The Hidden Persuaders

"A world of unseen dictatorship is conceivable, still using the forms of democratic government."
— Kenneth Boulding
University of Michigan

The Hidden Persuaders

The Hidden Persuaders:
What makes us buy, believe — and even vote — the way we do?
by Vance Packard
Pocket Books of Canada, LTD., 1957; Montreal
(Originally published by the David McKay Company, Inc.)

"In this book you'll discover a world of psychology professors turned merchandisers. You'll learn how they operate, what they know about you and your neighbors and how they are using that knowledge to sell you cake mixes, cigarettes, cars, soaps and even ideas.
"The Hidden Persuaders casts a penetrating light into the murky world of the motivational researchers. It tells how these shock troops of the advertising world are subtly charting your inner thoughts, fears and dreams so that they can influence your daily living.
"Written with humor and in nontechnical style, The Hidden Persuaders weighs the successes and failures of their persuasion — where they are aiming to take you, and how!"

Excerpts:
"This book is an attempt to explore a strange and rather exotic new area of American life. It is about the large-scale efforts being made, often with impressive success, to channel our unthinking habits, our purchasing decisions, and our thought processes by the use of insights gleaned from psychiatry and the social sciences. Typically these efforts take place beneath our level of awareness; so that the appeals which move us are often, in a sense, "hidden." The result is that many of us are being influenced and manipulated, far more than we realize, in the patterns of our everyday lives.
"Some of the manipulating being attempted is simply amusing. Some of it is disquieting, particularly when viewed as a portent of what may be ahead on a more intensive and effective scale for us all. Co-operative scientists have come along providentially to furnish some awesome tools.
"The use of mass psychoanalysis to guide campaigns of persuasion has become the basis of a multimillion-dollar industry. Professional persuaders have seized upon it in their groping for more effective ways to sell us their wares — whether products, ideas, attitudes, candidates, goals, or states of mind."
From Chapter 1, "The Depth Approach"

"We still have a strong defense against such persuaders: we can choose not to be persuaded. In virtually all situations we still have the choice, and we cannot be too seriously manipulated if we know what is going on. It is my hope that this book may contribute to the general awareness. As Clyde Miller pointed out in The Process of Persuasion, when we learn to recognize the devices of the persuaders, we build up a 'recognition reflex.' Such a recognition reflex, he said, 'can protect us against the petty trickery of small-time persuaders operating in the commonplace affairs of everyday life, but also against the mistaken or false persuasion of powerful leaders...'"
From Chapter 23, "The Question of Morality"

Contents

The Depth Approach

Persuading Us As Consumers

The Trouble With People

So Ad Men Become Depth Men

...And the Hooks Are Lowered

Self-Images For Everybody

Rx For Our Secret Distresses

Marketing Eight Hidden Needs

The Built-in Sexual Overtone

Back To The Breast, And Beyond

Babes In Consumerland

Class And Caste In The Salesroom

Selling Symbols To Upward Strivers

Cures For Our Hidden Aversions

Coping With Our Pesky Inner Ear

The Psycho-Seduction of Children

New Frontiers For Recruiting Customers

Persuading Us As Citizens

Politics And The Image Builders

Molding "Team Players" For Free Enterprise

The Engineered Yes

Care And Feeding Of Positive Thinkers

The Packaged Soul?

In Retrospect

The Question Of Validity

The Question Of Morality

Reviews
"Fascinating, entertaining and thought-stimulating!"
— The New York Times Book Review

"A brisk, authoritative, funny and frightening report on how manufacturers, fundraisers and politicians are attempting to turn the American mind into a kind of catatonic dough that will buy, give or vote at their command."
— The New Yorker

"Book you must not miss!"
— Cleveland Press

Other books by Vance Packard:

The Human Side of Animals
The Status Seekers
The Waste Makers

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