by Robert Martin

Created on: May 31, 2008

Emotion and How It Can Be Used Against You

In today's world, there are many ways that your own emotions can be used against you. This is something that one hopefully learns through the years. Here are some ways that your own feelings can be used to lead or mislead you into transactions of various descriptions.

Commercialism

Have you seen advertising that presents only the facts necessary for you to make a proper decision? How did you feel? When I see this type of advertising, I feel that my time has not been wasted with diversionary tactics which tend to cloud the decision-making process. I can make a straightforward decision about the transaction. To me, this is ideal. The transaction likely involves money coming out of my pocket, and so a good decision is important.

However, there are (purposely-written) commercials or advertisements that play on your emotions. If you don't buy this product, you are somehow "missing life experiences" or living "below your station". These are just two examples of the many ways. Being seen as successful (rather than being successful and feeling successful) is drummed into us as being important. It truly isn't when you are alone with your thoughts.

Using beautiful, barely-clad women to advertise soap seems fine to most males, but this is soap! Do we even need to advertise it? Don't we wash anyway? Don't you buy soap by looking at the package and giving it a sniff, maybe reading a bit on the package, and checking the price? Or maybe you buy the same product all the time and are aggravated when they "improve" it and you can't find "your" soap on the shelves anymore. This is just one example that doesn't break rules but is a subtle play on your emotions, keying in the beauty with the product. Perhaps I am a poor consumer but it is the function of the article that I am buying not the feeling. Advertisers would have you feel otherwise.

Advertising is necessary. I accept that. Misleading advertising or that which is not "up-front" with costs or limitations, or that which plays on your emotions too much is not for me.

Politics

One of the most disturbing realizations is how much our political systems thrive on emotion, appealing to those areas of self where we want to believe what they are saying and feel good inside until we realize that we may be fooled. How many times has a politician told the crowd exactly what they needed to hear? How many times has the promise been acted upon successfully and on budget? I am always wary and use a little

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