Social Engineering: manipulating people

[corvidae]

Basically, if you know how the human mind works, you can exploit it the same way hackers exploit computers. The British magician Derren Brown managed to steal the same things from the same people multiple times in less than a minute, smiling all the time:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j25qV5RO-nU&feature=related"]YouTube- ‪Derren Brown robs a guy 1‬‎[/ame]

In another video, he bought, among other things, jewelry using blank pieces of paper:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vz_YTNLn6w"]YouTube- ‪Derren Brown - "Paying with Paper"‬‎[/ame]

EDIT: youtube video formatting on the forum is messed up...

 

[SPQR]

I don't know. I'm a little sceptical. It seems like all of this could have been staged. I find it hard to believe any store employee would just accept blank paper as if it were legitimate money, no matter how charming you might be.

 

[DimensionX]

Can't watch either of them due to channel 4 blocking the content.

 

[corvidae]

I'm pretty sure I didn't post this in the "magic and mysticism" section...

 

[Shai Gar]

I moved it to the more appropriate forum, it's magic what he's doing.

 

[DoveAlexa]

Yeah, does he have anything more to say about the blank paper stuff? Like how it worked?
Also, it not a very good thing to do, even if it works, because you make yourself so memorable that you'll be arrested no doubt. Still cool though.

 

[corvidae]

I moved it to the more appropriate forum, it's magic what he's doing.

Derren Brown is no more a "magician" than tarot card readers and other "psychics". It's 100% psychology, and Brown admits it:

Though his performances of mind-reading and other feats of mentalism may appear to be the result of psychic or paranormal practices, he claims no such abilities. Brown states at the beginning of his Trick of the Mind programmes that he achieves his results using a combination of "magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship". Using his knowledge and skill, he appears to be able to predict and influence people's thoughts with subtle suggestion, manipulate the decision making process and read the subtle physical and psychological signs or body language that indicate what a person is thinking.

Telemarketers, car salesmen, politicians, and religious leaders all do similar things, whether maliciously or not.

 

[Phoenix Down]

Damn.

 

[Shai Gar]

Magic is the implementation of techniques and props to manipulate yourself or others without the audience being aware of what and how you're doing.

 

[Eryun]

I've done a bit of reading about him after watching some of his videos. From what I understand, it's mostly NLP being used. It's been years since I’ve seen it, but one NLP expert dissected a particular Brown video, and laid out what he was doing play by play. The explanation made sense to me; a good deal of building rapport through various unconscious means (mirroring speech, posture) and implanting subliminal anchors in some instances.

 

[corvidae]

Magic is the implementation of techniques and props to manipulate yourself or others without the audience being aware of what and how you're doing.

I guess I'm just splitting hairs then, but your definition of magic fits under psychology. I was thinking of magic more as "supernaturalism".
eh

 

[ZcM4xzkjgzCjytBc]

I keep a simple mindset for this: Any stranger who is interested in you, wants something from you, and it probably isn't you.

 

[NeverAmI]

I keep a simple mindset for this: Any stranger who is interested in you, wants something from you, and it probably isn't you.

You obviously haven't been to rural Iowa.