Probably way more than you notice. Not so subtle example, but I will say playing "All I Want for Christmas" on a loop is a very effective way to get me to make my purchase and get the fuck out of your store.
Just imagine how bad it is for the employees
I would dream of Office Spacing that music player.
In personal relationships we usually call them things like "abuse tactics", "manipulation", etc.
Gaslighting gets all the press, but plain bullying is more common. It doesn't have to be a threat of violence: "go along with my whims or I'll create an unpleasant scene" is bullying too.
"You don't get to leave until my needs are satisfied" is another. Heck, I've seen that from car salesmen confronted by a customer who just wants to pay up front for a car, no financing, no extras. After the check was handed over, but before the car was brought out, there suddenly were a bunch of extra forms to say "no, I don't want these expensive extras."
Would you believe it, I am waging psychological warfare against you right now. It's not working, though. I am very bad at this.
Good on you for doing your best!
Or is that just what you want us to think?
Any kind of marketing and advertising is psychological warfare against you. Especially when the topic is political.
Stores buy specifically tailored perfume to encourage people to buy in demand products, it's not even a secret or anything it's s common practice. Some smaller stores do the same but with music playlists.
Another common one I've seen is adverts, which are exactly that and so common that lots of people don't even notice them anymore.
Then of course there's the simpler things, like the design of a website. Well designed websites make the difference between a customer and a passer-by.
I used to run a small business, and we did a great number of things (relative to our business size and industry) in order to facilitate sales. Every touch point was designed to minimize the friction between the guest and them spending money. Both subtle things and obvious things.
The marketing started as soon as one visited the website (tracking pixels and FB for re-marketing ads) or called for info (we would try to capture at least name and email for additional marketing—always with explicit permission: “May we have your email address so we can send you additional periodic information?”). We had phone call flows and maximum hold times (3 mins).
We retained detailed guest notes and information which we would use to tailor their following visits (manually; any kind of automation was beyond our technical ability at the time).
I’d have to spend some time thinking of all the other ways we did things. Most of which we implemented in a Disney Magic sort of way, in the sense that things are just sort of magically happening without the guest being concerned about it.
And? Did it pay off to put that amount of effort in?
It did! A lot of it was quite marginal, but on the whole it was all orchestrated nicely and worked pretty seamlessly.
In marketing we call them persuasion tactics.
Advertising is basically psychological warfare by the rich against the poor, so anyone who isn't taking their online mental hygiene seriously is being constantly subjected to that
Some people do this in their marriages/relationships. From petty things to manipulation, full blown psychological attacks, even physical violence. Some people are narcissists, psychopaths or just hate another or do it to their kids.
Some have a toxic work environment. I know people who had this severe enough to take sick leave and/or quit.
I say it's pretty common in everyday life of lots and lots of people.
What exactly is your definition of psychological warfare. This question needs parameters otherwise people will claim anything is psychological warfare
In this question I was more specifically referring to the psychological warfare between citizens, in the quest for dominance and control in the social hierarchy present in our societies
Have you looked at your phone recently? That's all that thing is unless you literally don't use it for anything other than calls and texts, and even then, phone manufacturers are constantly constructing their OS to guide you to other functions.
Grocery stores, hold music, business deals, recruiting...it's all around you.
Do you mean warfare between nations? Or would psychology warfare include marketing cognitive manipulation?
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