The science behind persuasion may be a little more complicated than you think.

Sure, we all would like to believe that we carefully consider our options and don't rush into important decisions.

We like to think that we're informed, but sometimes it just doesn't matter.

Sometimes when we hear the right things in just the right way, we might compromise our

ethics or intelligence. This can happen in small circumstances, feeling

persuaded to give someone a gift because they gave you one, things of that nature,

but small consistent behaviors can persuade people too. In one study researchers found that in one neighborhood

only a small number of homeowners were willing to put up a large drive safely

sign in their yard. However in another another neighborhood close by, about four times as many homeowners

were willing to put up the sign, because days prior, they were asked to put a little card in their

window that said drive safely in support of the mission.

Small commitments bit by bit can lead to greater commitments later on.

Sometimes persuasion can be used in an ethical or at least harmless way,

like with the drive safely sign.

But more often than not, we've seen persuasion used in dangerous ways.

Maybe that's in a cigarette commercial, or maybe it's by cult leaders and politicians.

And on today's episode of Dark Dives,

we're going to explore some of the, no pun intended,

darker examples.

You know, it's not that hard to shift people along a progression and different cults shift people

along different ones.

And the impression is what we get from our senses and how we interpret it and interpret the world around us.

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