It’s useful to control what people think. It can solve a lot of problems.
Exercising the power to control what people think is the end goal of a lot of individuals, companies, and entities. They do it to convince you to make a purchase, change the way you think, or motivate you to take action. Controlling what people think is not done spontaneously. There’s often great forethought and an agenda taken towards achieving this.
So you may not even know that external forces are influencing your thoughts. Further, you may not even know that you’ve given up your autonomy of thought. You may not know that you no longer have the power to make your own decisions.
If a company was trying to perfect the art of controlling what people think, how do they achieve this, and by what means?
A company can control what kinds of emotions you feel when you think about their products or services. It’s called brand perception. It’s a cleverly curated concept that takes a large team of people to shape and craft. And because of how powerful it is, perception is everything, even if perception is far from the truth.
People have a natural tendency to bias because they don’t have enough information to make a good decision or a good judgment call. This is used to control brand perception, which can work strongly in favour of the brand.
Having widespread influence is a way of controlling what people think.
If one person is convinced about something, it can trigger a chain reaction and speed up the process of getting the right number of people to reach critical mass. This is the usefulness–and also the drawback–of having one person hold as much power over others in controlling what they think. Instead of convincing a multitude of people, you only need to convince a select few.
Subliminal messages, and bias, carry great weight; for example, how many times have you trusted a brand even though you’ve never tested it or tried it out yourself?
Because of our hyper-interconnectedness, what used to take months or years to change perception, now takes as little as a few seconds. What used to be the slowest to change is now the fastest. Beliefs and convictions are no longer steadfast. Our thoughts are like chameleons, changing colours because influence is rapid and people are quick to catch on.
One can yield the power to control public perception, and hence, the amount of sales and the money that follows, to great effect. Building a public persona that might not necessarily be close to the truth is the aim, the end goal.
Why is it important to shape the image that the public has of you or your company?
Your aim might be to change people’s minds about a certain belief, or to introduce new ideas.
It’s the job of the marketer to convince people that a business is worth your time. They put an enormous amount of effort to convey to you why their product or service is the solution to your problem and why you should shell out the money to pay for the solution.
They also put in the effort to find the right people to amplify the message. Because messaging relies on a hierarchy of influence, you need the right people in the right positions of power to move a crowd into taking action.
How do companies and influential leaders control what people think?
How are mass movements created, and how can social action overcome resistance?
It helps if you have a person of authority. someone who is respected and thought of as an expert in their field.
The best companies have a person of authority as a weapon in their arsenal. As they fight for territory and for space in your attention, their power in swaying public opinion must be enough to reach critical mass. Herd mentality can be a good thing. If the message is of some benefit to society, having it spread like wild fire to goad people to take action without having to convince each of them individually can be a good thing. It saves time and effort.
We don’t have any autonomy. We’re not independent thinkers. When there’s an emergency, it doesn’t work for everyone to have their own personal direction. There must be a leader telling people to move one way or the other, instead of a million different independent movements. Otherwise, their action as a whole is inefficient. They move nowhere.
When fast action is required, when we need to do something quickly, and when we need to cooperate to succeed, it’s useful to count on the ability to control what people think.
How to control what people think:
1. Be careful, and intentional, about your image, personal brand, or business brand, that you project to the outside world.
2. Get on board a person of authority or expertise to amplify your message.
3. Use words that have emotional connotations attached to them, moving them into action and making decisions faster.