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Description

Illustration persuasion consists of illustrating something in a certain way to make it seem more or less valuable. It may include:
- Illustrating something as being more or less effortful/in progress;
- Illustrating how to do something, to make it easier for the person to do it;
- Speculating - positively or negatively - to affect the value of something (including the potential - how good it can be), or just repeating exposure to speculation to illustrate it more;
When it’s used to give people a completely wrong idea of something, and hurt them, it becomes illustration manipulation;

How It Works

In terms of effort and progress, since most effort is perceived and not real, by changing how effortful something seems to be, you change how much people adopt it;
In terms of illustrating how to do something, the more the person crystalises and visualises how to do something, the clearer it becomes in their mind, and the more they will tend to do it;
In terms of speculation, including with the potential, it’s an anchoring effect. Illustrating repeated best-case scenarios anchors the person to them, and worst-case ones makes the person value something less;

Realise that it’s very easy to manipulate how good something seems to be, how much momentum it seems to have, or how effortful it seems to be;
- In the heat of the moment, everything will seem perfect, but that wears off with time, as you get to know that product or element, and you will realise its real effort, its real momentum, and so on;
- Therefore, the best protection is to wait. That’s it. Most of these effects are good in the moment, but they lose power as the person reflects and thinks about the actual effort, the actual benefits, and so on. Just slowing down and thinking makes these wear off on their own;

“It’s Just a Minute”: 10 Effort Reducers We Use Everyday (PDF file in *How Manipulation Works* Course Companion DLC);
Easy Entry, Hard Exit: Software and Telcos (PDF file in *How Manipulation Works* Course Companion DLC);

00:02:50 Samantha trying to get an apartment

E02 Kishi Kaisei 00.02.50 Samantha trying to get an apartment.png

Summary: Samantha is trying to get an apartment, but she is a foreigner in japan (gaijin), and not welcome;
Great execution of effort manipulation here;
We see that the real estate owner/representative is pretending there is a lot of effort in order for Samantha to quit (”There are a lot of documents to prepare”, “There are many steps to be taken”, “It’s not for everyone”, and so on);
In this case, this doesn’t stop Samantha, and she protects herself very well against this, just pushing, so at some point the representative just says, “We don’t want you here because you’re a foreigner”;