There are no angels when it comes to influence

by Blair Warren

Some of my friends are having a discussion on twitter about the ethics of certain persuasion strategies and it brought this quote to mind:

…we are all at the mercy of influences of which we are unaware and over which we have virtually no conscious control. What is even more frightening is that we ourselves, no matter how careful and discreet we believe ourselves to be, are constantly influencing others in ways of which we may be only dimly or not at all aware. Indeed, we may unconsciously be responsible for influences of which we consciously know nothing and which, if we knew them, we might find totally unacceptable.”

Dr. Paul Watzlawick, How Real is Real? Confusion, Disinformation, Communication

If Dr. Watzlawick is correct, and I suspect he is, there are no angels when it comes to influence.  We’re all in the game whether we want to be or not.  It’s only a matter of how much awareness we’re able to stomach.

Posted on Monday, July 07, 2008 at 08:47 PM

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