So fictional books are psychological manipulation? If that&#x27;s the case, then the phrase &quot;psychological manipulation&quot; is so broadly defined as to be completely useless.<p>And I&#x27;m not victim-blaming. Perhaps the consumer doesn&#x27;t fully recognize the benefits one quick and easy action could have on their lives. Your newsletter could change everything! Why not actually try and sell that, rather than giving unfeeling &quot;Subscribe&quot;&#x2F;&quot;don&#x27;t&quot; buttons?<p>I&#x27;m not a fan of the Whole Foods &quot;would you like to give a dollar to charity today&quot; thing because it (accidentally or not) leverages social pressure to convince people to give money. Social pressure is a different thing entirely, and it does end up looking like a form of manipulation (although in this context, a fairly weak one at that)<p>But to be unable to resist a couple of words on a screen? At that point, a conversation would fall under &quot;psychological manipulation&quot;. So I don&#x27;t get it. Am I still a sociopath?