We Are Manipulable, Even If We Resist

Do you think it is possible to resist the influence of others? Are we manipulable or not? The truth is that our thoughts are susceptible to external influence, even against our will. At least, so says research from San Francisco State University. In a way, even if we resist, we are manipulable.

This research, published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition , shows how our thoughts are influenced by our external environment and shows that consciousness can be controlled externally and against the will.

We have less control over our decisions than we think

For the study, participants were asked to look at an image without thinking about the word that corresponded to it or about other things associated with that image. Although the task may seem simple, the study found that when an image is presented, most people will automatically conjure up the word, and about half won’t be able to avoid subvocalizing it.

This research is the first demonstration that thoughts in the stream of consciousness can be controlled externally and against the will of the participants. So we are more manipulable than we think.

The researchers explain that our conscious thoughts seem protected from our surroundings, but that they are linked to the external environment in a much closer way than we might realize. Thus, we would have less control over its influence than we think.

The researchers showed the participants 52 black and white images corresponding to known words of different lengths. Participants were instructed not to vocalize or think about each word or how many letters it contained. On average, 73% subvocalized a word, and 33% counted its letters.

The researchers say that this experiment triggered not one, but two different types of involuntary thoughts, and that each thought requires a substantial amount of processing. They believe that “this effect reflects the activation of the brain machinery that gives rise to conscious thoughts and that it can be activated even when we are told not to do something”, since “the machinery cannot stop delivering a certain exit to consciousness ”.

When we can’t control our thoughts

According to the scientists,  this research has important implications for the study of psychopathological disorders that affect people with repetitive and uncontrollable thoughts or, more commonly, the inability to quell an obsession.

The researchers explain: “When people have a thought that they cannot control, this machinery may be at work. We are learning not only that the brain works this way, but unfortunately, in most circumstances, the brain must work this way.

Although it may seem counterintuitive, researchers argue that the mind’s inability to shut out unwanted thoughts is a positive ability in most cases. “Many of the things that seem bad about the brain reflect part of its general architecture, which was selected through evolution, since, in most cases, they are adaptive.”

This occurs, for example, in the case of the feeling of guilt. Just as most people can’t help subvocalizing the word “sun” in response to a picture of a sun, it can also be difficult to suppress negative feelings after doing something wrong.

“If these types of thoughts could be annulled, it would not be adaptive,” they explain. “There is a reason we feel guilty: to change future behavior. If you could snap your fingers and not feel guilty about something, guilt would no longer play a functional role. “