Emotional Manipulation: Unraveling the Power of Our Feelings

We periodically fake emotions for compassion or dominance since they have such an undeniable influence over our lives. Strong feelings like pain, anger, grief, excitement, and fear have the power to persuade and manipulate us, affecting our judgment and obscuring reason. Love and connection have the power to transcend all logic, yet unchecked wrath can cause unimaginable misery.

Understanding emotions has become a lucrative business in our modern culture. Everything we experience, from the news we read to the commercials we see, is meticulously integrated into a sophisticated neuromarketing system. Retailers, businesspeople, and politicians see emotions as a valuable modern resource that can be carefully monitored and manipulated for personal gain.

Science behind emotions

Our brain is divided into two sections: the logical portion, which functions like a computer to perform calculations, and the intuitive portion, which allows us to make decisions on the spot. Manipulation of the rational part profoundly impacts impromptu decision-making through a key concept behind marketing strategies like FOMO (fear of missing out), urging us to act swiftly on short-span offers. Emotions, however, are not solely used to sway logical reasoning; from an early age, we employ them as tools of persuasion to influence others according to our desires.

According to research, emotions have the ability to undermine one's self-perception and lead to a dependence on validation. Two groups of participants were divided into two seating areas for a fascinating neuroscientific experiment. They were given a difficult shape rearrangement challenge to complete. Overachievers made up one group, while underachievers made up the other. One student from each group was asked to do the puzzle in the allotted time. The underachievers were given a task that was relatively easier, while the overachievers were given a challenge that was nearly impossible to accomplish.

As a result, the problem was frequently cracked first by the underachievers while the overachievers battled and failed. The repetition of this pattern raised the overachievers' dissatisfaction and fury while boosting the underachievers' confidence. Both teams were given a task with a moderate level of difficulty in the final round. Curiously, the underachievers once more finished the assignment first, perplexing the overachievers.

For psychologists and neuroscientists, the predictable phenomenon observed in the experiment is termed "learned helplessness." According to this principle, once a subject experiences failure, they are likely to repeat it in subsequent situations, resulting in strong feelings of anger and shame towards oneself. These emotions, coupled with stress and helplessness, create a vicious cycle of failure, rapidly leading to depression. The stress levels effectively anesthetize the subject, causing burnout in a short span. Conversely, successful individuals experience a boost in self-confidence, concentration, and memorization capabilities, enhancing their overall assurance and confidence, leading to further achievements.

What did we learn?

These experiences hold a profound resonance in our daily lives. When faced with unattainable goals or subjected to bullying in our school or workplace, these emotions become all too familiar. However, there is a silver lining as we generally possess control over our emotions. Professor David Sander, director of the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, highlights that two major types of emotions influence our decision-making: integral emotions and incidental emotions. While integral emotions aid in decision-making, we must exercise caution with incidental emotions. For instance, when choosing between two perfumes in a store, integral emotions stem from the smell test, while incidental emotions are external factors like background music or a salesperson's demeanor that can indirectly influence our choice. Hence, we need to be vigilant of these emotions, as they can be exploited by stores, brands, and sales personnel. The increasing value of emotions has given rise to a novel discipline known as neuromarketing.

What is neuromarkeing?

An age-old marketing strategy called neuromarketing aims to better serve clients by understanding their emotional viewpoints. It's important to understand, though, that our actions frequently diverge from our words and are instead motivated by feelings. Stores and companies work hard to catch our attention so they may persuade us to buy things that are more emotionally appealing than they are useful. A key factor in affecting the shopping experience by 5–10% and generating billions of dollars in profits for marketers is optimizing specific store sections to elicit favorable feelings. Our shopping habits are a clear example of this widespread impact, as we frequently buy more items to avoid feeling barehanded at the checkout. Rounding up costs gives the appearance that something is more affordable, while clever packaging and product information inspires desire.

Emotion and politics

Politics is another domain where ordinary people's emotions are exploited without their control. The media and political agendas are often presented with a touch of emotional appeal. Politicians skillfully employ emotion-triggering words on social media, and most individuals remain unaware of this manipulation, making them around 30% more susceptible to persuasion. Fake news, designed to evoke emotions like anger, outrage, sadness, or joy, spreads rapidly and goes viral, leading to heightened reactions. Social media platforms, in particular, accumulate vast emotional data left by users, presenting a goldmine for manipulative purposes. Computers and smartphones serve as sources that capture a plethora of information, including our emotional states. In this landscape, it is vital for individuals to be discerning and cautious about emotional manipulation in the political sphere.

In today's rapidly changing world, privacy violations occur in both private and public spaces. Our perspectives about what we see and observe are evolving alongside these shifts. It is crucial to be mindful of our true desires and make informed decisions to protect ourselves from becoming victims of the dilemmas posed by modern society. Often, we find ourselves forced into boxes that do not truly align with our identities, tricked by emotional manipulation clouding our decision-making abilities. By being vigilant and recognizing emotional manipulation as the root cause, we can reclaim control over our lives and navigate the complexities of the modern world with confidence.