Powers of Persuasion—Marketing by Metaphor

Lera Boroditsky, an assistant professor of psychology at Stanford, says:

We can’t talk about any complex situation—like crime—without using metaphors. Metaphors aren’t just used for flowery speech. They shape the conversation for things we’re trying to explain and figure out. And they have consequences for determining what we decide is the right approach to solving problems.

Test subjects were asked to read short paragraphs about crime rates in the fictional city of Addison, including some startling figures about how much crime had risen, and then were asked to answer questions about the city. The researchers wanted to know how people answered when crime was described as a beast compared with when it was described as a virus. The subjects’ response depended on the metaphor used. 71 percent of participants called for more enforcement when they read:

Crime is a beast ravaging the city of Addison.

But only 54 percent wanted more enforcement when they read:

Crime is a virus ravaging the city of Addison.

Asked to say what part of the report had influenced them most in their decision, only 15 of 485 participants said the metaphor. Most of the rest else said it was the figures. Boroditsky said:

People want to believe they’re logical. They like to think they’re objective and making decisions based on numbers, but really they’re being swayed by metaphors.

As expected Republican participants were 10 percent more likely to suggest enforcement, but reading that crime was a beast swayed 20 percent more to suggest enforcement than reading that crime was a virus, whatever their political persuasion.

It explains why right wing politicians and their supporters like to be so doom laden and aggressive. When we are faced with Godless commies who eat babies, the poor dupes called the public are more ready to send their sons to fight foreign wars, and cut the unemployment roll. When we are faced with evil Moslem terrorists who want to destroy our civilization, we are again ready to send half educated country boys and black urban youths in uniform to fight for western freedom and Christianity.

These powers of persuasion are very well known in our capitalist society which uses them daily to mould our tastes, and influence the brands we prefer, and the places we go. It’s called marketing. Vance Packard wrote The Hidden Persuaders warning us against it half a century ago. By now, Joe and Jane Public ought to know all about it so that they are not so easily duped, but that is not what our leaders want. We are meant to be easily duped. The ruling caste would rather dupe us into fighting each other than fighting them, the real enemy!

Our Decline Begins with Glenn Beck

Kevin Kalmes (opednews.com) writes that the decline of a civilization begins with a breakdown in the most basic principles of a civilized society:

• morality
• spiritualism
• social mores
• rule of law
• moral philosophy
  
  • good v evil
  • virtue v vice
  • justice v lawlessness
  • truth v prevarication.

Sounds just right except for “spiritualism”, but I’ll take it to mean spirituality, and I can accept that when it means the oneness of things.

Kevin continues saying that the degradation of moral responsibility and the deterioration of moral character defines Glenn Beck. He embodies all that is wrong with a civilization that has lost its moral compass. The loss of a moral code allows the basest of human flaws to surface and spawn the antithesis of civilization. When Beck speaks of the antichrist, the beast God will destroy just before the final defeat of Satan, he is speaking of himself. And for the first time, he would be correct in his splenetic blasphemy!

The moral supervision of our Nation needs to first defeat antichrist Beck before we can recalibrate our moral compass and return to the moral code that Americans used to value.

That's all right on the nose, say I. Basically the man's one of a load of opportunistic self serving creeps, who haven't a Christian thought in their heads, and never have had. They are only qualified to speak evil, so that's what they do.

Britons are Confused by Excessive Choice

A report based on the views of 6,000 people conducted by the University of Bristol sponsored by the price comparison site confused.com has found that people in the UK are overwhelmed by choice and information.

Focus groups of adult men and women, some of whom were parents and others older, were asked how they coped with the choice offered them. Almost half (47%) said they could not make decisions about every day life. Politics baffled 65% of people, and bankers’ bonuses and interest rates confused 69%. Modern expressions were also often confusing.

Wales (84%) was the most confused region of the UK, with the South East next (82%). Northern Ireland was the least confused (73%). 84% of women were confused compared with 72% of men. But confusion decreases with age as people gain experience and confidence. Young people were more confused, nearly half of those aged 18-24 lying awake agonising over choices, compared to 34% of those aged 55-64.

British governments since Margaret Thatcher’s, but especially in the neothatcherite, neoconservative “New Labour” period of the odiously opportunistic T Blair, have complicated matters for the ordinary person with their bonfires of regulations, and their plethora of new laws introduced under the excuse of giving us more choice. The choice is of sharks to consume our earnings more easily and less honestly, and governments to control us all, not merely terrorists!

The most laughable was the destruction of the health service under the guise of choice. No one cares about choosing, when they are ill. They want the nearest most accessible hospital to be of the same high standard as any other, so that choice is superfluous. Choice was Blair’s way of undermining a universal health service in the UK so that separate trusts—read independent market driven medical units—could be set up, ready for their privatization. Education was the same.

It was especially true of financial services, which are now so complicated to hide the various get rich quick scams they contain for so called financial advisors, banks and insurance comapanies that only experts can understand them, and, it seems that the financiers themselves often do not.

The confusion of excessive choice is now creating opportunities for entrepreneurs like those at confused.com to help people through the minefields they now unnecessarily face. People are so confused by the choice they are incapable of making decisions. These “indeciders” are confused to the extent that they cannot decide among the excessive range of choices they are offered. They often end up plumping for something that is far from suitable, but lets some financial crook make a comfortable unearned income. The poor punter realizes their choice has been dodgy, and end up falling into a state of depression. Professor Harriet Bradley of Bristol University’s Sociology department said:

With a constant stream of new media, daily technological advancements and aggressive multimedia advertising, it’s no wonder that over half of Britain thinks life is more confusing for them than it is for their parents. We really are becoming a nation of “indeciders”.

Reported by PhysOrg.com