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Are Hoaxes just another form of manipulation?

Have you ever believed in something just because someone says it? or because you think someone important, credible or respected said it? Hoaxes demonstrate how easily people can be influenced by information that appears credible. I found it interesting that the success of a hoax was not necessarily dependent on how realistic it was. Instead, it often depended more on how well it connected to people's beliefs, emotions and expectations. This connects back to a theme I have noticed throughout class; manipulation. We have seen via phishing, scams, cults, and now, hoaxes how manipulation happens when people's emotions, fear and urgency are taken advantage of.  I found interesting how hoaxes did not disappear but now we see them in a different light. Today, we see it through social media because it allows for false information to spread faster and reaching more people before anyone can verify it. Especially as we have discussed in class, AI can manipulate images, videos and audios t...
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Influence becomes control and leads to the creation of cults.

Cults, control and the overall power of belief. Cults are interesting because in a way people can become so influences by a leader that they wont even question judgment and just accept beliefs and behaviors that people could have initially rejected.  In class, we learned about the Branch Davidians, a religious group led by David Koresh. The confrontation of this group with federal authorities only happened 30 years ago in Waco, Texas. It blows my mind how close this happened to us geographically, and it just continues to reinforce this theme we have seen throughout class; how easily people can be influences and manipulated.  Learning about this topic reminded me of the movie "The Wave", which we watched in class a couple of weeks ago. At the beginning of the movie, all of the students believed that they would never support fascism. However, throughout the movie, we see how they gradually become deeply embedded in the ideology they initially rejected. This demonstrates the pow...
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The easiness of influence...

 Before we watched the Wave in class, I underestimated how easily people can be influenced by those around them. The film shows the power of influence and honestly how scary something like fascism could develop. What started as a professor trying to do a simple classroom experiment became a movement, in only one week.  This reminds me of the trends we have seen throughout class, not only with the power of manipulation but also how we as humans, act like horses. When we do not know where to go or what to think, we will just follow the trend and the people around us. We see this in the film, and how quickly everyone went from not wanting to conform to then doing a 180 and conforming to everything the professor said. The white shirts, the yes sir, the handshake, all of those things. They slowly convinced each and everyone of their classmates. Once there was enough students partaking in this, it was harder for an individual to question it because everyone else seemed to believe in...
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Will we always fear or need uncertainty?

 Before learning about millenarianism in class, I had no idea what it was. The millenarianism movement was all about thinking that the world as we know it is about to end. That society will collapse an da major event will occur that will destroy everyone and everything. The movement was not just about expecting the destruction it was also about believing that there would be this transformation. That there would be some sort of experience that would take place and make the world a abetter place.  I found it so interesting how people were attracted to these beliefs in the first place. Most people beleive that it was because society is corrupt and unfair but I also think it continues to connect to the themes we have seen throughout class; in this case, manipulation. I think people have such a hard time believing in themselves and at the end of the day humans are "horses" we follow what other people do, just like horses follow each other when they are unsure of a path.  Now t...
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Who is superstitious?

 Before our class last week I never really considered superstitions were just another deception. I have always been a superstitious person. I do not necessarily believe that if a black cat crosses in front of me that it will ruin my day or that if I stepped on a crack it will break my mother's back. But after looking at all of these superstitions and as I reflected on all the different superstitions that exist. I realized that I am actually a superstitious person. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how I will say to myself "knock on wood" so it would not happen or even saying bless you! I had no idea that also rose as a superstition.  These actions seem so normal but many of them began as superstitions. This is what makes superstitions so interesting. It is the fact that you do not have to fully believe in superstitions to participate in them. Some of them can be because your family or friends would do or say things, for example I grew up with this idea that...
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Werewolves Journal

Werewolves are simply another way of manipulating the human brain...  After reading the document, I believe that werewolves were simply seen as a way to find someone to blame during difficult situations. The document said "driven by superstition, religious and political clashes and the desire to find scapegoat for harsh conditions" So basically there was already this stigma that they were escaping something, the document also said "many of the accused were beggars, hermits, or recent immigrates to the areas" so these were often viewed as outsiders so if something horrible happened it was easier to blame someone who seems strange, blame the werewolves. What interested me the most is that werewolf trails was less about believing in monsters but more about finding someone else to blame for something.  The two documents talk about how werewolves became a real terror in the sixteenth century because several fears accumulated so it was not only the fear of real wolves but...
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The easiest system to hack is the human mind...

A couple classes ago we learned about social engineering. Before this class whenever I thought about hackers and people gaining information was by a hacker getting into my computer and breaking through a security system. However that is not always the case, the easiest way to get past "security" is sometimes by deceiving the person using it. Social engineering uses psychological manipulation to persuade people to release information, give access, send money, etc. The topic that stuck with me the most in the class is that with social intelligence it is not just about creating this elaborate lie but just creating a situation that a victim believes is real. This made me think about the Salem Witch Hysteria presentation, could what happened in Salem be compared to social engineering? It is a situation that people believe to be real, if you are a woman then you are a witch, if you do not have kids then you are a witch... obviously they were not trying to hack into any systems or g...
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