Triggers of Mind Control
Paul J. Mascetta
Copyright 2012 by Paul J. Mascetta
Smashwords Edition
Table of Contents
My name is Paul Mascetta and I learned a very long time ago that one of the primary aspects of being effective is the ability to be persuasive. I remember once reading about a survey done on about 1,000 millionaires (most self-made) to see what success- driving characteristics they had in common. When asked “What was the single most important contributor to their success?” the majority of millionaires said it was their “ability to deal with people”. And being persuasive is simply “dealing with and convincing people to do what you want them to do”.
Think about it. The most successful people in the world - at some point in their lives - had to persuade someone else to either believe in their product, capability, knowledge, decision making process, etc.
Donald Trump would own no real estate if he didn’t persuade a bank to lend him money. Oprah Winfrey would have no TV. show if she wasn’t able to persuade the producers to give her one.
Robert Kyosaki would have never sold one copy of Rich Dad Poor Dad if he had not persuaded someone to publish it and furthermore, persuade the people reading it that he knew what he was talking about.
Enhancing one’s level of personal development and ultimately living the most enriched life possible involves many things. One essential aspect of achieving success is being persuasive.
The funny thing is that many people take this aspect for granted. They either underestimate its power or they don’t even acknowledge it at all. But the fact of the matter is that it will not only propel you forward on your journey toward success, it is absolutely necessary to ensure success, period.
Nearly every aspect of human life involves influence on one level or another. You wake up in the morning in the place where you live – someone persuaded you either to rent or purchase that place. You get in your car – which someone persuaded you to buy. You drive to work – a job that you persuaded someone to believe that you deserve. You go to lunch – a place that you were persuaded on one level or another to believe that the food is good. You go home to your significant other – who persuaded you to believe that they are a good match for you.
I think you get the point. Influence is all around us. It is being used in one way or another for reasons both good and bad by everyone, including yourself (whether you believe it or not).
What do you strive to improve? And what aspects of your life do you dedicate time toward improving? Health? Love? Finances? Relationships? Regardless of what it is in your life that you want to improve on or become better at, enhancing your ability to be more persuasive is essential toward ensuring success on your journey.
Here, I’m going to share 10 powerful tactics to gain compliance from others.
Emotion vs. Logic
As human beings, we would like to think that when we make decisions, we scrutinize and evaluate the information that we’re given and then ultimately make a logical decision based on our evaluation. In reality, however, nothing could be further from the truth. Human beings very rarely make decisions that way; most of the time our decision-making process takes place without us even realizing it. This is because when living in the in the age of information, there is just not enough time for anyone to really evaluate every single piece of information that comes our way and then decide what we’re going to do with it.
Let's face it; thinking is hard work. We have to think about what we’re going to wear to work, what to do at work, what we’re going to do with our lives, how we are going to get what we want from our children, what to make for dinner, what our futures will be like, what our children's future is going to be like, etc. That’s a lot to take in!
There are so many things in life to think about that to consciously ponder every single decision that you're going to make is almost impossible. So instead, what we have are mental short-cuts that we use to dissect all of this information and make rapid decisions. These short-cuts appear in the form of preconceived ideas about what we believe or how we believe certain things should be. When we come across something that involves making a decision, we subconsciously cross-reference it with all the preconceived notions and beliefs that we have and then make a decision. This is why human beings are generally susceptible to the mental triggers that I'm going to speak about in this book. Activating these mental triggers takes place on a subconscious level, which means that when people respond to the triggers, they don't even realize that they're doing it.
Much research has shown that over 90% of the reason behind a person's action to make a purchase is associated with a decision that takes place on a subconscious level. What that means is that most of the time when we buy something, we’re doing it for reasons that we really haven't even fully developed in our conscious minds. Now there are many reasons why people don't really think about making decisions. It could be the fact that with so much information available, people get overwhelmed or sometimes the decision really isn't going to impact our lives that dramatically. Or, it is just simply that doesn't involve much research or thinking.
The bottom line is that as humans, we love taking short-cuts because it makes the mental work much easier. How many times have you walked into a store and relied on the sales person's advice or brought a friend along to get their opinion when buying something? Most people will never admit this, but many of us can buy something just because of the way it looks or because of the label that's on it. Have you ever purchased a piece of clothing because of the manufacturer’s name as opposed to investigating the quality of the clothing and the fabric itself?
Realize this; you can never really logically understand why human beings behave in a certain way, because we are not logical people. Instead, we are emotional people making decisions primarily based on emotions, but we think we are logical.
Therefore, the only way to predict how most people will behave is to organize them in groups, provide some sort of stimulus and then monitor the response. These are known as studies. Most of the time, the results that they provide prove how illogical people really are.
Countless psychological studies have shown that people react more to the way that information is presented to them rather than the content of the information itself. In this next part of the book, I'm going to explain how to use a body of knowledge built on psychological factors and show you how you can get people to behave the way you want them to. True masters of influence and persuasion are very well aware of these triggers and how to use them to their advantage. And they do so very, very often.
While it took me many years to research these mental triggers, how they work and how to apply them, the good news is that once you learn how they work, they become second nature. Think about the first time you tried to ride a bike. In the beginning, it seems like the hardest thing to do in the world. But once you get how to ride a bicycle, you’re set for life. You never forget, it always works and it really doesn’t even involve much effort. Well, that’s exactly the way mastering the triggers of influence works. Once you get it down, it will remain that way forever. You won’t even have to think about how to use them, just like the first time you learned to ride a bike.
The triggers that I am going to speak about are universal laws for peripheral processing. When you act in accordance with them, they will yield the desired result when your target is processing information peripherally or using the Reptilian brain.
When information is being processed centrally, you and the person that you're trying to persuade consciously try to understand exactly what the conversation is about and then process that information. With the central route, there is a lot of evaluating going on. People are trying to decipher the pros and cons, benefits, rewards and consequences of whatever decisions they make.
When the target is taking the peripheral route, there is no time to evaluate. There is virtually no time for processing information consciously. During this approach, we are activating the mental triggers that I'm going to speak about. When this approach is done really effectively, you’ll gain more compliance from others than you ever thought possible.
In a world where people are driven primarily by emotions, logic does have its place.
I've read tons of books on sales and dedicated most of my life to mastering the art of selling. Many sales experts or gurus claim that every decision that we make is primarily an emotional one, and that logic is used later to justify that decision. This is true. Even the most logical decisions are driven by an emotion. Take the decision to not stand in front of a truck going 60 mph. While it may appear that this is a logical decision because you don’t want to get hurt or even die, it is the emotion of fear that is ultimately driving that decision.
Here is what most of the gurus don’t talk about…. Some people like to think they make decisions logically, like “thinkers,” for example. These people are not swayed by emotional arguments. They like hard data and facts that support a particular point of view. But this desire to make decisions logically is still driven by the emotional need to be logical. Therefore, when persuading these types of people, it’s important to appear that you are appealing to the logical side of their brains. However, keep in mind that you are still triggering emotions within them as well.
Emotions are essentially what fuel the world. Emotions are what create love, hate, war, life, death and just about everything else that we do. But make no mistake; logic does play a role in the emotional experience. And therefore, you must always remember to balance tapping into logic and emotion when influencing certain people. People are definitely more likely to believe what you say based on logic. But ultimately, it is their emotion that will move them to take action. Many different studies have shown that more than 90% of the decisions that we make are emotionally driven. Yes, we use logic afterwards to justify our actions and why we did certain things. However, ultimately, it is emotion that prompts us to first take action.
When using emotion to guide behaviors or thought processes, you can sometimes first engage people using logic, and then tap into the emotion to get them to take action. For example, let’s say I wanted to persuade you to buy a car. But it was a $250,000 Ferrari, which you knew logically you cannot afford. The fact is that we would never even get to the influence process. Because you've already made a logical decision, it would not even be worth it to speak with me.
Back to my point, we as human beings like logic in some cases. And in those cases, it’s extremely valuable. For example, when we are trying to draw conclusions based on evidence that's been given to others, we use logic. In fact, for an argument to even make sense or to even be worth speaking about, it has to be true and valid, which means there has to be some level of logic involved.
Once all of that has been established, then we can move into the emotional part of how this works. There are various types of logic that you can use to influence someone, and one of my favorites is the analogy. Basically, an analogy is when you reconstruct your point using an example of how your point makes sense, but it's done using a completely different situation. The reason why I like analogies so much is because they enable me to get to the point fast. It opens up a new perspective for the person to understand what I'm talking about. One of the first rules of influence is that the audience must understand what you're saying. And oftentimes, just repeating your point over and over again doesn't do the job. If you can create a different scenario with a similar meaning, chances are your audience will be able to see things in a different way and they will ultimately agree with you.
Statistics are another great way to use logic to persuade someone. People love statistics. Statistics prove that a general number of people believe, act or behave in a certain way. What this leads to is one of the mental triggers, which is called social validation. When people see that a majority of other people are thinking or acting in a certain way, they assume first that it must be right or it must be correct. Secondly, this supports your case. If you are referencing a statistic that indicates that a certain event has taken place numerous times, it brings logic to the table. You can use this logic as evidence in your presentation. Have you ever seen a book cover that says “Number one bestseller” or “Over one million copies sold”? This tells the customer that many other people have bought this book and subconsciously sends a message that says the product must be good if so many people purchased it.