The Fake “Because” | Scott Adams Blog: "In the book Influence, by Cialdini, we learn that any sentence that contains the word “because” will influence people no matter what follows that word.
Hypnotists already knew that.
That’s the sort of rule you don’t believe until you see it in action. Here’s an example:
“Don’t vote for Ted Cruz because he’s Canadian.”
You can also remove the word “because” and simply imply it.
“If you vote for Ted Cruz, he might end up tangled in lawsuits regarding his Canadian birth.”
Keep in mind that in the context of a close political race, you only have to influence 10% of the people to win. And 10% of the public will believe anything. You just need to give them a “because.” Trump cleverly did that with the Canadian gambit.
But that wasn’t the end of Trump’s technique. It goes a lot deeper.
Trump framed Cruz’ Canadian birth as a “risk” and not a fact. That’s a high-ground maneuver, and in my experience that move wins every time. You can argue in the weeds about presidential eligibility, or you can go to the high ground and acknowledge that the birther question will dog Cruz like it dogged Obama. The risk part sounds true to everyone. And humans are wired to see the avoidance of risk as more compelling than running toward something good. "
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