I have just viewed an interesting talk on TED.com by Marco Tempest. It can be seen at
In this video the speaker makes some excellent points about the positive uses of deception. It really goes back to the basic concept of suspension of disbelief. This is the psychological technique of temporarily engrossing the attention of the audience to the point where they briefly forget that they are viewing a work of fiction. The deeper the suspension of disbelief becomes, the more enjoyable the audience finds the production.
People will believe what they want to believe. The key to developing a successful strategy for using deception in a positive manner is to provide a nonharmful method of conceptual reorientation that leads people to a conclusion that they would have reached on their own. Or, more specifically, it’s about giving people what they don’t know they want before they realize that they want it.
The concept of using deception tends to have a negative image attached to it. This is only exacerbated by books like The Art of Deception in which Kevin Mitnick describes his use of personal deception to cause damage to individuals and businesses through computer hacking.
The concept gains further notoriety through the expansion of ideas like social engineering as described by Sarah Granger. Social engineering is an specific methodology for following the negative example initially established in The Art of Deception.
This then leads to larger issues of corporate deception such as the clean coal ads described in Dirty Business. This represents the common practice of corporate funded special interest groups that parrot the message that the company itself would like people to accept.
The important thing, however, is that all of these techniques can be used to encourage a positive message rather than a destructive force. By following the message of Marco Tempest it is possible to help people to help themselves in a way that seems to them as a matter of their own volition.
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