#184: 40/60 Method, Pink Matter Manipulation & Twyman's Law
3 Ideas in 2 Minutes on Methods of Manipulation
I. 40/60 Method
A key characteristic of manipulation is that the target is oblivious to being influenced. In the case of the 40/60 Method, purportedly invented by Joseph Goebbels, the manipulator makes sure to feed the audience enough true information to give people a false sense of reliability.
The idea is to create a media source broadcasting 60 percent information in the interest of the enemy. Having earned the opponent’s trust, the media source uses the remaining 40 percent for broadcasting misinformation that becomes extremely efficient due to this very trust.
During World War II, the anti-fascist worldwide community listened to a certain radio station. It was considered British. Only after the war it turned out that in fact it was a radio station operating on Goebbels’ 40/60 principle and run by him.
—Vladimir Yakovlev, Combat Propaganda
II. Pink Matter Manipulation
What if you’re being manipulated with information that you not only consider to be 100% true? But also flattering. What if this is done by feeding back to you your own beliefs and opinions, by mirroring exactly how you think and feel about certain issues?
That’s all pink matter manipulation. Feeding right back to the person what they already think of themselves is a way to get them to invest and trust you faster, because obviously you value them for all the right reasons, because that’s how they see themselves.
It’s particularly insidious as it exploits our most fundamental and vulnerable emotions and feelings, making it challenging to recognise and resist. Or are you going to get paranoid every time you meet someone who shares your opinions?
III. Twyman's Law
If we follow Twyman's Law, then mistakes and data manipulation happen far more frequently than authentic results:
The more unusual or interesting the data, the more likely they are to have been the result of an error of one kind or another.
The adage was coined by market researcher Tom Twyman. Some say it’s the most important law in data analysis.
Applied to Pink Matter Manipulation it would mean that the less noteworthy your overlapping opinions, feelings and beliefs with another person are, the more you can trust that relationship. Maybe. 🐘
Have a great week,
Chris
themindcollection.com