
Here’s what I’m up to…
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Persuasion Articles of the Week
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Reciprocity at the Car Dealership
I can barely feel my fingers. The wind whips while I work in the wintry 6° weather. Fahrenheit.
My car’s alarm won’t stop sounding since I tried, and failed, to jumpstart the car. It’s a constant blast of the horn.

Cars have been trouble since the day they were invented. Photo “Changing a Tire” by Don O’Brien, Flick, CC-By-2.0 Now I’m trying to silence the alarm with some key trickery that the dealership is suggesting over the phone. I can barely hear anything over the car’s alarm.
“Turn it left for ten seconds,” he says. “No, wait, try turning the key to the right.” (more…)
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Persuasion Machines
A review of Richard Dawkins’ The Extended PhenotypePRL Guest Post by Robert Sherwood
Introduction
Most books on persuasion are written as how-to manuals. They may include information about social science research to explain why persuasion techniques work, or may include information about history’s greatest persuaders. Primarily, though, persuasion books are made to help you use or resist persuasion techniques.

Everyone’s unique DNA is passed down from generations before. Image “dna security system” by jon jordan. The Extended Phenotype, by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, is not like those books. (more…)







