By the time you read this post today you’ve likely already been manipulated a dozen times.  Do you feel exposed?  Exploited?  Stupid?  You really shouldn’t feel manipulated.  It happens to all of us.  Do you feel better now?  Good, because I just manipulated you.  You should feel manipulated (just did it again).

Webster’s defines “manipulate” in three ways, for our purposes we’re concerned with: “to change by artful or unfair means so as to serve one’s purpose”.  My purpose is to show you how easily we’re manipulated on a day to day basis.

Here are just a few examples of manipulation we encounter every day.

1) The deli meat industry knows we’re all conscious of our fat intake, we’ve been this way for almost a decade or so now.  This is why their packaging changed to reflect in a big font that their meats are “98% fat free!”  This is much more popular than saying their meat is “2% fat!”  We see this in a lot of food packaging with the exception being milk.  I’m still pondering that one.

2) If you’re dumb enough to have joined a major political party in the United States then you’ve probably gotten a mailer of questions from your party seeking to get your opinion.  What you really don’t know is these mailers half-exist to manipulate your political opinions.  I received a mailer from the RNC (yes I’m Republican, but check my voting record), and it had the following questions:

In your opinion, should Democrats like Rep. Barney Frank and Senator Chris Dodd, who were in charge of congressional oversight committees that refused to pass tighter regulation on banks and financial institutions such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae (their typo) share responsibility for the housing crisis caused by high risk mortgages?

Do you agree with Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi’s efforts to impose massive tax hikes on the American people?

These questions are designed to place political opinions in the back of your mind.  It would be irrational to say “yes” to agreeing with tax hikes, especially for a traditional Republican.  But now the manipulated is under the impression that is what these two are up to.  Likewise, Frank and Dodd do deserve some criticism, but at the same time there are no questions about Republicans responsible, among them President Bush 2.0.  Questions like these manipulate the reader into adopting the opinions the survey writer wants you to have.  Penn and Teller have a great video clip on how pollsters manipulate too (warning: Penn has a potty mouth, but he’s funny).

3) Perhaps my favorite manipulation is anchoring.  Anchoring is the tactic of fixating the manipulated on a reference point.   For our purposes this is price.  If you’ve ever been to Kohl’s you’ll recognize this immediately.  At Kohl’s, everything seems to be magically on sale.  A tie might have an original price tag of $45 but is now $30 on sale.  The problem is it’s always been on sale.  Not only that, but Kohl’s never had any intention of selling it for $45.  But by showing you that number you see that it’s marked down and your monkey brain thinks you’re getting a good deal.

The same goes at the car dealership.  The MSRP is designed to anchor you onto a specific price.  While they’re happy to sell you a car at that price, they also fully expect to never sell a car at the price.  Either through haggling, rebates, or mark downs, they entice you into a world where you’ll feel like you’re saving money.  Anchoring is a very powerful manipulative tool.

Instead of my telling you how you should feel about being manipulated, I should instead ask you how you feel.  That is, if I cared.  I don’t.

I have no problem with this manipulation.  I think this must be because I do my best to recognize manipulation when I see it.  I filled out the survey like a tree hugger from Berkeley might and left a nasty note on the phrasing of the questions.  I also avoid anchoring, mostly by setting price points for myself before I go shopping.  Sure this makes it difficult to find $20 jeans even at Marshalls but by not anchoring to the “compare to” phrasing on their price tags I wasn’t convinced to get the $30 jeans just because they’re 50% cheaper than original.

I really believe that manipulation on a day-to-day basis is fine.  The world functions at its best when most of us are mindless drones that don’t know what is truly going on around us.  Am I holier than thou?  Of course not.  Like the rest of you I think I’m one of the few expectations though.  The problem with recognizing manipulations when I see them is I create a false sense of certainty that I recognize all manipulations around me.  Maybe it’s true, but for now I’m just going to enjoy my fat-free candy corn.

By The Weakonomist

The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics.

categories: business, economics, personal finance