Friday, March 9, 2007
April Fools' Day - Ways to fool a smart person!
There's a saying among con-men that smart people are easier targets, because they don't think they can be conned. I'm not sure if that's true, but there's one scam that's almost guaranteed to make smart people switch off their brains and reach for their wallets. It's a trick that's used so pervasively in our culture, that once you become aware of it, you start to see it everywhere.

Maybe you're already ahead of the game on this, but if not I'm going to spell it out for you. This isn't because I want you to take advantage of people - instead I want you to avoid being taken advantage of. Once you're aware of this ploy, you'll be much less susceptible to it. Most smart people have a hidden weakness and it's this – they're absolute suckers for anything that sounds clever.


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As soon as you start hitting people with technical terms, fancy graphs, famous names and the like, you'll immediately increase your credibility. If they're smart, they're even more likely to find themselves nodding in agreement. Many intelligent people would rather cut off a finger than admit they don't know what you're talking about.

Let me give you a few examples...

Recently, I've watch a few new-age documentaries that employ this tactic. These films push a particular philosophy that sounds unbelievable such as "you can manufacture reality with your thoughts". In order to lend some credibility to their ideas, the have "experts" talk about how quantum physics scientifically proves this philosophy.

Quantum physics - now there's a heavy-sounding term. As 98% of the population knows absolutely nothing about quantum physics, who's going to argue with these people? They can say pretty much anything they want about that subject and most people will simply assume it's true.

Even better, they can pretend to be teaching their audience something important. A person who was previously completely ignorant about quantum physics now feels as if they understand something about it - even if that something is absolute baloney. The audience have been fed ideas they'll now defend even against someone who's a real expert in that subject. Nobody likes to be told that something they've been led to believe is wrong.
See how easy it is? Stay tuned for more on this!

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posted by Gerry at Friday, March 09, 2007 ¤ Permalink ¤


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