In the classic book Influence, Robert Cialdini outlines six principles(reciprocation, liking, social proof, authority, scarcity and consistency) that represent psychological universals in persuasion. In general, all these persuasive techniques exploit people’s heuristics. The proliferation of information in this digital age means people need to rely more on heuristics than ever before. This has broad and deep consequences.

“Because technology can evolve much faster than we can, our natural capacity to process information is likely to be increasingly inadequate to handle the surfeit of change, choice, and challenge that is characteristic of modern life. More and more frequently we will find ourselves in the position of the lower animals, – with a mental apparatus that is unequipped to deal thoroughly with the intricacy and richness of the outside environment. “ ­ Influence

One of the thirteen laws of Data Smog outlined by David Shena is Cialdini’s Law: Though culture moves much more swiftly than evolution, it cannot change the pace of evolution. This of course leads to a dangerous situation, where the unwary can be tricked into making dumb decisions. Worse yet are the broader societal consequences.

“In the electronic age, a good lie well-told can zip around th world and back in a matter of seconds while the truth is trapped, buried under a filing cabinet full of statistics.” –Data Smog

Cialdini’s follow up book, Pre-Suasion discusses how persuasiveness can be enhanced by carefully crafting what is done and said before making a request. Information overload also makes people more susceptible to the “presuasive“ techniques:

“…(1)what is more accessible in the mind becomes more probable in action, and (2)accessibility is influenced by the informational cues around us, and our raw associations to them….

… In addition to its time-challenged character, other aspects of modern life undermine our ability (and motivation) to think in a fully reasoned way about even important decisions. The sheer amount of information today can be overwhelming- its complexity befuddling, its relentlessness depleting, its range distracting, and its prospects agitating. Couple those culprits with with the concentration-disrupting alerts of devices nearly everyone now carries to deliver that input, and careful assessments role as a ready decision-making corrective becomes sorely diminished. Thus a communicator who channels attention to a particular concept in order to heighten audience receptivity to a forthcoming message- via the focus-based, automatic, crudely associative mechanisms of pre-suasion- won’t have to worry much about the tactics being defeated by deliberation. The calvary of deep analysis will rarely arrive to reverse the outcome because it will rarely be summoned.” –Pre-Suasion

Summon the calvalry of deep analysis

What can one do about this?” Hueristics are necessary to function in the modern world, but they must be examined from time to time. The calvary of deep analysis must be summoned for big decisions. Cialdini also recommends forceful counters assault. Recognize the tricks being employed are often enough to blunt their force, but in other cases it may be necessary to aggressively fight against the tricks. These books are a great place to start.