Persuasion Through Isolation

At the end of last year a documentary about the cult leader Reverend Jim Jones came out called "Jonestown: The Life And Death of People's Temple". It was the history of Jonestown through photos, film clips, recordings and interviews of surviving members of the murder/"suicide" of over 913 people.

Jones was charismatic and very good at appealing to disenfranchised members of the community preaching social equality and setting himself up as a caring father figure. This ended with him convincing his followers to commit "revolutionary suicide" by drinking cyanide laced cherry Flavor Aid.

This event in our history is a very disturbing example of how persuasion can be used for evil by means of isolation, brainwashing and manipulation.

There are two kinds of isolation--physical and mental. Jim Jones used both.

Physical isolation isn't always possible for some cults, MLM companies or religions. It's possible they may employ both kinds of isolation, but normally the mental isolation is enough to keep their members involved. They begin to "divide and conquer" the members by suggesting that anyone who doesn't support their choice in life of belonging to the group/cult/religion/MLM, is not looking out for their best interest.

As you can gather from the preceding, when isolation is used by someone with bad intentions it can be an extraordinarily dangerous tool.

On a more reputable level, isolation can be used for say sales or business.

Mental isolation is most effective with customers/clients/prospects who you see on a regular basis. Lots of small interactions tend to create more loyalty. Cafes are a good example of this. It's competitive. People have many choices from chains to locally owned chains to independently owned mom and pop cafes.

I occasionally go to a small locally owned cafe where the owner sparked up a conversation (quite coincidentally) about how their product was not generic, was organic, high quality, and it didn't cost a fortune like the most famous coffee chain. This is a little seed, whether intentional or not, and presupposes that the famous coffee chain doesn't have an organic, high quality product.

Some religions use isolation in terms of imposing rules about what is and what is not okay to talk about with non-members or "outsiders".

I'm not making any judgments about religion here, just so you know. I consider myself to be a very spiritual person. I'm simply pointing out, as a way to illustrate persuasion, some of the ways these organizations sue isolation to indoctrinate their members.

Shared experiences create psychological isolation in a way too. In business this can be experienced through a group retreat or conference. It's benign, but still a shared experience. Shared tragedy has the same effect of bonding. Think of Katrina survivors, 9/11 wives, Gulf War veterans. All groups have strong bonds having experienced something extraordinarily emotional and intense together.

The final strategy in isolation is to 'predict the future'. Sales people do this all the time in response to the 'shop around' objection. "Sure, go ahead. But X shop doesn't have our selection (return policy, prices, etc.)" Cults use this future predicting by telling new members that their "choice" in joining will be ridiculed by friends and family. The cult leaders offer this as "proof" that the new member's family and friends obviously don't care about them as much as the group does. 'If they really cared about you, wouldn't they be glad that you found something to make you happy?'

This is powerful stuff and I strongly urge you to use your knowledge ethically, honestly and with integrity.

Article Source: http://www.rightbiz.com

Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of wealthy prospects using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies.

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