5 Ways Marketers Manipulate Your Attention and How to Counteract It

In 2014, Facebook conducted an experiment to find out how the network’s posts affected the emotions of its users. They removed either positive or negative posts from the feeds of the selected users. As you probably guessed, it certainly had an effect. 

When the experiment was made public, the general response was disturbing. After all, nobody likes to feel manipulated. Today, the line between marketing and manipulation has become blurry. 

In fact, it has become common for marketers to resort to ‘skinner box marketing’ that leverages emotional manipulation as a strategy. If you thought such a thing was impossible, this article would almost definitely change your mind. 

Take a look at how marketers can influence your attention and what you can do to combat it. 

Social Proofing 

One of the best things to make a business look attractive is a long line of consumer reviews and feedback. For instance, while searching where to pay for essay writing for your college assignments on https://essaywritingservice.com/pay-for-essay, you will instantly notice ratings of the service’s writers along with their profiles. 

This will indeed boost your confidence to work with the service. Once you sign in, you will be able to verify these reviews of the writers as well. 

However, there are several businesses that take advantage of this aspect of human nature. Social proofing or the so-called “user-generated” reviews are not always authentic. Instead, marketers even fake these testimonials to give their site the feeling of authenticity. 

Unfortunately, it can be very challenging for users to identify which reviews are fake. What you can do is check third-party websites to find genuine feedback. 

Disguised Ads 

Every blog and article you come across has some kind of disguised ad in it. Often, these are obvious – in the form of banners or such. There are also more subtle ones formulated using the call-to-action technique. Such ads ask you:

• to check out their product;
• buy a product;
• sign up for a subscription, etc. 

You will also find blogs created primarily to boost the product rather than offer unbiased user evaluations. However, unlike the obvious marketing, this might not strike out as an advertisement to the untrained eye. For this reason, such an approach borders the line of manipulation in marketing. 

There is no obvious way to counteract this other than to keep yourself educated about such patterns. By identifying them, you will be able to make informed decisions rather than being lured in by marketing manipulation. 

Algorithms 

Every social media network and search engine we use is governed by algorithms. These are designed to keep track of what you click. It then sends you more similar content. The result can be a labyrinth of similar things that can confirm or contradict your perspective. 

This is one of the reasons why, when you search for posts from a certain celebrity, you keep seeing similar ones on your Instagram page. Or you keep finding yourself engaging in the same repetitive arguments on Facebook. 

Before you say ‘I do not comment on social media’, even images and write-ups can have an influence on how you think. Nobody is immune to confirmation bias; our brain is always looking for it. 

Regardless of how you think you can avoid it, if you have clicked on the terms and conditions, the media platforms will always extract some data to offer you ‘personalized’ services. 

Reverse Psychology 

Yes, we all know how this works. Yet, we often fall prey to this tactic widely used by marketers. As it goes, consumers do not like being told what they should do or what they should buy. 

Marketing specialists take advantage of this resistance and apply reverse psychological ads to sell their products to them. When you see ‘DO NOT OPEN THIS’ or ‘DO NOT BUY THIS’, you know you will certainly click on that. 

Even worse is that many of us understand that these are only new reverse psychological tricks, yet we fail to resist the temptation. If you want to combat this, the only way is to practice self-control. 

Unbackable Statistics 

If you come across an advertisement that showcases statistics, the chances are that you will likely consider it credible. Because if they have numbers to prove it, then it has got to be true, right?

However, unless there is a link you can verify, you are not going to actually figure out whether it is a true claim or not. And in most scenarios, we are not going to make the effort. 

Now, we are not saying that all marketers who show statistics falsify their claims. Nevertheless, it is still one of the ways that marketers can easily manipulate you. The same applies to graphics too. So, before you fall prey to the bright lines of the infographics, you might want to take a step back and contemplate. 

Take a second to consider what claims are made by the advertisement or article. If possible, verify the source, and look into what the study actually concluded. 

Conclusion

Of course, when people unravel some of the manipulations, the geniuses behind marketing manage to come up with something more imaginative and even refreshing to the consumers’ eye. We have come a long way from traditional marketing, and, unfortunately, this new age of the digital world is undoubtedly going to see more of such strategies. 

After all, you can cut down the time you spend online by using time management apps or browser extensions. That way, you will at least have fewer chances to stumble upon a new marketers’ trick.