How to control other people's thoughts and souls

Most people will feel numb when they hear the word "brainwashing" The first thing that comes to mind is often all kinds of MLM organizations, which achieve the goal of completely controlling their members through brainwashing. This is also the reason why the MLM organization has strong vitality.

From the psychological point of view, the essence of brainwashing in MLM organization is to control others' thinking and reduce the independence of others' thinking. We know that the independence of one's mind is very important. Once thinking is controlled by others, it will lose its original judgment and creativity.

Recently, I was reading Matsuda Jinhong's Questioning Work, which mentioned four common brainwashing techniques, which can help us avoid the risk of brainwashing.

The four most commonly used methods in brainwashing are actually very simple to control a person's mind.

First, distort real cognition.

One of the most typical methods is the "gas lamp" operation method. "Gaslight" manipulation method originated from a classic plot in a movie:

The hero deliberately adjusted the brightness of the gas lamp, and the heroine sitting on the side began to suspect that the hero had tampered with the gas lamp, but the hero insisted that she was "wrong." As a result, after a while, the heroine began to doubt her own judgment and began to deny herself.

Psychologically, this is a means to control each other by distorting the individual's true cognition. It often appears in intimate relationships and requires high mutual trust. If your partner insists on a wrong view of you all the time, although you think it is ridiculous at first, over time you will doubt your judgment and finally believe your partner's point of view.

The four most commonly used methods in brainwashing are actually very simple to control a person's mind.

Second, positive reinforcement.

The concept of reinforcement was first put forward by American psychologist Skinner. Skinner believes that reinforcement is the most important factor leading to a person's behavior change, which helps to repeat behavior. According to the difference of reinforcement (promotion/inhibition), it can be divided into positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.

A classic application of reinforcement is pet training. When the trainer instructs the pet to complete an action according to the instruction, it will be rewarded immediately (positive reinforcement). After repeated reinforcement, pets will form an inherent thinking circuit:

"As long as you do as required, you will be rewarded."

So even if the owner doesn't reward, the pet will follow the instructions. When a pet urinates and defecates anywhere, the owner will generally punish it (negative reinforcement). After repeated times, the pet will give up the behavior of urinating and defecating everywhere for fear of punishment.

The most common brainwashing method in life is positive reinforcement. If a person wants to control another person, he must first close the distance between them through a lot of praise and affirmation. After receiving positive feedback, the victim will have the idea of continuing to associate with this person.

In the long run, the victim will have a great sense of trust and dependence on this person. In the MLM organization, most members of the organization also stabilize their relationship through mutual affirmation, thus making it easier for newcomers to accept the next brainwashing.

The four most commonly used methods in brainwashing are actually very simple to control a person's mind.

Third, create a sense of scarcity.

The so-called sense of scarcity is that an individual has a strong desire for what he can't get. This is determined by the market law of "scarcity is precious". Therefore, if you want to control a person, you just need to master the control of the scarce resources that he (currently) craves most and let the other person follow you wholeheartedly.

This scarce resource has great individual differences. For children, a small red flower may be a scarce resource, and they can not cry for a small red flower. For adults, a certain amount of money has become a scarce resource. Some companies can make their employees very loyal to them through generous salaries and benefits.

The four most commonly used methods in brainwashing are actually very simple to control a person's mind.

Fourth, role shaping.

If we create a certain environment for people and give this person a role suitable for the environment, then this person will gradually fall into this role and lose his original self-judgment and decision-making ability. This is why many actors are "deeply involved" in acting.

In the famous "Stanford Prison Experiment", two groups of college students were given the roles of "police" and "prisoners" respectively. At first, everyone was relatively harmonious, and as a result, they gradually entered their own "role." Students who play the role of police begin to take coercive measures and violence against "prisoners", and students who play the role of prisoners also have the illusion that "I am a criminal". This controversial experiment proves the powerful influence of role shaping on a person.

The four most commonly used methods in brainwashing are actually very simple to control a person's mind.

Our psychology is very easily influenced by the outside world, and the terrible thing about brainwashing is that its influence is subtle. This psychological intervention of "boiling frogs in warm water" will make people unconsciously become tools at the mercy of others. Therefore, if you find similar details around you in your life, you must be vigilant and avoid being used by others.