Re: Bnei Baruch
Date: June 24, 2008 09:13PM
Hi, my reply is of more general nature and more related to promotional techniques and methods that most of cult and similar organizations are using. BB seems to be using a lot of these. You can see a lot of that in official marketing campaigns of commercial companies.
There some basic scientifically proved principles used for persuading people in doing or supporting some things, which one can always refer to when analysing organizations, companies or people and quicly recognise to what degree they are used.
I will mention some of them that seem to be used most:
- principle fo reciprocity - proved to work in situations when people get favors or gifts - they will always want to "repay" the favor - can certainly explain free classes. You feel obligated to do something for them - that is how human brain/feeel works.
2. consistency - they always insist on certain rules - they want to appear consistent and create tradition or what we would say reputation for being such as such...
3. social proof - thus letters of support all over the sites how much something has helped somebody - or how delighted they are to discover this or that product, service or "knowledge" (for this matter) - btw you never know if these praisal are coming from real people or it is just staged.
4. liking - people trying to sell you stuff or get you into something will always have stories similar to yours: like "oh I have been there, I have done that" so they create impressions that they understand how you feel and what you need.
5. authority - that is why there always try to connect their beliefs or products to already established and respected source (be it a book or person or a science).
and of course
6. scarcity - we are the only ones that can give you this - you can not find it anywhere else - or, in commercial world it is "limited stock - hurry up to pick yours"
There are number of books elaborating on the issue but one that is probably the most readable and very concise is Robert Cialdini, Ph.D.. And, one should never forget - people got to school for years to master these techniques.
Hope this will help everybody to make better evaluation of others or organizations` appearances.
best
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/2008 09:34PM by Vesna.