Scott Adams' Blog

Does Trump Linguistically Engineer His Insults?

Posted October 11th, 2015 @ 10:24am in #Trump

On October 1st, I blogged that Trump was starting to define Rubio as a “rube,” although Trump had not yet used that actual word (as far as I know).

The human mind automatically connects things that are related. If you tell me a man named Rubio is easily duped (as Trump suggests), the word “rube” automatically pops into my head. When I first made the connection consciously, it felt to me (as a trained hypnotist) that I was experiencing persuasion, not coincidence.

Recently Trump ran a Rubio attack add that portrayed the senator as “little RUBE.” So there you go. Connection complete, but not until you were primed to accept it as something you were already thinking but had not yet found the perfect word to describe.

I remind you that I am applying the Master Wizard filter on this situation for entertainment only while we see how well it explains the current data and predicts the future. If you want truth, that is probably at a different URL.

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Narcissistic Accuser Syndrome

Posted October 10th, 2015 @ 9:30am in #Trump

The word “narcissist” gets tossed around a lot, especially when Donald Trump is in the news. That word can mean at least three different things, depending on who is saying it. For example, calling someone a narcissist could mean…

1. I don’t know what big words mean, but I use them anyway. (That’s at least 30% of cases.)

Or…

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Tells for Cognitive Dissonance (with some Trump flavoring)

Posted October 9th, 2015 @ 12:36pm in #cognitive dissonance #trump

When a skilled persuader exerts influence on a large group, people will generally react in one of three ways.

20% Will be heavily influenced right away, and be happy about it.

60% Will be mildly influenced, over time, with repetition.

20% Will be unusually angry, comparing the persuader to evil dictators and the like.

Under the Master Wizard Hypothesis, the folks who are the angriest are having a reaction to the persuasion that violates their self-image, throwing them into cognitive dissonance. The 20% who are easily influenced without anger had no skin in the game, in the sense that they had not yet picked sides.

The tells for Cognitive Dissonance are many. Here are some I haven’t before mentioned.

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My Explanation of Trump’s Persuasion Skills for Reason.com

Posted October 6th, 2015 @ 5:12pm in #Trump #Reason

If you have been following my posts about Trump’s persuasion skills, you might like to hear me pull it all together in this short video clip at Reason.com.

I love how they edited and produced it. Nicely done.

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President Obama: Wizard or Failure?

Posted October 6th, 2015 @ 11:50am in #ISIS #trump

Russia is moving into Old Syria. Iran already owns the parts of Old Iraq that ISIS and the Kurds do not. Israel fears that the nuclear deal with Iran is a mistake of unthinkable proportions.

The data suggests that President Obama is a total failure when it comes to the Middle East.

Or… he is one of the most gifted wizards of persuasion and strategy our generation has ever seen.

The data fits both interpretations. You already know the interpretation that says Obama failed. Allow me to give you another interpretation – one that isn’t necessarily true – but happens to fit the data.

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The Trump Confidence Thing

Posted October 6th, 2015 @ 9:35am in #Trump

Politico got this right. Trump’s game isn’t as random as you thought.

Thanks to DJO for pointing it out.

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Robots Read News Endorses Candidate

Posted October 1st, 2015 @ 4:33pm in #Trump #fiorina 2016

What candidate would robots support? I think the answer is obvious.

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One-on-One Match-ups - Trump Persuasion Series

Posted October 1st, 2015 @ 9:12am in #Trump

Warning: This post will generate massive cognitive dissonance in some readers. If you think you can learn from that, please read on. If that prospect makes you uncomfortable, please don’t read it.

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If you compare Donald Trump to whoever you have in mind as your ideal president, Trump probably comes up short. There are plenty of qualities one might want in a president that Trump doesn’t have. So I understand why people think he can’t get elected.

But Trump will not be running against anyone’s imaginary standard for president. He will run against real people. That’s where things get interesting. In my opinion, Trump only got serious about the presidency when he realized that the one-on-one match-ups all went his way. So let’s see how those match-ups look.

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History’s First Quadruple-Wizard

Posted September 29th, 2015 @ 9:08am in #Trump

This post is just for fun, as part of my Master Wizard series. The first half is inspired by a tweet from one of my Twitter followers.

Master Wizard: A human that is extraordinarily skilled in the methods of persuasion.

I think historians would agree that Abraham Lincoln was one of the great Master Wizards of persuasion. Americans are well aware of Lincoln’s linguistic gifts. But you might not know that Lincoln and Mark Twain – another Master Wizard – were alive at the same time. History does not tell us if the two met. But if you have been reading my Master Wizard series, you know that skilled persuaders can recognize each other from their tells. At the very least, we can be sure Mark Twain studied Lincoln’s communication style, as writers do. Perhaps Twain even learned a few things.

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Violating the Wizard Prime Directive

Posted September 27th, 2015 @ 11:43am in #Trump

New readers of this blog are encouraged to catch up on my past posts. Otherwise this one will make no sense. Search for my #Trump posts to view this one in context.

The summary version is that I am interpreting recent world events (mostly the U.S. presidential election) through what I call the Master Wizard Filter.

The filter is not meant to be a true view of reality, if such a thing even exists. The idea is to see if my predictions under the filter fit observed outcomes. And also, just for fun, I will be “fitting” observable data to the filter and showing you how an alternate view of reality can be surprisingly persuasive.

This is just for fun. Truth is at a different URL.

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