Notes on the science this product stands on: persuasion research, coercion studies, declassified interrogation material, the narcissistic-abuse and recovery literature, and readings of the influence-training field — including the parts that don't flatter us or anyone else. Written by the Psy-Opt-In research desk. Corrections reach a person at line@psyoptin.com and get made.
July 28, 2026
Albert Biderman studied how Chinese captors extracted false confessions from American POWs without torture equipment: isolation, monopolized perception, induced exhaustion, threats, occasional indulgences. Amnesty International reprinted his chart in 1973. Domestic-abuse workers have used it ever since, because it maps.
July 27, 2026
Jennifer Freyd named the pattern in 1997: Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender. Later experiments in her lab measured both how well it works on observers and how much of its power disappears when people learn its name first.
July 26, 2026
Roozenbeek and van der Linden's Bad News study (2019) had players run a disinformation campaign for 15 minutes, then measured how much less reliable manipulative content looked to them afterward. The results, the null replication in India, and what both mean for training.
July 25, 2026
Friestad and Wright's Persuasion Knowledge Model (1994) predicts that recognizing a sales tactic as a tactic changes how it lands. Later experiments measured the effect: once a target sees the move, the mover pays a penalty. What that means for training.
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