So many people that take psychology courses end up working in the advertisement industry because that’s where the jobs are if you have a psychology degree. Very few people sit back and think about the implications of the scientific study of the mind being used by companies to distort peoples perceptions and make them buy things.
They are literally trying to control our minds. It’s not a conspiracy theory this is out in the open public information. If some companies decided to they can make you depressed to sell more things to you and you wouldn’t even know it.
Imagine the pick a teenage boy. This boy is a bit shy and insecure. Now, psychology was originally intended to help people. Under the capitalist model it doesn’t. Now this teenage boy instead of being recommended stuff to help them will instead be recommended the likes of Andrew Tate and so on. This person won’t even know what hit them and won’t even understand the turn of events that will lead to those videos being recommended. But they are recommended to him. Suddenly his change in behaviour pushes people away and he falls deeper and deeper into a rabbit hole.
They get more depressed. More lonely so they start buying shit like AI girlfriends but they aren’t real. They get recommended more hateful content as well. They will sprial deeper into depression. This person will likely seek help at this point. Perhaps they’ll recommend putting effort into real world connections so they download something like tinder. But all these apps are designed to make you pay in order to succeed so he pays to get special access. Now the ad companies know they’ll loose money if this now grown man becomes confident so they start recommending content that’ll make them more anxious and depressed about the experience. They give up and retreat further into depression. The whole time the person who is being targeted, their family, their therapist and their loved ones will never be able to put the dots together. They’ll wonder what went wrong not knowing that their personality was already decided for them by ad companies years ago.
So like that they add companies weaponising human psychology can target a teenage boy and basically plan out the next ten years of their life. Think about how dystopian the weaponisation of psychology is when a family member of yours goes down the alt right pipeline after “suddenly” being recommended such videos.
I “joke” all the time that the CIA ended their mind control programs because they succeeded and moved all if it into the private sector in advertising.
Yes, it’s absolutely horrific where we’re at. But there is an upside!
If you’re able to acknowledge its existence and protect against it, you’ve built a tremendous foundation for preserving your mental health that will last a lifetime.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is that these ad companies (and the companies who deploy their services) only have control over you if you give them permission to.
- Block ads whenever you can.
- Avoid apps/websites that use dark patterns. .
- Work to improve your health (physical and mental), find meaningful tasks, be with people in real life or enjoy the outdoors alone; the less time you spend on ad territory, the less impact they will have on you.
- Buy from ethical companies, if possible.
- Avoid “influencers”, people who constantly promote “sponsored content”, and other strongly bias sources for your information or entertainment.
These are great suggestions. I’ll add a book to that list: “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Dr. Cialdini. (Not so coincidentally, his doctorate is in social psychology.)
It’s been a few years since I read it, and if I’m remembering correctly it’s oriented toward business people. Regardless, it teaches you what to watch out for and how to mitigate its effects on your own psychology. People use this book everyday to exploit others, so why not learn their tricks?
“Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Dr. Cialdini.
Thanks for the recommend! I’m going to check my library for it!
Welcome to capitalism babyyyyyy
Young girls have had this happening for decades. Today they’re constantly being fed fake images and cartoonishly filtered women in videos as the base standard of beauty. They’re told that their flaws are “ugly” and “embarrassing”.
But buy our makeup / skincare / acne treatment / anti-fat tea and you’ll finally be beautiful and people won’t think you’re ugly flith!!
Also can’t forget gaming companies that have turned many modern games into Skinner-boxes.
I just flatout refuse to play a game that has any kind of monetization in the first few menus. It’s amazing how many games that cuts out.
If you advertise DLC before the game loads? Instant refund.
We as a society aren’t okay with it. There’s tons of pushback against it. But the corporations own the politicians that make the laws. We need to revoke the “corporations are people” ruling to make any progress on this and many other fronts.
Fully agree. I would also hope to see a complete ban on advertising to children, and to get rid of obnoxious billboards.
One thing I love about where I live is that billboards are illegal. Every time I go somewhere that has a lot of billboards I’m overwhelmed with how intrusive they are.
Everyone weaponizes psychology. Not just ad companies. Your boss, your friends, politicians, your child when they want you to buy them a new toy, the plot of a good book. People need to learn critical thinking.
Come off it. Not everyone is trying to manipulate you into acting against your best interest. Which is precisely what advertising is.
