Emotional Manipulation

In different situations, we experience a variety of feelings and emotions. These can be roughly divided into 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 lead people to adapt to situations by trying to overcome them. Positive emotions, on the other hand, can lead to relaxation and even maladaptation.

Manipulation often targets emotions like joy, anxiety, guilt, and shame. Triggering these feelings can make a person do something they didn’t originally intend, or set a certain pattern of behavior. Let’s take a closer look at these emotions.

Joy

We can distinguish 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 pleasure you get from something you’ve created, invented, or accomplished. This joy doesn’t last long and is considered an energy-consuming emotion. Afterward, people often feel drained. When someone is experiencing 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.

It’s common to see situations where someone makes a big purchase, like a new TV, and wants to share their happiness with friends, only to be met with criticism about the model or brand. This is especially common from people who are overly envious. What happens? The person’s emotional state quickly shifts from positive to negative, and the negative emotions are felt even more strongly.

Pseudo-Joy

Pseudo-joy isn’t necessarily a positive emotion. To explain this feeling, consider the following example: Imagine you’re on a business trip and had to buy new shoes. Your day is busy with meetings and events, but by lunchtime, 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 at your hotel, do you feel relief.

This is pseudo-joy. In other words, it’s the emotion that arises after removing some negative factor. Some even say pseudo-joy is the joy of a neurotic: they create problems for themselves, solve them, and then enjoy the relief.

Another example: You can’t find your phone. You search everywhere, worry, and even wonder if it was stolen. You feel anxious and uneasy. When you finally find it, you feel happy—but this isn’t real joy. It’s just a shadow of true joy, which you might have felt from something else.

This emotion is often used in manipulations. Its main difference from true joy is that it isn’t preceded by any creative process. To make someone feel pseudo-joy, it’s enough to cause them anxiety or discomfort, and then remove it.

This often happens when new laws or projects are introduced that aren’t popular with the public. The pattern for creating pseudo-joy 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 large Russian city, the mayor was losing popularity before an election. Residents complained about rising public transport fares and utility costs. Instead of lowering rates, the official announced that another price hike might be unavoidable, and for a while, fares were actually increased. A month later, the budget “found” money to return to the old prices. People celebrated and thanked the mayor. In reality, nothing changed—the prices were the same ones everyone was unhappy with to begin with. But the official managed to create anxiety about things getting worse, then relieved it, allowing people to feel relief and, therefore, pseudo-joy.

Magical Joy

Magical joy is the emotion we feel from anticipating future achievements. Our brains are wired in such a way that we can’t always distinguish reality from imagination. So, when a person starts fantasizing, they experience the same emotions as if their dreams had already come true.

A classic example of magical joy is the story of a couple who bought a lottery ticket and argued over who would drive the new car and what they’d do with it. In other words, they hadn’t won anything yet—and might never win—but they still experienced all the emotions, including magical joy.

This is often used in manipulations involving visions of the future. For example, you might see ads saying, “Take our course, earn a million dollars, and buy a Mercedes.” What’s happening here? A beautiful picture is painted: you’ll be able to buy your dream car, and all you have to do is take the course. You start imagining yourself behind the wheel, feeling real joy, and your brain treats these emotions as genuine. As a result, you’re much more likely to sign up for the course without hesitation.

The “future vision” technique is very popular among marketers and is the basis for many advertising campaigns. Consumers are shown how their lives could improve after buying a product or service. This image stays in the subconscious, and people strive to buy what’s being pushed on them, often without considering whether they really need it.

In other words, magical joy is a vision of the future. It’s the foundation of most financial pyramid schemes. Clients are 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 actually hand over their money. Only after the effect wears off do they start thinking logically and realize they’ve been deceived. As we’ve seen, any manipulation leaves the target feeling empty and disappointed.

How to Protect Yourself from Manipulation

We often find ourselves being pushed to do things we don’t want to do. Manipulators try to trigger various emotions, including positive ones. 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 at all? The ability to think critically and approach any information rationally will help you avoid becoming a victim of manipulation.