Many years ago - circa 1990-ish - I was persuaded to spend a couple of years working in embedded research/reporting. There were two topics I worked on; rural poverty and pressure sales/mis-selling. The latter involved sitting through a number of the 'courses' that people like vacuum cleaner, encyclopedia and timeshare sellers would encounter.
In all cases, these 'courses' taught the 'student' to leverage the inherent instinct people have to resist conflict. And, in particular, resist questioning the basic integrity and honesty of others.
One of the first moves in this 'game' is to find a point of empathy - common ground - with the target such that it becomes possible to convince them that they are not being 'sold to' at all. This kind of technique (which exists well beyond the sales floor) exploits - or more accurately abuses - Social Identity theory (SIT), which predicts certain intergroup behaviours on the basis of perceived group status differences, the perceived legitimacy and stability of those status differences, and the perceived ability to move from one group to another.
i.e. convincing the mark that you, as salesman, have 'the good oil' and the keys to the secret cupboard, and it's possible for them, the mark, to transport themselves to your state of elevated wisdom; trust me!
...Interestingly (and I'll be clear in excluding Jeff from this, as I think he responded in good faith) two of the main strings that are pulled in these techniques are to place a resistant 'mark' on the back foot by;
a) Challenging their instinct to resist conflict... 'trust me', 'do you think I'm an honest man?', 'are you calling me a liar?' etc...
b) Suggesting the target is ignorant.
For the avoidance of doubt, I'm quite well aware of what 'Game theory', in the mathematical sense is. - Part of my training as a lecturer involved studying educational psychology, and I do have a basic understanding of how Game Theory is both used - and more pertinently abused - to manipulate humans and create paradigms which, in an increasingly secular world, take on quasi-religious importances... For some.
But... As I said... I don't play games.
