The Persuaders: The hidden industry that wants to change your mind

Description

In almost every hour of every day, people will try to change your mind - but none of it consists in giving you good reasons. Instead, you'll experience product placement, infoganda, sock puppeteering, psychological pricing, viral marketing, crowd manipulation, framing, spinning, propagandising. Loyalty cards, death panels, airport toilets, think tank reports, search algorithms and weapons dossiers are all symptoms of this. You are nudged, anchored, and incentivized. It's a profound shift in the way human beings interact with one another. Philosopher James Garvey - described by the Guardian as having 'a delicious style, often very funny, and a trick of ushering the reader right inside his thought experiments' - writes clearly and entertainingly about the dangers we face when we lose our grip on persuasion by rational means. But Easily Swayed isn't just a requiem for rationality. It's a call to think again about the way we think now.

James Garvey works for the Royal Institute of Philosophy and edits The Philosophers' Magazine. He is the author of a number of books, including The Story of Philosophy (with Jeremy Stangroom) and The Ethics of Climate Change. He has written for the Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, the Huffington Post, the New Statesman, and the Times Higher Education Supplement, does voluntary work for Thames Reach and Crisis, teaches jiu jitsu, and is an enthusiastic cyclist. James was born in California, grew up in West Virginia and he now lives on a canal boat in London, UK.

'A work of engaging pop philosophy and accessible social science a boisterous dissection of the forces jellifying our minds' * Sunday Times * 'Fierce and timely'. * Daily Mail * 'Garvey doesn't pull any punches.' * New Scientist * 'The author worries, rightly, that in losing the ability to argue and question intelligently we become more susceptible to the subtle and unseen skills of powerful persuaders.' Financial Times