So many people that take psychology courses end up working in the advertisement industry because that’s where the jobs are if you have a psychology degree. Very few people sit back and think about the implications of the scientific study of the mind being used by companies to distort peoples perceptions and make them buy things.
They are literally trying to control our minds. It’s not a conspiracy theory this is out in the open public information. If some companies decided to they can make you depressed to sell more things to you and you wouldn’t even know it.
Imagine the pick a teenage boy. This boy is a bit shy and insecure. Now, psychology was originally intended to help people. Under the capitalist model it doesn’t. Now this teenage boy instead of being recommended stuff to help them will instead be recommended the likes of Andrew Tate and so on. This person won’t even know what hit them and won’t even understand the turn of events that will lead to those videos being recommended. But they are recommended to him. Suddenly his change in behaviour pushes people away and he falls deeper and deeper into a rabbit hole.
They get more depressed. More lonely so they start buying shit like AI girlfriends but they aren’t real. They get recommended more hateful content as well. They will sprial deeper into depression. This person will likely seek help at this point. Perhaps they’ll recommend putting effort into real world connections so they download something like tinder. But all these apps are designed to make you pay in order to succeed so he pays to get special access. Now the ad companies know they’ll loose money if this now grown man becomes confident so they start recommending content that’ll make them more anxious and depressed about the experience. They give up and retreat further into depression. The whole time the person who is being targeted, their family, their therapist and their loved ones will never be able to put the dots together. They’ll wonder what went wrong not knowing that their personality was already decided for them by ad companies years ago.
So like that they add companies weaponising human psychology can target a teenage boy and basically plan out the next ten years of their life. Think about how dystopian the weaponisation of psychology is when a family member of yours goes down the alt right pipeline after “suddenly” being recommended such videos.
Interesting thoughts. I’d like to know how many people feel compelled to make a purchase because they see an ad rather than because they actually need or want something. My assumption is that this number is very low, but I can only speak through my own experience in my life and those who I’m close to. If someone has a sickness, I’m not sure we can blame an ad for their decision making. My wife is bipolar and has had episodes of excessive spending ($15K in a week once), but I don’t blame the name brand items she purchased or restaurants she went to, she just has a condition that needs outside help.
If that’s the case, then most advertising budgets are wasted and companies could increase their sales by diverting that money into improving their products or reducing their prices. But none of them seem to be doing that successfully.
It’s not the direct ad that does it. They don’t want you to see a billboard, drop what you’re doing and order that tv. They want to bombard you with their name and make you subconsiously associate their name with the word “tv” or even better, the idea of a tv. So next time when you do need a new tv, you’ll be like “I know that brandname, that feels familiair and comfortable, I’ll take that one”.
That’s what they pay the psychology students for, to come up with schemes like that.
To take it further with the car comercials at christmas – hardly anyone on the planet buys their SO a vehicle for christmas. Those advertisemsents are selling the idea that super wealthy people ALSO buy the same cars you do! and now you feel good about your purchase so next time you’ll get that loyalty discount and steep rebates on the horrendously made, overpriced shitbox… [looking at you GMC’