For example, each partner can gain by keeping one nominally committed relationship, with all the sexual and emotional benefits that entails, while also seeking more sex on the side -and that’s why cheating exists: it can pay off-. According to psychologist Michael Nuccitelli, Psy.D, dark psychology involves certain tenets that can help us better understand the concept and how it can be applied by someone. Guilt trip power move: when you have no real power, use this “pity play” to make people feel bad and do what you want out of guilt While working on my doctorate and studying abnormal psychology, I came across a term called “The Dark Triad” that refers to what many criminologist and psychologist pinpoint as an easy predictor of criminal behavior, as well as problematic, broken relationships. The Dark Triad includes the traits of …

While humans typically have some triggers or motivations for committing a heinous act, dark psychology proposes that some human predators may manipulate and prey upon unsuspecting victims without any “ definable reasons”.

However, it can vary from intrusive fleeting thoughts and minimally inconvenient actions to psychopathic and harmful behaviours without any specific purpose. This is identified as the dark continuum. 3. The Dark Factor For example, few people in the West would think of Israel as a bullying, invading force. In good part, that’s because many major media outlets frame Israel as a victim, and Palestinian fighters are often referred to as “terrorists”. Triangulation: This involves involving a third party in the relationship as a way of creating conflict or gaining control.

Leaders – Some leaders use dark tactics to get compliance, greater effort, or higher performance from their subordinates. In extreme situations, make up an enemy and paint yourself as the right person to destroy that enemy (see: “ burning stake power move“) From now on, I will call “dark psychologist” anyone who deploys tools of influence and persuasion in a way that harms the receiver. Dark psychology is a subject of study, so it is not intrinsically wrong. However, some behaviors brought on by the usage of dark psychology might result in wrongdoing including fraud, harassment, and other forms of abuse. Dark psychology has been used in politics for centuries, and its use is constantly rising. There are many ways to use dark psychology in politics, but some of the most common uses include playing on fears, exploiting vulnerabilities, brainwashing, and creating divisions. Dark psychology can be used to manipulate people’s emotions and get them to act against their best interests.

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To differentiate between those motivation and persuasion tactics that are dark and those that are ethical, it’s important to assess your intent. We must ask ourselves if the tactics that we are using have an intention to help the other person? It is okay for the intention to be to help you as well, but if it’s solely for your benefit, you can easily fall into dark and unethical practices. A series of well-placed commands embedded within a distracting word-salad of nonsense can bewilder people enoughto give you some control over them. However, women can also manipulate men in dating and romantic relationships. Here the woman pretends to be inaccessible and unreachable which increases her desirability. By acting all high and mighty, the woman makes the man desperate for gaining her attention. Ads that rely on false claims or misleading images are employing dark psychology to encourage people to take action, which may or may not be in their best interests. One amazing book on this topic is by the grandaddy of persuasion research, Robert Cialdini – compulsory reading for anyone interested in this topic. 3. Coercive interrogation