★Copyright sold: Simplified Chinese!
★A man wants to buy a horse that travels thousands of miles a day. When he comes to the market, he is attracted by the rhetoric of the donkey seller. Finally, he buys a donkey back home. The donkey is far from his expectations. But he could only regret it. This parable is very short, but it is very relevant to our lives. We always think of ourselves as rational people, but we are also attracted by all kinds of flashy advertisements. This is the power of persuasion.
★The power of persuasion works because a series of psychological mechanisms make us tend to believe something. In "How to Avoid Being Taken in Hoodwinked", the author analyzes: Why are we so easily persuaded by others? What mechanisms do people use to convince us to do things we shouldn't? The most common technique people use to persuade others? And what signs should we watch out for to avoid being exploited?

At some point, we have all been surprised to find ourselves doing something we never intended to do: buying something we don't want or need, defending an idea that we know deep down isn't right, making bad business decisions or getting ourselves into unnecessary trouble because someone else convinced us to do something foolish.

We talk about the power of advertising or how someone we know is a master salesperson, but most of us don't know that the power of persuasion only works because of a series of psychological mechanisms that make us predisposed to be convinced about certain things in certain ways. And the fact that we believe we are rational and well-informed people, or that it's hard for anyone to change our minds, really only makes us more susceptible to being manipulated by others. This is exactly why facts and arguments often aren't enough to convince someone of something, even if the evidence is right in front of their faces.

In Hoodwinked, Ramón Nogueras explains why we are so easily persuaded by others, what mechanisms people use to convince us to do or believe things we shouldn't, the most common tricks people use to persuade others and what signs to look out for if we want to avoid being taken advantage of.

Ramón Nogueras

Holds a degree in Psychology from the Universidad de Granada and a Master’s degree in Human Resources from the ESNA Foundation. Apart from his work as a psychologist, he is devoted to educating others about psychology, in an effort to make people more familiar with this exciting science and warn them about the immense amount of fraud and pseudo-science surrounding it.

They don't give it to me with cheese (of course they do, handsome)

First part. In the beginning was the word: words of persuasion
1. The shortcuts that lose us: heuristics and biases in persuasion
2. First weapon: Quid pro quo, Clarice: reciprocity and debt
3. Second weapon: Slaves of the past: commitment and consistency
4. Third Weapon: Eat Shit: Millions of flies can't be wrong. Social proof and crowd pressure
5. Fourth weapon: How am I going to lie to you if I'm one of yours: liking and similarity
6. Fifth Weapon: I'm Wearing a Robe, Trust Me: Slaves of Authority
7. Sixth Weapon: The Sale Madness: Scarcity and Loss Aversion

Second part. How to break down barriers and persuade the other
8. Barriers to knock down
9. Presuasion: what persuades before speaking
10. Seventh Weapon: We Are All Us: Unity

Third part. The scam and the lie
11. Detect lies
12. One, you lock the target: how they identify and approach the target
13. Two, you bait the line: the stories they use to hook us
14. Three, you slowly spread the net: maintain confidence, squeeze more and more
15. And four, you catch the man: how to end the story and move on to the next target

Like sheep to the slaughter?

Bibliography and references
Epilogue, by Victòria Subirana
Thanks