This depth approach to influencing our behavior is being used in many fields and is employing a variety of ingenious techniques. It is being used most extensively to affect our daily acts of consumption. The sale to us of billions of dollars' worth of United States products is being significantly affected, if not revolutionized, by this approach, which is still only barely out of its infancy. Two-thirds of America's hundred largest advertisers have geared campaigns to this depth approach by using strategies inspired by what marketers call "motivation analysis." Meanwhile, many of the nation's leading public-relations experts have been indoctrinating themselves in the lore of psychiatry and the social sciences in order to increase their skill at "engineering" our consent to their propositions.
A considerable and growing number of our industrial concerns (including some of the largest) are seeking to sift and mold the behavior of their personnel—particularly their own executives—by using psychiatric and psychological techniques.
manipulators.
The possibilities of using the insights of psychiatry and the
social sciences to influence our choices and our behavior are so
inviting that no one anywhere can be sure nowadays that he is not
being worked upon by the depth persuaders.
new area of modern life. It is about the way many of us are being
influenced and manipulated—far more than we realize—in the
patterns of our everyday lives. Large-scale efforts are being made,
often with impressive success, to channel our unthinking habits, our
purchasing decisions, and our thought processes by the use of
insights gleaned from psychiatry and the social sciences. Typically
these efforts take place beneath our level of awareness; so that the
appeals which move us are often, in a sense, "hidden."
The use of mass psychoanalysis to guide campaigns of
persuasion has become the basis of a multimillion-dollar industry.
Professional persuaders have seized upon it in their groping for
more effective ways to sell us their wares—whether products, ideas,
attitudes, candidates, goals, or states of mind.
This depth approach to influencing our behavior is being used in
many fields and is employing a variety of ingenious techniques. It is
being used most extensively to affect our daily acts of consumption.
The sale to us of billions of dollars' worth of United States products
is being significantly affected, if not revolutionized, by this
approach, which is still only barely out of its infancy.
Two-thirds of America's hundred largest advertisers have geared campaigns to this depth approach by using strategies inspired by what marketers call "motivation analysis." Meanwhile, many of the nation's leading public-relations experts have been indoctrinating themselves in the lore of psychiatry and the social sciences in order to increase their skill at "engineering" our consent to their propositions.
A considerable and growing number of our industrial concerns
(including some of the largest) are seeking to sift and mold the
behavior of their personnel—particularly their own executives—by
using psychiatric and psychological techniques.
The most serious offense many of the depth manipulators
commit, it seems to me, is that they try to invade the privacy of our
minds. It is this right to privacy in our minds—privacy —that I believe we must strive to protect.
It would be a dreary world if we all had to be rational, right-thinking,
nonneurotic people all the time, even though we may hope we are
making general gains in that direction.
powerful leaders. . . ."They admit to buying long, colorful cars they really don't need and sailboats that they concede probably appeal to them because of childhood memories, Some persons we've encountered who are thoroughly acquainted with the operations of the merchandising manipulators, I should add, still persist in acts that may be highly tinged with illogicality.
Yet there is a dilemma," it explained. "We are being carried along by a process that is becoming an end in itself and which threatens to overwhelm us. . . . There is a loss of a sense of proportion in living when we become so quickly dissatisfied with last year's models."
Meanwhile, we can address ourselves to the more specific problem of dealing with those more devious and aggressive manipulators who would play upon our irrationality and weaknesses in order to channel our behavior
"This is not to criticize those who make the products in question or those who promote and sell them. They and all of us who consume them are caught up in the same whirl. This whirl is so much the substance of our life that it is difficult to get outside it long enough to look at it and ask where it all leads us."
Behavior in the field of commerce.
It strikes me that it would be appropriate for the Social Science Research Council and such affiliates as the American Psychological Association to develop codes of ethics that would cover the kind of co-operation that can be condoned and not condoned in working with the people-manipulators.
The American Psychological Association has a guidebook running 171 pages {Ethical Standards of Psychologists) that covers more than a hundred problems and cites hundreds of examples of dubious behavior, but there is barely a mention in the entire manual of the kind of co-operation with depth manipulators
"Social scientists in the past have paid attention to the irrational patterns of human behavior because they wish to locate their social origins and thus be able to suggest changes that would result in more rational conduct. They now study irrationality—and other aspects of human behavior—to gather data that may be used by salesmen to manipulate consumers."
More material goods such as more cars or more gadgets has made anyone
happier—in fact, the evidence seems to point in the opposite
direction."
It strikes me that it would be appropriate for the Social Science
Research Council and such affiliates as the American Psychological
Association to develop codes of ethics that would cover the kind of co-operation that can be condoned and not condoned in working with the people-manipulators.
The American Psychological Association has a guidebook running 171 pages {Ethical Standards for Psychologists)
the "grand design." the people-manipulators.
the "grand design." required co-operation of those in control of the mass media
a host of laborers
with plenty of financial backing
for regular utilization of mass media,
to constantly communicate the desired objectives
the "grand design." the people-manipulators.
"quite a few of the leading U.S. Sociologists." Psychologists
The response of Professor Philip J. Allen, of the University of Virginia, was particularly interesting. He mapped out a "systematic program" by which it could be achieved and stressed that his scheme would require: Sufficient financial backing
for regular utilization of mass media, constantly to communicate the desired objectives to the "common man." New values can be deliberately created,
disseminated, and adopted as personal and collective goals highly desirable of achievement.
However the concerted effort of the major social institutions—particularly the educational, recreational, and religious—must be enlisted with the ready co-operation of those in control of the mass media
on the one hand and the large creators of goods and services who buy up time and space for advertising their "wares" on the other. . . . By utilizing the various tested devices, our modern genius in advertising may alight upon simple phrases well organized in sequence and timing,
and coordinate with other efforts geared
to realize the "grand design." But there are required a host of laborers with plenty of financial backing
regular utilization of mass media, constantly to communicate the desired objectives to the "common man." New values can be deliberately created, disseminated, and adopted as personal and collective goals highly desirable of achievement...
