Customer Reviews

Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say

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Douglas Rushkoff used to be a lot more hopeful that the rise of the Internet would free us from the "arms race" of manipulation and counter-manipulation to which we're subjected through the major media. He's changed his mind, in part because he found that his earlier work (notably the famous _Media Virus!_) was being taught in marketing classes to people who wanted to _create_ media viruses.

But he hasn't turned into a pessimist; he still thinks we can break the cycle, and this book is supposed to help us do it. And given his subject, he writes with a refreshing lack of paranoia: he's well aware that all of these techniques are (a) based on common features of "human nature" that ordinarily serve us just fine, and (b) used all the time, to some degree, by all of us. "We are all coercers," he says," and we are all coerced."

As you read the book, it will help to be aware of something Rushkoff doesn't actually get around to explaining until his closing chapter: by "coercion" he means the sort of "persuasion" that is intended to make it difficult or impossible for us to exercise our better judgment -- as distinguished from genuine, no-scare-quotes persuasion, which engages our reason rather than trying to short-circuit it. Bear that in mind if you think -- as I initially did -- that he's confusing coercion and persuasion.

What he's actually talking about is what people of approximately my generation would at one time have called a "mind-cop." (That term, by the way, has very nearly the same literal meaning as "geneivat da'at," or "stealing the mind" -- a term used in Jewish law for certain sorts of deception.) I assume no reader of this page will need me to explain that there's something ethically wrong with such practices, even though they fall short of physical force or the threat thereof. Indeed, by my lights, the sort of thing Rushkoff writes about, being a violation of the integrity of the mind, seems somehow _more_ wrong than the "initiation of force."

At any rate the subject should be of interest to a wide range of readers. I'll single out two kinds: (1) readers interested in the psychology of judgment and decision-making (and see Scott Plous's excellent book of that title for a good introduction), and (2) law students. (Yes, law students. It's relevant to all sorts of questions that arise in the study of the law: How are juries persuaded? When may a contract be rescinded? Why does the law protect stuff like "brand identities" and "public images"?)

Rushkoff's discussion covers a pretty wide range of methods, from advertising to PR, from "atmospherics" to pyramid schemes. One of his greatest strengths is his ability to draw parallels between, for example, CIA interrogation techniques and Nazi rallies, on the one hand, and sales techniques on the other, _without_ making you feel as though he's pushing a wild-eyed conspiracy theory. The narrative is also peppered with on-point personal anecdotes, and his passages on "cults" are downright spine-tingling. (And if you've ever felt a little funny about the popularity of Dale Carnegie's famous book, you'll like what Rushkoff has to say about it.)

Above all, don't make the mistake of dismissing Rushkoff as a "leftist" (as he says has happened to him). The political division between "right" and "left" is so malleable as to be almost meaningless. The relevant political division is between authoritarians/corporatists/statists and libertarians/populists, and Rushkoff is firmly in the anti-"authoritarian" camp. He's under no illusion that the government is going to Protect Us From All This; indeed some of his own examples demonstrate just the opposite. He's out to free us, not find a new way to enslave us.

Rushkoff's musings on the nature of "coercion" should also lead us to reflect on the nature of the "free market." According to libertarians (including me), the "free market" is simply the society that results when people respect each other's rights/integrity and engage one another only in voluntary relationships. But can a relationship based on "coercion," based on getting the other person to exercise something less than his or her best judgment, indeed based on anything less than full disclosure and fully informed consent, really be called voluntary?

If not, then the old Roman-law-based "caveat emptor" standard doesn't belong in the _real_ free market, and a very great deal of what we've been _told_ is the "free market" is really something else. A genuinely free market, in which all "exchanges" were truly informed and voluntary, would be communitarian rather than corporate-statist -- less, that is, like the military-industrial complex and more like a Grateful Dead concert ;-).

Anyway, Rushkoff's book is very nicely done, and bound to appeal to those of us who think we're skilled in the art of "crap detecting" -- a phrase I first encountered nearly thirty years ago in the brilliant _Teaching as a Subversive Activity_, by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner. If you've read that book, or even if you just like the title, you'll like Rushkoff as well.

If you've never read anything about the psychology and dynamics of persuasion or coercion, then this will book will open your eyes to this field. Rushkoff asserts that everything is coercive or persuasive in some manner. (Most people view the former as having a stronger connotation.) He deconstructs such areas as advertising, atmospherics (e.g., layout of a store), public relations, and the psychology of hand-to-hand coercion (e.g., mirror consumer's behavior = better rapport = more likely to buy).

Basically, Rushkoff provides numerous examples in each category of how individuals and organizations take advantage of the psychology of human beings. For example, we are more easily persuaded if we regress to when we were younger (and more susceptible to appeals to authority), transfer our feelings to an authority, or listen to certain music or smell certain smells (e.g., bake bread when trying to sell your home).

All told, this book will help the reader to better deconstruct the capitalistic environment that is built on persuasion or coercion of some sort. I also recommend the "Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert Cialdini. Read Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" for a trenchant analysis of the rise of television (and its iatrogenic effects).

Rushkoff's most solid and well-written book to date, an excellent introductory overview of the coercive tactics and techniques used by Internet e-commerce merchants, multi-level marketing personnel, car dealers, and the U.S. military (the 'appeal to a general and broad readership audience' hot-button).

Rushkoff offers insights from his own consulting career, revealing that issues aren't as simplistic or ideologically pure as is sometimes portrayed (the 'response to critics' and 'juicy inside gossip' hot-buttons).

The index and bibliography are well worth pursuing, including Philip Kotler's seminal 'atmospherics in shopping malls/casinos' work, Noam Chomsky's de-construction of thought control in 'democratic' societies, Peter Watson and Christopher Simpson's review of psychological warfare techniques used on domestic populations (car salespeople using CIA interrogation manuals to increase sales), or Robert Dilt's study of the neurological basis of NLP (the 'appeal to authority', 'appeal to power', and 'appeal to specialist, esoteric areas' hot-buttons).

In an escalating arms race, it's no longer just persuasion (Vance Packard) or influence (Robert B. Cialdini), but coercion. Buy a copy for yourself and one for your friends! (the 'if all else fails, make the buyer feel fearful' hot-button).

Have I coerced you into pressing 'buy' yet?

This book is a valuable little inventory of coercive techniques and strategies used by the various traders, promoters, marketers to sell their products (whatever these may be..)in a turn of the century late free market capitalist society, namely the US.Ranging from hand-to-hand selling of products and nlp, shopping mall "atmospherics" and the mass "spectacles", to public relations brief basics, advertising cults (the most insightful section of the book with a well thought out and detailed analysis of how a cult operates in principle and how the different brand names aim for cult-dom), "pyramids" (systems of organization where the benefits remain in the top of the so called pyramid and the rest of the elements at the lower levels work for the sole benefit of those at the top) and an intro to virtual marketing. So far, so good.

My main qualm about the book though is the confusion that the author seems to be in (I cannot phrase any better). I will explain what i mean. With some good editing this book could have been cut down to 1/3, leaving out all the unimportant case histories (stories of friends and acquaintances of the author) that do not help illustrate the points the author is trying to make, the self-referential info and Rushkoff's "dear-diary" ponderings. It could then have been a near perfect overview of the techniques and going by the name of "coercive techniques" instead. But if one selects the austere title "coercion" for his book then the reader is justified to expect a much more analytical, in-depth analysis of the nature of coercion as it is enforced in free market economies of today (or at least a clear ideological stance from the part of the author, and not find at the very end of his book driving through an upper-class neighborhood in his yuppie friend's car asking himself if he himself could use some of the luxury and security that a successful business man savors.)

So, if you are looking for the inventory and are willing to plough through the book to get to it then go ahead, no prob. If however you interested in a concise social commentary then you most probably need look elsewhere in the social sciences. I personally found this book lacking in many respects but I do not regret having bought it. I just think that coercive techniques, manipulative corporations and traders are just a product of a socioeconomic system and not the cause of it, and that to protect oneself from the alienating effects of such methods one need not know the methods themselves but have a strong viewpoint on the workings of the system as a whole and distance his or her self from the manic consumer mentality.

Rushkoff spells out a number of disturbing ways in which people are manipulated. He points out the psychological techniques used by salesmen. He describes the ways that shopping malls program the atmosphere to get you to buy. He describes how stadium events are used to activate mobs. He discusses spin doctors, advertisers, and commercial cults such as Amway. He discusses the consumer profiling on the Net.

An example of the type of detail he provides is on p. 96:

"Grocery shoppers respond best to Muzak that has a slower tempo, making a whopping 38 percent more purchases when it is employed. Fast-food restaurants use Muzak that has a higher number of beats per minute to increase the rate at which patrons chew their food."

The book is not without its flaws. For example, on p. 208 you find this sentence:

"By adopting the postlinguistic currency of an iconic culture, marketers can reposition themselves and their brands in a manner consistent with the operating system of today's point-and-click marketplace."

Maybe I'm too old to appreciate "post linguistic," but to me this is just babble. I wish that a Neil Postman or a Wendy Kaminer would knock some of this nonsense out of him.

Rushkoff's disrespect for language can be found in the book's title. The dictionary definition of "coercion" is restraint by force or governmental power. He is talking about something that falls short of that. Most of the time, what he means by "coercion" is what I would think of as "manipulation."

This is not an insignificant issue of terminology. By calling so many things "coercion," Rushkoff overdoes it. I mean, while I find it very interesting and provocative that Rushkoff draws an analogy between the cult-style brainwashing of multilevel marketers and the fanatacism of Apple Computer owners, I was not persuaded to equate the two.

Although the flaws in this book should not be overlooked, they ought to be forgiven. He gives us a great deal to think about.

A longer book review is available from me via email.

I was wondering why I bought this tape. Well, it was because Walgreen's had a bunch of bargain tapes prominently featured in their store, and the music playing had a subliminal message that said buy me. Seriously, Rushkoff does a good job of detailing how people are influenced to buy a product, subscribe to a belief, or follow a messianic leader.
I think Rushkoff is suspious of all people or companies trying to sell a product. However, in most cases, he details how Western style societies have been influenced by consumerism, and how companies have refined their selling habits to sell their services and products. Rushkoff does not just stop at the selling of products. He talks about why people join and stay in cults, why people follow political leaders, the effects of the worldwide web and internet on people, and pyramid schemes. In modern marketing, as well as these, people are coerced in subscribing to alien beliefs or products. This is why people need to understand these principles in order to avoid the damage of coercion on their person.
The book is relatively interesting. A good book for those interested in the decision making process of the Western consumer.

In the early 90's Douglas Rushkoff wrote a book titled "Media Virus." It described how the Internet Age would render marketing usless. Unfortunately, this book was studied by marketers to develo new and more effective strategies to sell to us. More frightening and more transparent than before.

His book was so successful that he was invited inside "their" world to work on marketing strategies. This book, then, is his report back to us.

His descriptions of how "they" turn "us" into mindless consumers is scary. Some examples are:

The Muzak that's pumped into every store in the world is secretly timed to influence our moods and emotions and most importantly, our buying patterns. Ever wonder why so many stores have buying frenzies followed by periods of no activity? Well this is it. The music, no matter what genre, is designed to bring us to a fevered pitch of buying where we grab whatever it is we have and get on line.

Every sales associate in The Gap is trained in "in with two out with five." This means that if you walk in with 2 items, they want to recommend 5 other items for you to buy, and they always tell you you look good in them.

And Mall Designs. The first mall was designed by Victor Gruen in 1958 as a new version of Downtown. They're designed in very specific ways to do very specific things to us. They're designed to disorient us, make us confused. That's why you can't see one department store from another department store. The more confused we are, the more likely we are to become mindless buying zombies. This is called the Gruen Transfer.

So what about stores like Ikea, where so-called educated consumers to go a warehouse like environment and get their own products from the stock shelves? Well, this too is designed to turn us into mindless buying zombies, but in a different way. None of us can decipher what those little tags mean, and there's nobody to help us. So we become like helpless children, confused and, again, mindless buying zombies.

Another technique is to convince you it's a scary world out there, but we know the way to safety. Conspiracy theorists love this type of talk, but so does AOL and Microsoft. "So easy to use no wonder it's #1." Another technique is to convince you that you're defenseless against their marketing techniques... Yet that's exactly what this book does.

Sure it introduces you to all of these various techniques, but it also convinces you that it's hard to defend yourself against them. So you give up.

Douglas Rushkoff describes the technique used to turn thinking people into mindless consumers flawlessly. I won't give away the core of the book, but the methods described here are clearer and more concice than any others I've seen.

Interestingly, Douglas Rushkoff wrote a book in the early 90's that was adopted wildly by marketing professionals, and he spent time with them. He tells us he pities for their hearless behaviour and their pangs of guilt. Now, he writes another book with nearly the same purpose, but yet again tells us it's for our own good.

As Robert Cialdini describes, persuasive techniques are distorted versions of the same mechnasms that bind a society together. If you give a gift to your friend, your friend will want to return the favor, it helps build your friendship. But when these techniques are used in a perscribed manner designed to produce a specific result, they're dirtied. According to Ruskoff, people who work at The Gap have a harder time forming real relationships because they've been inundated in these techniques.

Where is this exit he promises us. How do we escape the media's grip on us? It seems that what "they" say is true, the more well educated you are, the easier you become to market to. Buried in the epilogue in the last paragraph of two he quickly promises a vague way to redeem yourself (again leaving you open to attack: the vague promise is another coercive technique).

In summation, this is the single most cohesive and coherent book I've read on the subject (not that I've read that many) of coercion and marketing. It's very dangerous and I almost don't want to reccomend it so it's powers will never be used against me (and these kinds of things can only be used against you).

Reccomended Reading:

Influence by Robert Cialdini

The One to One Future by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers.

Permission Marketing by Seth Godin

Why We Buy by Paco Underhill

The Frontline TV special "The Merchants of Cool" by Douglas Rushkoff

the writing style is still a little on the young side. Nobody is going to confuse this with great literature, but that's not the point. After being through some sales head trips, I've wondered, how did that interaction work out the way that it did ? After reading this book I have a much better understanding of exactly what is going on in the sales psychodrama and I feel like I am in a superior position to control the outcome. That's valuable knowledge. Reading Coercion hasn't made me any more cynical, but it has honed my vigilance and helped me focus my attention on what is really going on, versus the scripted illusions of what the interaction appears to be. Was I shocked or surprised ? No, I expected it to be the way things are, but this book gives enough specific information to make the sell side more transparent. Which is exactly what they don't want. I had already read Toxic Sludge Is Good For You,a really disturbing book about public relations and the shaping of public opinions, so Coercion felt like a natural extension of that line of thought; things aren't as natural as they seem to be. This book is a must read for any young person setting out in the world, because the young are especially vulnerable to the manipulative techniques that Rushkoff exposes. Forgive the book's imperfections because they don't detract from the good points in a meaningful way.

In most countries, most eras of history, this book would have been suppressed by government or commercial forces. Owning it and reading it are empowering acts. It is a wonderful resource for culture jammers and anyone who struggles to attain freedom of mind. Read it. Twice.

Douglass Rushkoff , to put it simply, here tells us about the psychology of a purchase, whether we are sold on a product, service, idiology, or way of life. He explains the strategies and techniques used to get us from a "no" to a "yes", using case studies, interviews, and analysis of several different kinds of sales. Some of the techniques he explains are relatively benign, but Mr. Rushkoff spends most of his time exposing some of the more subversive and invasive techniques of marketing. He sees salesmenship and marketing as an exercise in mind control, which, to a large degree, it is.

In doing so, he is raising questions about our consumer society, giving us a critique of ourselves, our way of life, and capitalism itself (Though I doubt he's a socialist). He is simply being honest. I guess the question he seams to be raising with this book is "To what degree have we allready been "coerced" into our current way of life?". Of course, the real answer to that question is: Completely.

The quickest way to explain this book is that it is a book on salesmenship, marketing, and propaganda, not for a salesman or marketing specialist, but for a consumer.