Although he did not mention cults specifically, some of his
words of wisdom were relevant to this article .
He is not the only American writer to have produced
some material that is incidentally useful for understanding how cult members
operate. Journalist and social critic Vance Packard wrote a book that exposed the
sinister and unethical techniques, the influences and manipulation, the
propaganda, the hooks and bait used by advertisers and politicians to make the
public buy products, people and ideology.
It is not just sales people and spin doctors who
employ these techniques. Many others use them to overcome resistance and
objections and manipulate people into doing something against their best
interests: for example, cult members may do it to get people to join or give
money and positive publicity to their organisation.
The use of techniques that play upon people’s
subconscious minds started in post-war America. The Hidden Persuaders was first
published in 1957, but it is still very relevant today.
It is an excellent but very alarming, depressing
and disillusioning book. The content speaks for itself and there are many
reviews and analyses online, but I want to highlight some of the material that is
of particular interest to me and make a few points.
More about The Hidden Persuaders
The Hidden Persuaders shows how advertisers
play on people’s hidden needs:
“Packard explores the use of consumer
motivational research and other psychological techniques, including depth
psychology and subliminal tactics, by advertisers to manipulate expectations
and induce desire for products, particularly in the American postwar era. He
identified eight ‘compelling needs’ that advertisers promise products will
fulfill. According to Packard, these needs are so strong that people are
compelled to buy products merely to satisfy them. The book also explores the
manipulative techniques of promoting politicians to the electorate.
Additionally, the book questions the morality of using these techniques.“
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vance_Packard
The agenda behind the techniques is to get
people to respond to hypnotic suggestions such as ‘Consume, consume, consume’
or ‘Vote for us and our policies’.
A warning about manipulative marketing techniques
People who think that they are immune to
attempts to sell them something using manipulative techniques need to be
careful.
Many of us may indeed be unaffected by
advertisements as we can see through the off-the-mark messages behind them and
may not be much of a consumer, but the techniques have other applications.
Unseen influences are everywhere. The price
of liberty is eternal vigilance: we should always look for the goals, agenda, messages, premises and assumptions behind what
is presented to us, learn some counter-moves and stage an effective resistance.
An example from personal experience
The third person effect hypothesis states
that people tend to perceive that mass media messages have a greater effect on
others than on themselves. When we find ourselves wondering how people can be
so stupid as to fall for some message presented in a dreadful advertisement,
something that we can see right through, it is good practice to ask ourselves
where in our lives might we be in danger of falling for something similar.
For example, when dealing with people,
including professional persuaders and negotiators, who work for the local council it took a
little while before I realised that they were playing the ‘assume the sale’
game. Door-to-door salesmen used to do this: they asked the housewives whether
they wanted to pay by cash or cheque, not whether they wanted to buy the item -
often a vacuum cleaner.
In my case, the people wanted to discuss
which one of a variety of options would be most suitable for me; they were assuming
that I would be willing to take one. I would actually be much worse off under
all of them. They also wanted feedback on some minor aspects of a scheme that
would have a devastating effect on my life if it went ahead.
They assumed that I would be resigned to
everything and would go along with their requests. I told them that I was not
theirs to command, and as I would not benefit in any way from any of their
options and schemes I was not interested in discussing them.
Manipulators
expect people to behave like sheep, so refusals to co-operate really confound
them.
Dr. Dichter and the prunes
To get back to Vance Packard, he is not all
doom and disaster.
Getting people to buy something that they
don’t like, want or need often involves image manipulation, the changing of
associations, makeovers and rebranding. The Hidden Persuaders contains an
example of this that I find very amusing.
Dr. Ernest Dichter, President of the
Institute for Motivational Research, was appointed to get people to buy more
prunes as sales were plummeting:
“With
something akin to desperation the California Prune Advisory Board turned to the
Institute for Motivational Research for counsel.
Dr. Dichter, perhaps naturally, suspected that subconscious resistances were working against the prune…The variety of hidden meanings the prune held to Americans, however, astonished even his case workers. The prune's image was ridden with meanings, all unfortunate…Prunes were associated with boardinghouses where they were served by parsimonious landladies, with stingy, ungiving people, with joyless puritans. The black murky color of prunes as commonly served was commented upon unpleasantly. The color black was considered somehow symbolically sinister, and in at least one case the poor prune was associated with witches.”
Dr. Dichter, perhaps naturally, suspected that subconscious resistances were working against the prune…The variety of hidden meanings the prune held to Americans, however, astonished even his case workers. The prune's image was ridden with meanings, all unfortunate…Prunes were associated with boardinghouses where they were served by parsimonious landladies, with stingy, ungiving people, with joyless puritans. The black murky color of prunes as commonly served was commented upon unpleasantly. The color black was considered somehow symbolically sinister, and in at least one case the poor prune was associated with witches.”
Dr. Dichter and his team came up with many
new and attractive images, the rediscovered prune was launched as a new wonder
fruit and sales increased.
The book goes into much detail about the old
and new images, showing exactly how an unpleasant association can be replaced by
a positive one. Stingy landladies gave place to healthy and glowing ice-skaters
for example.
Nigel Molesworth and the prunes
More light relief and a slight digression.
I can’t read the above story without being
reminded me of the prunes that Nigel Molesworth was forced to eat at St.
Custard’s school. As Dr. Dichter was American, he probably didn’t know that
prunes were standard issue at many schools in the UK.
Most of the children who had to eat them
hated them, so prunes have very bad associations for many people and I don’t
think that even Dr Dichter’s techniques would have been able to overcome them.
Nigel and the other boys think that the
prunes taste revolting. He has a fantasy about The Revolt of the Prunes in
which the school prunes become so tired of being detested and criticised by the schoolboys that they stage a revolt:
"The chief prune was a regular soldier
and the moment the Revolt broke out he did what all generals do. He burrowed
underground and established his headquarters.”
Intrusion and surveillance
Prunes may be funny, but this is not:
“Packard recalls meeting Dichter in his
castle and finding children watching televisions while resident psychologists,
crouching behind special screens secretly filmed and studied their every action
so that they could inform advertisers how to manipulate their unconscious
minds.”
Vance Packard’s other books are well worth
investigating; they too are readable, educational and still relevant. The
titles speak for themselves: The People Shapers, The Status Seekers, The
Pyramid Climbers, Our Endangered Children…
A chilling quotation from The People Shapers,
which was written in 1977:
“The most common characteristic of all police
states is intimidation by surveillance. Citizens know they are being watched
and overheard. Their mail is being examined. Their homes can be invaded.”
Vance Packard died in 1996, before the
Internet took off. I would love to read his opinion of the worldwide web and
all the associated social media.
The Hidden Persuaders has been published in
many editions over the years. It can be downloaded at no cost here.
