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Daniel Gilbert's Sleep Deprivation?

Decent Essays

A former Chinese political prisoner described his experience of brain washing: “You are annihilated, exhausted, you can’t control yourself, or remember what you said two minutes before. You feel that all is lost. From that moment the judge is the real master of you. You accept anything he says”. The strategy to which he is referring to is sleep deprivation. Research done by social psychologist Daniel Gilbert offers some insight into the fact that we are more susceptible to others influence tactics when we are tired. In a series of studies Gilbert found evidence that upon hearing someone make a statement the recipient accepts the message as true. It is only with mental effort, a fraction of a second later; the listener recognises the statement to be false and then rejects …show more content…

Studies have also demonstrated that distraction has a similar effect on people’s susceptibility to influence. We all know that caffeine helps keep us alert, but can it also make us more persuadable? To investigate this Pearl Martin and her colleagues asked participants of their study to drink a drink resembling orange juice. The researchers had spiked the orange drink with caffeine before giving it to half of the participants. Shortly after drinking the juice, all the participants read a series of messages containing a good argument for a position on a controversial issue. Those who consumed the caffeinated drink were 35% more likely to agree with the statement than those who had not had the caffeine. However when this was tested with a message with weak arguments the caffeine had little persuasive power. The findings of this study could be beneficial to choosing when to present a pitch, a good time to make a presentation would be early in the day when clients may have had a morning caffeine fix. Or have coffee or caffeinated drinks to hand should make your audience more receptive to your

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