Emotional Manipulation: Understanding the Types of Joy

In different situations, we experience a wide range of feelings and emotions. These can be roughly divided into three groups:

• Positive (joy, interest);
• Negative (fear, anxiety, anger, grief, melancholy);
• Neutral (surprise, boredom).

It’s impossible to feel only positive emotions all the time. In fact, it’s well known that negative feelings often help a person adapt to situations by motivating them to overcome challenges. Positive emotions, on the other hand, can lead to relaxation and even maladaptation.

When it comes to manipulation, the most commonly targeted emotions are joy, anxiety, guilt, and shame. Triggering these feelings can make someone do things they never intended, or set a certain pattern of behavior. Let’s take a closer look at how this works, focusing on the emotion of joy.

Types of Joy

We can identify several types of joy:

• True joy
• Pseudo-joy
• Magical joy

What are the differences between them?

True Joy

True joy is experienced as a result of one’s own, usually creative, activity. In other words, it’s the satisfaction you get from creating, inventing, or accomplishing something. This joy doesn’t last long and is considered an energy-consuming emotion. Afterward, people often feel drained. When someone is experiencing true joy, they are very vulnerable—any criticism or negative comment will hurt twice as much, so it’s best not to say anything negative at that moment, even if it’s deserved.

A common example: someone makes a big purchase, like a new TV, and shares their excitement with friends. Instead of sharing in the joy, the friends criticize the model or brand. This is especially common among people who are envious. The person’s emotional state quickly shifts from positive to negative, and the negative emotions feel even stronger.

Pseudo-Joy

Pseudo-joy isn’t necessarily a positive emotion. To explain, imagine you’re on a business trip and had to buy new shoes. After a busy day of meetings and events, you realize the shoes are painfully tight. You spend the rest of the day in discomfort, unable to do anything about it. Only in the evening, when you finally take off the shoes, do you feel relief. That’s pseudo-joy: the emotion that comes after removing an unpleasant factor. Some even say pseudo-joy is the joy of a neurotic person—someone who creates problems for themselves, solves them, and then enjoys the relief.

Another example: you can’t find your phone and start to worry, even suspecting it was stolen. When you finally find it, you feel happy—but this isn’t true joy, just a sense of relief. This emotion is often used in manipulations.

The main difference from true joy is that pseudo-joy isn’t preceded by any creative process. To make someone feel pseudo-joy, it’s enough to cause them anxiety or discomfort, then remove it.

This tactic is often used when introducing unpopular laws or projects. The process looks like this:

• The manipulator uses a “pendulum effect”;
• The target is pushed into a zone of negative emotions;
• Some of the negative emotions are removed;
• The remaining emotions are perceived as positive.

For example, in a major Russian city, the mayor was losing popularity before an election. Residents complained about rising public transport and utility prices. Instead of lowering rates, the mayor announced that prices might go up again, and for a while, they did. A month later, the city “found” money to return prices to their previous levels. People celebrated and thanked the mayor, even though nothing had really changed—the prices were still what everyone had originally complained about. The official had simply created anxiety, then relieved it, causing people to feel pseudo-joy.

Magical Joy

Magical joy is the emotion we feel when anticipating future achievements. Our brains can’t always distinguish between reality and imagination, so when we fantasize, we experience the same emotions as if our dreams had already come true.

A classic example: a couple buys a lottery ticket and starts arguing over who will drive the new car and what they’ll do with it. They haven’t won anything yet, and may never win, but they’re already experiencing magical joy.

This is often used in manipulations involving visions of the future. For instance, advertising slogans like “Take our course, earn a million dollars, and buy a Mercedes” paint a vivid picture. The person imagines themselves behind the wheel, feels real joy, and is convinced to sign up for the course. The “future vision” technique is very popular with marketers and is the basis for many ad campaigns. Consumers are shown how their lives could improve if they buy a certain product or service. This image sticks in their subconscious, and they’re driven to buy, often without considering if they really need it.

In other words, magical joy is a vision of the future. It’s the foundation of most financial pyramid schemes. The client is told that if they invest $10, they’ll get $300 in a short time. They imagine a bright future, start to believe in it, and hand over their money. Only after the effect wears off do they start to think logically and realize they’ve been deceived. As with any manipulation, this leaves the person feeling empty and disappointed.

How to Protect Yourself from Emotional Manipulation

We often find ourselves being pushed to do things we don’t want to do. Manipulators use a variety of emotions, including positive ones, to influence us. But is a moment of pleasure really worth the energy we spend on it? Will you truly be happy buying something you don’t need? The ability to think critically and approach information rationally will help you avoid becoming a victim of manipulation.