Colin Campbell
BI
The cartoonist who created "Dilbert" has a unique and compelling take on what he calls the "clown genius" fueling Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
Scott Adams, the cartoonist, published a blog post on the subject last week and repeatedly updated the article with additional thoughts on why the talking points of Trump's campaign trail reminded him of successful hypnosis.
"For our purposes today, persuasion, hypnosis, and negotiating all share a common set of tools, so I will conflate them," wrote Adams, who has studied hypnosis. "Would Trump use his negotiation and persuasion skills in the campaign? Of course he would. And we expect him to do just that."
Adams pointed to Trump's repeated — and disputed — claim that he was worth over $10 billion.
Bloomberg Politics and other analysts have argued that Trump's net worth is probably closer to $3 billion, but Adams said that once the debate is over how many billions of dollars Trump is worth, the real-estate magnate has already won.
"The sale he wants to make is, 'Remember that Donald Trump is a successful businessperson managing a vast empire mostly of his own making.' The exact amount of his wealth is irrelevant," he said. "When a car salesperson trained in persuasion asks if you prefer the red Honda Civic or the Blue one, that is a trick called making you 'think past the sale' and the idea is to make you engage on the question of color as if you have already decided to buy the car."
He added: "That is Persuasion 101, and I have seen no one in the media point it out when Trump does it."
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The cartoonist also cited several other examples of Trump's psychological tricks. He said Trump often deployed an "anchor" to shift the conversation to more favorable terms, such as when, Adams said, Trump intentionally exaggerated the illegal immigration issue and his own ability to fix it.
"You probably also cringed when you heard Trump say Mexico was sending us their rapists and bad people," he wrote. "Trump also said he thinks Mexico should pay for the fence, which made most people scoff. But if your neighbor's pit bull keeps escaping and eating your rosebushes, you tell the neighbor to pay for his own fence or you will shoot his dog next time you see it. Telling a neighbor to build his own wall for your benefit is not crazy talk. And I actually think Trump could pull it off."
And as far as Trump's tendency to constantly promote his own brands and approach as the "best" and "biggest" in the world, Adams wrote that it's all part of the real-estate developer's larger plan.
"Every time he opens his mouth he is saying something about the Trump brand being fabulous or amazing or great. The rational part of your brain thinks this guy is an obnoxious, exaggerating braggart," the "Dilbert" creator said. "But the subconscious parts of your brain (the parts that make most of your decisions) only remember that something about that guy was fabulous, amazing, and great."
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Adams said that, based on his observations, he was willing to predict that Trump would be the next president.More here:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/dilbert-creator-theres-clown-genius-153825593.html
