By Scott Jones/Serbin Media
The 2014 midterm election is less than three months away, and if you think you know who’s getting your votes this year, think again: your vote is being manipulated. Bill Maher’s Flip a District campaign to manipulate a Republican candidate out of office and replace him with a Democrat is one example of pure manipulation, but it’s far from the only one. Politicians and their campaigns will do everything to manipulate your thinking.
Colin Christopher is a clinical hypnotherapist and author of Success Through Manipulation: Subconscious Reactions That Will Make or Break You. Colin has studied the thoughts, beliefs, philosophies and behaviors of what makes people do what they do for more than 15 years.
He says every public official has teams who research what voters think about the candidate and his opponents. They then create a plan to change the voter’s perceptions, greatly manipulating the public’s opinion and in many cases significantly changing the outcome of the election.
He says there are many ways politicians manipulate your thinking to win your vote:
* Vocal tones: Listen to how the candidates speak. In a speech when they want to convey trust with their audience, they will lower their tone and speak slowly. They’ll usually say something like, “Listen to me closely” and “I’ve never said this before.” If a candidate speaks very quickly or in a higher vocal tone, he is subconsciously perceived as lying or at least hiding something.
* Repetition: Most people find political commercials, phone calls and other advertisements we are inundated with to be annoying. The truth is they work. Prolonged exposure to something penetrates the subconscious mind and can dramatically change emotions or how you feel about a person or subject.
* False Memories: You might see the same commercial where a candidate accuses his opponent of wanting to raise taxes, and it might not be true. Repeated exposure to emotional topics and these false memories or ideas will start to be seen as true, even if they are really false.
* Visual association: President Barack Obama nailed this one. Google “Obama Superman Picture” and you’ll see multiple results of Obama as Superman or associated with Superman. Superman, of course, stands for truth, justice and the American Way. These pictures that were widespread during the last presidential election communicated that Obama also stood for truth, justice and the American way, and subliminally equated Obama as Superman.
* Celebrity endorsements: The credibility and value placed on a person increases proportionally with the fame of the individual. When household names like famous actors/actresses, TV personalities and other celebrities endorse a candidate, it speaks volumes. Many people don’t use logical thinking and rely heavily on emotion. The process of manipulation is, “Joe Smith is my favorite actor, and if he likes Mike The Candidate, I do, too.”
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Comments welcome.
Posted on August 7, 2014