods of persuasion: the central route and the peripheral route. The central route is simply a convincing argument that involves our logical thinking. The peripheral route takes a more unconscious path; it allows someone to persuade us without involving our intellect in considering the argument. It convinces us without our being totally aware that we’re being convinced. The use of images or an appeal to our feelings uses the peripheral route. A beer commercial which shows beautiful, sexy women smiling at men who are drinking a particular brand of beer uses the peripheral route to woo us to their product. Advertisers more often take the peripheral route.
The central route, which involves our consciously engaging our logic, results in lasting change in our opinions or beliefs, whereas the peripheral route via the unconscious tends to be not as long-lasting.
Many factors determine whether a message will be persuasive. In effective persuasion, the credibility of the person delivering the message is important, and is validated by their expertise, trustworthiness, confidence and delivery style. Those who are attractive, likable, seem like us in some way, speak fast, and look directly into our eyes are perceived as more persuasive. People are perceived as much more persuasive when the listener believes that they are not trying to persuade them, or when they appear to have nothing to gain by persuading the listener.
If someone is alerted that they are about to be persuaded, they’re more difficult to persuade. Attorneys sometimes use this aspect of persuasion by warning juries about evidence they’re about to hear, knowing that telling them in advance will lessen the impact of the evidence.
How the listener feels while being persuaded affects whether they’re persuaded. Studies have shown that when people are in a happy mood, they make decisions more impulsively, relying on peripheral cues. People who are in an unhappy mood do not react as impulsively, but brood over their decision, and so are less easily persuaded.
It seems to be true, unfortunately, that making the listener fearful can render them more easily persuadable. For example, in an experiment, middle-aged women were shown a video about getting mammograms. One group was told that getting a mammogram could save their lives through prevention; the other group was given a fear-invoking message. Many more women in the fear-invoking group got mammograms after seeing the video.
Repeating something makes it more believable. Also, people are easier to persuade about something they’re not very familiar with. If the message is about an issue they know a lot about, persuading them won’t be as easy. In addition, using metaphor that relates to something the listener is fond of makes the message much more persuasive. For example, if the listener likes the beach, and the metaphor includes a beach, the message will be more likely to persuade the listener.
Personal contact with people is much more persuasive than media communication, something every politician knows. Being able to see the persuader in person is usually far more persuasive than reading something they have written. However, a persuasive message is understood and remembered better when written. So if you have a complex message, it can be more persuasive when written, but if the message is simple, video can be more persuasive.
D. What makes us vulnerable to persuasion?
Most of us believe that we are much less affected by persuasive advertising than other people are. In other words, we think we’re invulnerable to persuasion. However, it’s sometimes this very feeling of invulnerability that leads us to be vulnerable to persuasion because we let our guard down. In an experiment, when subjects were shown an advertisement with a bogus authority, then asked whether they were convinced by the ad, then revealing to them that they had been duped, the subjects were more resistant to persuasion in the future.
There are times when we are probably more vulnerable to coercion than others. Being aware of that factor at those times could help us resist coercion.
When we’re searching for meaning in our lives, are in a transitional period, or have lost someone or something important to us, we’re more vulnerable to coercion. It would seem that those of us who don’t have community, a circle of friends, or family connections in our lives—and that would include many people now—might be especially vulnerable. It’s also possible that those who have high susceptibility to hypnosis might be more susceptible to persuasion. I think that people who are in a state of questioning or of forming their own beliefs—e.g., young people or those going through a mid-life crisis—are more eager to find something to believe in or to give them a feeling of safety or control, and so are more open to persuasion. In addition, coming from a background of abuse can set us up to be more susceptible to cults, finding the authoritarian culture to be reminiscent of what we grew up with, and possibly because those who have been traumatized are often more suggestible or more prone to going into a dissociative state, both of which increase susceptibility to coercion. If any of these factors are present in our lives, we might observe more carefully any attempt to persuade us to see if we are being coerced, knowing that we might be more vulnerable at those times.
To continue reading this series, click here to go to Part 3.
If you’d like to succeed at creating what truly matters to you and making your dreams a reality, read Elena's latest book, ABRACADABRA! A Manual for Making Dreams Come True, now available on Kindle!