Most articles on social engineering describe a specific case of dubious practice. Here we will try to sort everything out and answer essential questions: how does the brain work when making a decision, how to influence this decision, and what processes can automate the process?
How is decision making formed?
There is no 100% answer today, but ongoing research tells us that the striatum is actually responsible for choosing one or another decision (not to complicate things - part of the brain). In addition to making a decision, "it" also triggers a certain behavior (to achieve a result).
At the same time, despite its division into three parts, they all together take a single part in making a common decision at different time intervals. Those. parts interact with each other, rather than acting independently of each other. At this point, what we usually call situation analysis takes place. The individual analyzes which decision to make based on two factors: life experience (the rational half) and emotions (desires, instincts).
Experience or desire? Formation of priorities when making a decision
Do not regard the process of analysis as a confrontation between the rational and emotions. And although there is a place to be, in some cases it seems outwardly that this is exactly what is happening (for example, the purchase of expensive electronics by a person who clearly cannot afford it, but he wants to raise his status in the eyes of other people). This process can be seen as the generation of a certain number of pros and cons on both sides. And here it is necessary to dwell in detail on how to determine the causes of the "for" and "against". Most of you are probably familiar with Maslow's pyramid of needs.
Based on this pyramid, you can see that in some cases the decision is determined by the needs of the person. For example, trying to convince a person to pay a huge amount for a cheap product does not make sense if a person has not a penny for his soul.
On the other hand, Maslow's pyramid would be an ideal model of human behavior if he made decisions only based on his needs. But, the fact remains that a person does not always (almost never) make a decision consciously. Instincts and emotions play a significant role. So, for example, the same person can take a loan from a bank, just to get your product (the instinct of dominance over other individuals). Or he may just give you money, if there is a strong emotion that compels him to do so. For example, pity.
Unfortunately, as a rule, it will not work to influence the rational part (if it is not a lie or a bunch of influence on something else). The most interesting ways of interaction involve pressure either on emotions or on the animal essence of a person.
There is one interesting study, the essence of which is that the individual experiences pleasure not only at the moment of receiving a reward, but also on the way to achieving it. And here it is appropriate to recall various stories of brainwashing on the topic of financial pyramids, refusals of acquired property in favor of one's spirituality, etc. Let's take a closer look at this situation (brainwashing by some sectarian).
The person was convinced that he needed it, influencing, as a rule, emotions. They told how bad everything is now, in his current situation, "opened his eyes." Such washing gets special weight if it is backed up with some pseudo-facts or statements of authoritative people (scientists, thinkers, etc.). The fact is that a person is a social being, and for society, the presence of a leader whose words are listened to is a normal phenomenon. These connections were formed in our minds a long time ago and helped to survive: the leader took responsibility, distributed resources among the society for more productive work.
Accordingly, the opinion of the leader was listened to. The mechanism is similar in structure to the work of digital certificates - everything is based on trust. And now a person listens to all this, the “trust” of the noodles begins to exceed his own experience, pressure on emotions is exerted (his self-esteem has fallen, because everything he did turns out to be “wrong”), and his opinion changes. Despite the seemingly logical thing: by giving away material values, he actually exposes himself to additional danger. Why is this happening?
Against the background of emotional pressure on a person, new goals are suggested to him (he is now doing poorly, but everything can be changed). And at this moment the brain begins to stimulate the body to achieve these goals. A special hormone is produced: dopamine, which is precisely responsible for the so-called "motivation". A certain indicator of what efforts a person can make to achieve goals (in this case, imposed). As a result, contrary to logic, a person ends up on the street for some higher purpose, and at the same time he is only happy with his “freedom from the material”, despite the direct harm to his body (physiological needs according to Maslow's pyramid).
External influence on the decision
And now let's talk about what conclusions can be drawn from the story above. In the first place, influencing the rational part of the brain is almost always a pointless exercise. For example, if you try to convince a person to invest in your cryptocurrency, you are unlikely to be able to convince him with numbers alone. Firstly, the human brain will always prefer the here and now reward to some dubious prospects. In this case, “here and now” is his capital. And doubtful because the person’s level of trust in you is not high enough.
But, it is enough to give an example of successful investments, talk about what promising technologies these are, and what the future of cryptocurrencies is in general, a person immediately begins to draw a colorful picture of potential profit in his head (after all, there have already been successful examples), supplementing it with various emotions. In this case, the feeling of expectation will only further stimulate the person.
Further, there are several interesting tricks based again on the social component of consciousness:
When rendering any service to a person, he is more willing to make contact, a sense of duty arises (it will not be clearly expressed, of course, but the attitude towards you will shift upward from zero mark).
Asking for help (however small) helps. A person unconsciously puts himself above the one to whom he helped (after all, he was asked). In addition, the need for recognition is satisfied, self-esteem grows. This phenomenon is called the Benjamin Franklin effect.
Spot processing takes more time than base traversal. Those. the reader must understand that getting what he wants from a particular person is not a quick task. This is especially familiar to those who have dealt with industrial espionage. On the other hand, if the reader takes in quantity, then the percentage of output is small, but it will be received noticeably faster. However, each of the methods has the right to exist.
Learn to listen. This is especially true when communicating with one person. Often, unwillingness/inability to understand the interlocutor is the main mistake. In the case of working with a large group of people, it is necessary to understand its needs, interests, etc. (general features by which people were united in a group). In the end, everyone is one way or another people, with a basic set of physiological needs.
Do not try to put pressure on the rational part and emotions, if for some attempt a minus returned from both sides. Let me explain. A person wants to trigger a certain behavior pattern in another person. At the same time, if both logic and emotions are against this, then it is better to immediately retreat and try differently, the chance to aggravate the situation is rapidly increasing.
Go beyond the expected behavior. When interacting with any object with which there was an experience of interaction earlier, an expected behavior model is formed in the brain. Going beyond this template puts the rational part into a stupor, it becomes easier to influence emotions. But everything is good in moderation, because any living creature always treats everything new with caution (the self-preservation instinct works).
Gather as much information as possible about the person before taking any action. Here, special attention should be paid to the fact that it is necessary to act (whether directly or not) only when there is confidence that more information will not be collected, and it is all analyzed and structured.
The use of technical means in influencing the decision
The most important tool you can use is your own intellect. Despite attempts to describe a model of human behavior in various situations, a closer solution has not yet been created than, in fact, the human brain. Most computer models are directed to some narrow sphere with patterned behavior. But the brain is able to abstract from something specific, and in terms of the speed of interpretation and assimilation of new information, there is no faster means.
As for purely technical means, these are, of course, search engines and social networks. This has already been mentioned many times in various materials. People share information about themselves for various purposes (self-identification in society, commercial interests, etc.). All this can be used at least for collecting information, at a maximum - manipulation. Also:
Don't forget to look at file metadata. They can contain a lot of interesting information.
Some pages may not be available, but the webarchive usually remembers everything;
Finally, use parsers. Almost any amount of information can be obtained and analyzed thanks to any programming language and a curl wrapper for this language. Also, do not forget that any social service provides its own API for convenience;
Compromising a person's mobile device is almost a 100% option for gaining access to all private information.
Follow research and discoveries. Psychology is good, but it only reveals a pattern, and does not explain the phenomenon.
There is also a must read book partly on this topic “Think slowly… decide quickly” D. Kahneman, this man has been analyzing the way of thinking and behavioral psychology of people for 40 years - a grandiose work.
After all, there are 2 main approaches in this area, this is when they study the problem from a physiological point of view (which parts of the cortex are activated at one time or another, etc.) and from an abstract point of view - how the brain reacts to such and such a phenomenon (by the way, an analogy with black box testing and code analysis).
This book highlights the second point.
The author describes at what moments our brain “gives up” and we make wrong or irrational decisions (not necessarily due to succumbing to emotions) and all these examples can only be remembered as a fact and used for any purpose (do not let yourself be fooled or carefully think through inferences, well, or use it against others).
This is like when our brain perceives an optical illusion is not the same as it really is, even if they reveal the secret to us that this is just an illusion, we will still see what we see.
Let me give an example:
The book describes the so-called anchoring effect when we unconsciously in our analysis, conclusions and conclusions we include recently received data.
For example, if we approach a person and ask how long it takes me to walk to such and such a street, we will hear a relatively accurate answer, let it be 40 minutes (assuming that he knows this and no one has approached him recently), if we ask “can I walk to this street in 10 minutes?”, then in response we will be given a figure that is quite close to ours and much less accurate in reality (such as “you will walk in 20-30 minutes”).
After reading the book, I myself began to pay attention to such things in real life, often even on purpose, when I was talking to someone, I used some non-everyday word or term, which then slipped into the speech of my interlocutor (he, as it were, unconsciously adopted my vocabulary, that is, the information that I gave him when I expressed my thoughts).
This is just one of dozens of moments that are described in the book and which can be used on social networks. engineering when trying to influence a particular person.
How is decision making formed?
There is no 100% answer today, but ongoing research tells us that the striatum is actually responsible for choosing one or another decision (not to complicate things - part of the brain). In addition to making a decision, "it" also triggers a certain behavior (to achieve a result).
At the same time, despite its division into three parts, they all together take a single part in making a common decision at different time intervals. Those. parts interact with each other, rather than acting independently of each other. At this point, what we usually call situation analysis takes place. The individual analyzes which decision to make based on two factors: life experience (the rational half) and emotions (desires, instincts).
Experience or desire? Formation of priorities when making a decision
Do not regard the process of analysis as a confrontation between the rational and emotions. And although there is a place to be, in some cases it seems outwardly that this is exactly what is happening (for example, the purchase of expensive electronics by a person who clearly cannot afford it, but he wants to raise his status in the eyes of other people). This process can be seen as the generation of a certain number of pros and cons on both sides. And here it is necessary to dwell in detail on how to determine the causes of the "for" and "against". Most of you are probably familiar with Maslow's pyramid of needs.
Based on this pyramid, you can see that in some cases the decision is determined by the needs of the person. For example, trying to convince a person to pay a huge amount for a cheap product does not make sense if a person has not a penny for his soul.
On the other hand, Maslow's pyramid would be an ideal model of human behavior if he made decisions only based on his needs. But, the fact remains that a person does not always (almost never) make a decision consciously. Instincts and emotions play a significant role. So, for example, the same person can take a loan from a bank, just to get your product (the instinct of dominance over other individuals). Or he may just give you money, if there is a strong emotion that compels him to do so. For example, pity.
Unfortunately, as a rule, it will not work to influence the rational part (if it is not a lie or a bunch of influence on something else). The most interesting ways of interaction involve pressure either on emotions or on the animal essence of a person.
There is one interesting study, the essence of which is that the individual experiences pleasure not only at the moment of receiving a reward, but also on the way to achieving it. And here it is appropriate to recall various stories of brainwashing on the topic of financial pyramids, refusals of acquired property in favor of one's spirituality, etc. Let's take a closer look at this situation (brainwashing by some sectarian).
The person was convinced that he needed it, influencing, as a rule, emotions. They told how bad everything is now, in his current situation, "opened his eyes." Such washing gets special weight if it is backed up with some pseudo-facts or statements of authoritative people (scientists, thinkers, etc.). The fact is that a person is a social being, and for society, the presence of a leader whose words are listened to is a normal phenomenon. These connections were formed in our minds a long time ago and helped to survive: the leader took responsibility, distributed resources among the society for more productive work.
Accordingly, the opinion of the leader was listened to. The mechanism is similar in structure to the work of digital certificates - everything is based on trust. And now a person listens to all this, the “trust” of the noodles begins to exceed his own experience, pressure on emotions is exerted (his self-esteem has fallen, because everything he did turns out to be “wrong”), and his opinion changes. Despite the seemingly logical thing: by giving away material values, he actually exposes himself to additional danger. Why is this happening?
Against the background of emotional pressure on a person, new goals are suggested to him (he is now doing poorly, but everything can be changed). And at this moment the brain begins to stimulate the body to achieve these goals. A special hormone is produced: dopamine, which is precisely responsible for the so-called "motivation". A certain indicator of what efforts a person can make to achieve goals (in this case, imposed). As a result, contrary to logic, a person ends up on the street for some higher purpose, and at the same time he is only happy with his “freedom from the material”, despite the direct harm to his body (physiological needs according to Maslow's pyramid).
External influence on the decision
And now let's talk about what conclusions can be drawn from the story above. In the first place, influencing the rational part of the brain is almost always a pointless exercise. For example, if you try to convince a person to invest in your cryptocurrency, you are unlikely to be able to convince him with numbers alone. Firstly, the human brain will always prefer the here and now reward to some dubious prospects. In this case, “here and now” is his capital. And doubtful because the person’s level of trust in you is not high enough.
But, it is enough to give an example of successful investments, talk about what promising technologies these are, and what the future of cryptocurrencies is in general, a person immediately begins to draw a colorful picture of potential profit in his head (after all, there have already been successful examples), supplementing it with various emotions. In this case, the feeling of expectation will only further stimulate the person.
Further, there are several interesting tricks based again on the social component of consciousness:
When rendering any service to a person, he is more willing to make contact, a sense of duty arises (it will not be clearly expressed, of course, but the attitude towards you will shift upward from zero mark).
Asking for help (however small) helps. A person unconsciously puts himself above the one to whom he helped (after all, he was asked). In addition, the need for recognition is satisfied, self-esteem grows. This phenomenon is called the Benjamin Franklin effect.
Spot processing takes more time than base traversal. Those. the reader must understand that getting what he wants from a particular person is not a quick task. This is especially familiar to those who have dealt with industrial espionage. On the other hand, if the reader takes in quantity, then the percentage of output is small, but it will be received noticeably faster. However, each of the methods has the right to exist.
Learn to listen. This is especially true when communicating with one person. Often, unwillingness/inability to understand the interlocutor is the main mistake. In the case of working with a large group of people, it is necessary to understand its needs, interests, etc. (general features by which people were united in a group). In the end, everyone is one way or another people, with a basic set of physiological needs.
Do not try to put pressure on the rational part and emotions, if for some attempt a minus returned from both sides. Let me explain. A person wants to trigger a certain behavior pattern in another person. At the same time, if both logic and emotions are against this, then it is better to immediately retreat and try differently, the chance to aggravate the situation is rapidly increasing.
Go beyond the expected behavior. When interacting with any object with which there was an experience of interaction earlier, an expected behavior model is formed in the brain. Going beyond this template puts the rational part into a stupor, it becomes easier to influence emotions. But everything is good in moderation, because any living creature always treats everything new with caution (the self-preservation instinct works).
Gather as much information as possible about the person before taking any action. Here, special attention should be paid to the fact that it is necessary to act (whether directly or not) only when there is confidence that more information will not be collected, and it is all analyzed and structured.
The use of technical means in influencing the decision
The most important tool you can use is your own intellect. Despite attempts to describe a model of human behavior in various situations, a closer solution has not yet been created than, in fact, the human brain. Most computer models are directed to some narrow sphere with patterned behavior. But the brain is able to abstract from something specific, and in terms of the speed of interpretation and assimilation of new information, there is no faster means.
As for purely technical means, these are, of course, search engines and social networks. This has already been mentioned many times in various materials. People share information about themselves for various purposes (self-identification in society, commercial interests, etc.). All this can be used at least for collecting information, at a maximum - manipulation. Also:
Don't forget to look at file metadata. They can contain a lot of interesting information.
Some pages may not be available, but the webarchive usually remembers everything;
Finally, use parsers. Almost any amount of information can be obtained and analyzed thanks to any programming language and a curl wrapper for this language. Also, do not forget that any social service provides its own API for convenience;
Compromising a person's mobile device is almost a 100% option for gaining access to all private information.
Follow research and discoveries. Psychology is good, but it only reveals a pattern, and does not explain the phenomenon.
There is also a must read book partly on this topic “Think slowly… decide quickly” D. Kahneman, this man has been analyzing the way of thinking and behavioral psychology of people for 40 years - a grandiose work.
After all, there are 2 main approaches in this area, this is when they study the problem from a physiological point of view (which parts of the cortex are activated at one time or another, etc.) and from an abstract point of view - how the brain reacts to such and such a phenomenon (by the way, an analogy with black box testing and code analysis).
This book highlights the second point.
The author describes at what moments our brain “gives up” and we make wrong or irrational decisions (not necessarily due to succumbing to emotions) and all these examples can only be remembered as a fact and used for any purpose (do not let yourself be fooled or carefully think through inferences, well, or use it against others).
This is like when our brain perceives an optical illusion is not the same as it really is, even if they reveal the secret to us that this is just an illusion, we will still see what we see.
Let me give an example:
The book describes the so-called anchoring effect when we unconsciously in our analysis, conclusions and conclusions we include recently received data.
For example, if we approach a person and ask how long it takes me to walk to such and such a street, we will hear a relatively accurate answer, let it be 40 minutes (assuming that he knows this and no one has approached him recently), if we ask “can I walk to this street in 10 minutes?”, then in response we will be given a figure that is quite close to ours and much less accurate in reality (such as “you will walk in 20-30 minutes”).
After reading the book, I myself began to pay attention to such things in real life, often even on purpose, when I was talking to someone, I used some non-everyday word or term, which then slipped into the speech of my interlocutor (he, as it were, unconsciously adopted my vocabulary, that is, the information that I gave him when I expressed my thoughts).
This is just one of dozens of moments that are described in the book and which can be used on social networks. engineering when trying to influence a particular person.