Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say

Douglas Rushkoff used to be a lot more hopeful that the rise of the Internet would free us from the "arms race" of manipulation and counter-manipulation to which we're subjected through the major media. He's changed his mind, in part because he found that his earlier work (notably the famous _Media Virus!_) was being taught in marketing classes to people who wanted to _create_ media viruses.But he hasn't turned into a pessimist; he still thinks we can break the cycle, and this book is supposed to help us do it. And given his subject, he writes with a refreshing lack of paranoia: he's well aware that all of these techniques are (a) based on common features of "human nature" that ordinarily serve us just fine, and (b) used all the time, to some degree, by all of us. "We are all coercers," he says," and we are all coerced."As you read the book, it will help to be aware of something Rushkoff doesn't actually get around to explaining until his closing chapter: by "coercion" he means the sort of "persuasion" that is intended to make it difficult or impossible for us to exercise our better judgment -- as distinguished from genuine, no-scare-quotes persuasion, which engages our reason rather than trying to short-circuit it. Bear that in mind if you think -- as I initially did -- that he's confusing coercion and persuasion.What he's actually talking about is what people of approximately my generation would at one time have called a "mind-cop." (That term, by the way, has very nearly the same literal meaning as "geneivat da'at," or "stealing the mind" -- a term used in Jewish law for certain sorts of deception.) I assume no reader of this page will need me to explain that there's something ethically wrong with such practices, even though they fall short of physical force or the threat thereof. Indeed, by my lights, the sort of thing Rushkoff writes about, being a violation of the integrity of the mind, seems somehow _more_ wrong than the "initiation of force."At any rate the subject should be of interest to a wide range of readers. I'll single out two kinds: (1) readers interested in the psychology of judgment and decision-making (and see Scott Plous's excellent book of that title for a good introduction), and (2) law students. (Yes, law students. It's relevant to all sorts of questions that arise in the study of the law: How are juries persuaded? When may a contract be rescinded? Why does the law protect stuff like "brand identities" and "public images"?)Rushkoff's discussion covers a pretty wide range of methods, from advertising to PR, from "atmospherics" to pyramid schemes. One of his greatest strengths is his ability to draw parallels between, for example, CIA interrogation techniques and Nazi rallies, on the one hand, and sales techniques on the other, _without_ making you feel as though he's pushing a wild-eyed conspiracy theory. The narrative is also peppered with on-point personal anecdotes, and his passages on "cults" are downright spine-tingling

This is an enlightening read--a broad overview of subtle coercion and a definitive explanation of the ubiquitous "they" who have so much influence over most of us. From Rushkoff's explication of atmospherics (how businesses use subtle changes in shopping environments to make people stay longer and spend more) to a detailed exploration of how cults get and retain members (a chilling analysis), this book shines a light on some otherwise dark corners of persuasion. But most importantly, it acts as an antidote. Most forms of subtle persuasion don't work when its targets realize the existence of the persuasive technique. This book arms its readers with an arsenal of knowledge, debunking the power of "they."I strongly recommend. I couldn't put it down.

In the early 90's Douglas Rushkoff wrote a book titled "Media Virus." It described how the Internet Age would render marketing usless. Unfortunately, this book was studied by marketers to develo new and more effective strategies to sell to us. More frightening and more transparent than before.His book was so successful that he was invited inside "their" world to work on marketing strategies. This book, then, is his report back to us.His descriptions of how "they" turn "us" into mindless consumers is scary. Some examples are:The Muzak that's pumped into every store in the world is secretly timed to influence our moods and emotions and most importantly, our buying patterns. Ever wonder why so many stores have buying frenzies followed by periods of no activity? Well this is it. The music, no matter what genre, is designed to bring us to a fevered pitch of buying where we grab whatever it is we have and get on line.Every sales associate in The Gap is trained in "in with two out with five." This means that if you walk in with 2 items, they want to recommend 5 other items for you to buy, and they always tell you you look good in them.And Mall Designs. The first mall was designed by Victor Gruen in 1958 as a new version of Downtown. They're designed in very specific ways to do very specific things to us. They're designed to disorient us, make us confused. That's why you can't see one department store from another department store. The more confused we are, the more likely we are to become mindless buying zombies. This is called the Gruen Transfer.So what about stores like Ikea, where so-called educated consumers to go a warehouse like environment and get their own products from the stock shelves? Well, this too is designed to turn us into mindless buying zombies, but in a different way. None of us can decipher what those little tags mean, and there's nobody to help us. So we become like helpless children, confused and, again, mindless buying zombies.Another technique is to convince you it's a scary world out there, but we know the way to safety. Conspiracy theorists love this type of talk, but so does AOL and Microsoft. "So easy to use no wonder it's #1." Another technique is to convince you that you're defenseless against their marketing techniques... Yet that's exactly what this book does.Sure it introduces you to all of these various techniques, but it also convinces you that it's hard to defend yourself against them. So you give up.Douglas Rushkoff describes the technique used to turn thinking people into mindless consumers flawlessly. I won't give away the core of the book, but the methods described here are clearer and more concice than any others I've seen.Interestingly, Douglas Rushkoff wrote a book in the early 90's that was adopted wildly by marketing professionals, and he spent time with them. He tells us he pities for their hearless behaviour and their pangs of guilt. Now, he writes another book with nearly the same purpose, but yet again te

Rushkoff spells out a number of disturbing ways in which people are manipulated. He points out the psychological techniques used by salesmen. He describes the ways that shopping malls program the atmosphere to get you to buy. He describes how stadium events are used to activate mobs. He discusses spin doctors, advertisers, and commercial cults such as Amway. He discusses the consumer profiling on the Net.An example of the type of detail he provides is on p. 96:"Grocery shoppers respond best to Muzak that has a slower tempo, making a whopping 38 percent more purchases when it is employed. Fast-food restaurants use Muzak that has a higher number of beats per minute to increase the rate at which patrons chew their food."The book is not without its flaws. For example, on p. 208 you find this sentence:"By adopting the postlinguistic currency of an iconic culture, marketers can reposition themselves and their brands in a manner consistent with the operating system of today's point-and-click marketplace."Maybe I'm too old to appreciate "post linguistic," but to me this is just babble. I wish that a Neil Postman or a Wendy Kaminer would knock some of this nonsense out of him.Rushkoff's disrespect for language can be found in the book's title. The dictionary definition of "coercion" is restraint by force or governmental power. He is talking about something that falls short of that. Most of the time, what he means by "coercion" is what I would think of as "manipulation."This is not an insignificant issue of terminology. By calling so many things "coercion," Rushkoff overdoes it. I mean, while I find it very interesting and provocative that Rushkoff draws an analogy between the cult-style brainwashing of multilevel marketers and the fanatacism of Apple Computer owners, I was not persuaded to equate the two.Although the flaws in this book should not be overlooked, they ought to be forgiven. He gives us a great deal to think about.A longer book review is available from me via email.

Rushkoff's most solid and well-written book to date, an excellent introductory overview of the coercive tactics and techniques used by Internet e-commerce merchants, multi-level marketing personnel, car dealers, and the U.S. military (the 'appeal to a general and broad readership audience' hot-button).Rushkoff offers insights from his own consulting career, revealing that issues aren't as simplistic or ideologically pure as is sometimes portrayed (the 'response to critics' and 'juicy inside gossip' hot-buttons).The index and bibliography are well worth pursuing, including Philip Kotler's seminal 'atmospherics in shopping malls/casinos' work, Noam Chomsky's de-construction of thought control in 'democratic' societies, Peter Watson and Christopher Simpson's review of psychological warfare techniques used on domestic populations (car salespeople using CIA interrogation manuals to increase sales), or Robert Dilt's study of the neurological basis of NLP (the 'appeal to authority', 'appeal to power', and 'appeal to specialist, esoteric areas' hot-buttons).In an escalating arms race, it's no longer just persuasion (Vance Packard) or influence (Robert B. Cialdini), but coercion. Buy a copy for yourself and one for your friends! (the 'if all else fails, make the buyer feel fearful' hot-button).Have I coerced you into pressing 'buy' yet?