Manipulation

You’ve probably lied to someone today. You also probably think you lie less than everyone else. Welp, I have some bad news. We all manipulate, we all get played, and sometimes, the smarter you are, the easier you are to con.

In this episode, Drew and I get into what manipulation is, why everyone does it, and how to keep from getting fooled. We tell the story of how Freud’s nephew turned bacon into a doctor-approved breakfast, and how the TSA spent nearly $1 billion training officers to spot liars, with nothing to show for it. We walk through the one test that shows when persuasion crosses into manipulation, and the tactics advertisers, propagandists, and con artists have been running on you for a century. Then we cover why skeptics are some of the easiest targets and the one defense against manipulation backed by strong scientific evidence.

We also spend a good chunk of time on the manipulator you know best (or least)… yourself.

You can’t fully escape influence, and you might not want to. But once you know the playbook, you’ll spot it, even when it’s coming from you.