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Mind control trick

Invented example

A psychology professor shares a spy agency's hidden trick: anyone will think about you nonstop, on command.

Written for this site. It is from no real product and copies no real advert.

Ideas it might be pointing at

A short claim can stand for several different ideas. Each is set out here with how well it is supported, and whether that support goes toward the advert's promise.

IdeaWhat it isEvidenceDoes this support the advert?
The credentialWhether a stated expert makes a claim more believable, and a method more likely to work.Plausible12No. In experiments, a source presented as an expert usually persuaded more, though the effect depended on the situation and could reverse. In one experiment, expertise counted most for readers who were not personally invested. That explains why an advert leads with a credential. It does not test the method, and a credential that names nobody cannot be checked.
The agencyWhether a claimed intelligence-agency origin shows that a technique works.Plausible345No. The printed record of a 1977 Senate hearing gives the CIA Director's description of a real program, MKULTRA, that ran from 1953 to 1964 and funded research on drugs and behavioral modification. The same record says most of its files were destroyed in 1973, and in one exchange the Director agreed that it produced few useful results. The passages cited concern research on drugs and behavior, not a way to make a person want or chase another. An agency origin would not make a technique work, and it would not make it acceptable to use on a person.
Control "on command"Whether a method that works on anyone, whenever the buyer chooses, has been shown.Plausible6No. In two speed-dating studies from one group, more than 100 traits and preferences that people reported before meeting did not predict which particular person they would end up wanting. Nothing found supports a trick that works on anyone. That is one group's result and does not prove that no method could exist.
Thinking about you nonstopWhat it means when someone thinks about a person again and again, or keeps contacting them.Supported with caveats7No. Two reviews link repetitive thought to depression and anxiety, not to positive feeling; they concern rumination on distress and problems, not on a person. Thinking about someone often, or contacting them often, describes what a person thinks and does. Curiosity, rumination, anxiety and voluntary interest can all look like it, and only what someone chooses to do can be seen.
What is unknownThe trick itself, the psychologist's identity and credentials, and the evidence for the agency origin.No verified evidence foundUntested. The advert doesn't show the trick, name the psychologist or give any evidence for the claimed agency origin. Without them there is nothing to test, and this page does not guess them.

What would make it testable

As stated, it cannot be tested. The advert doesn't show the trick, name the psychologist or give any evidence for the claimed agency origin. "Think about you nonstop" and "on command" name no behavior, no comparison group and no measure, and the promise concerns another person's mind, which the buyer cannot check.

A testable version Among adults who each like one acquaintance, does asking plainly to meet again, compared with waiting to be asked, change whether a second meeting happens within two weeks, measured by a record of whether it took place?

The useful question underneath

Wanting interest you can see, and not knowing how to ask. The aim of being on someone's mind becomes: notice what the other person chooses to do, say what you'd like once, plainly, and accept the answer.

Lessons that use this

Sources

Each numbered mark above opens the evidence behind that idea: the label, what it does not show and where it comes from.

  1. Supported with caveatsA message from a source presented as an expert or otherwise credible usually persuades more than the same message from a low-credibility source, with expertise the largest source effect, but the effect is conditional and can reverse.

    Why this label

    Several studies agree, with stated limits such as student samples or lab settings. Demonstrates: a meta-analysis of source-effect studies found that, among studies reporting significant findings, source manipulations explained 9% of variance in persuasion on average and the expert versus non-expert manipulation 16%, the largest source effect (Wilson & Sherrell 1993). A review of five decades of studies reached the same direction for main effects but found that credibility became a liability under certain conditions that depend on the source, the message, the channel and the receiver (Pornpitakpan 2004). Marketing framing: a credential or an institution's name makes a claim more believable and so more persuasive, whether or not anyone checks it (common framing, unattributed). What the studies show is that credibility cues move opinion on average in experiments; they do not show that the credentialed source's method works. Bears on A6.1: a claimed credential raises persuasion without testing the claim, so the lesson asks what could be checked: who, published where, by what method, replicated or not.

    What it does not show

    • The 9% and 16% figures cover studies reporting significant findings only, so they probably overstate the typical effect.
    • Pornpitakpan (2004) is a narrative review, not a meta-analysis, and finds the effect depends on message, receiver, channel and other variables.
    • The outcomes are attitudes and intentions in experiments; neither source says that a credible source's advice works, or what happens to a credential that cannot be checked.
    • The abstracts do not report effect sizes for behaviour, so nothing here shows a change in what people do.

    Who it applies to

    A pattern across groups of people, not a statement about any one person.

    Sources

  2. PlausibleA source's expertise shapes attitudes most when people are not personally invested in the issue; when they are, the quality of the arguments counts for more.

    Why this label

    One study, or indirect evidence from a nearby question. Demonstrates: in an experiment with undergraduates, a counterattitudinal message with strong or weak arguments came from a high-expertise or a low-expertise source, on an issue that was highly or little relevant to the reader. With high personal relevance, attitudes followed the quality of the arguments; with low relevance, they followed the source's expertise (Petty, Cacioppo & Goldman 1981). The 2004 review lists receiver and message variables among the conditions under which credibility matters, or turns into a liability (Pornpitakpan 2004). Marketing framing: an authority label does the persuading when the audience scrolls past the argument (common framing, unattributed). Bears on A6.1: an advert that leads with a credential and offers no method asks the audience to rely on the label, so the lesson moves the reader from the label to the argument and the evidence.

    What it does not show

    • One classic experiment with undergraduates, one issue and one kind of message; the review supports the direction of moderation in general but not this exact result.
    • The experiment manipulated stated expertise on a counterattitudinal topic, not dating or relationship advice.
    • Attitudes were measured shortly after exposure; nothing shows lasting change or behaviour.

    Who it applies to

    A pattern across groups of people, not a statement about any one person.

    Sources

  3. Supported with caveatsProject MKULTRA was a real CIA programme that ran from 1953 to 1964 and funded research on drugs and behavioural modification, according to the CIA's own Director in 1977.

    Why this label

    Several studies agree, with stated limits such as student samples or lab settings. Demonstrates: in the printed record of the joint Senate hearing of 3 August 1977, Admiral Stansfield Turner, Director of Central Intelligence, called MKULTRA "a closely held CIA project conducted from 1953-1964", an umbrella under which sensitive subprojects covered, among other things, "research on drugs and behavioral modification" (PDF p. 8). A 1963 CIA Inspector General memorandum, which reaches the record through the Church Committee report excerpt it reproduces (footnote 11; PDF p. 72, printed p. 389), gives its purpose as materials for clandestine operations "to control human behavior". The record groups the 149 recovered subprojects into 15 categories (PDF p. 9), among them drugs and alcohol, hypnosis, covert delivery of drugs using magicians' techniques, studies of behaviour and motivation, polygraph research and biological agents. A search of the record's text layer found none of the words dating, romantic, attraction, seduce or obsess (OCR errors could hide a word, so this is a search result, not proof). The record does include testimony that a CIA psychologist interviewed prostitutes at a safe house about sexual habits and about what they knew of covertly drugging people (PDF pp. 61-62); it describes information-gathering, not a method of creating desire. Marketing framing: adverts that invoke a secret "CIA mind-control" technique borrow the programme's name to lend authority to a technique (common framing, unattributed). Neither the passages cited nor that search support a claim that any word, phrase or routine can make a person want or chase another. Bears on A6.1: a claimed intelligence-agency origin is a story to check against a primary source, and the primary source describes drug research, not a way to create desire.

    What it does not show

    • A single printed hearing record: it reports what the CIA and members of Congress said about the programme, not an independent evaluation.
    • Records of the programme were largely destroyed in 1973 (see mkultra-record-c2), so the record does not document the programme's full extent or methods.
    • The stated purpose comes from a 1963 CIA Inspector General memorandum quoted in the Church Committee report excerpt that the record reproduces (footnote 11), not from the 1977 witnesses.
    • Says what the programme was and when it ran. It is not a source on any commercial product, course or claim.

    Who it applies to

    Depends on the setting and the people involved.

    Source

  4. Supported with caveatsMost of the CIA's MKULTRA records were destroyed in January 1973 on the then CIA Director's instruction, and the seven boxes of mostly financial documents found in 1977 left the programme only partly documented.

    Why this label

    Several studies agree, with stated limits such as student samples or lab settings. Demonstrates: Senator Edward Kennedy's opening statement says the records of the CIA's human-experimentation activities were "destroyed in January 1973, at the instruction of then CIA Director Richard Helms" (PDF p. 7). Admiral Turner's prepared statement (PDF pp. 8-9) says that until the 1977 discovery it was believed that "all of the MKULTRA files dealing with behavioral modification had been destroyed in 1973", and that the seven boxes then found held 149 subprojects: "the recovered folders are finance folders", mostly approvals of funds and vouchers, with few status reports on operations or progress. Senator Kennedy added that the recovered records revealed a far more extensive series of experiments than had been thought, involving 86 universities or institutions (PDF p. 7). An excerpt of the Church Committee report (Book I) reproduced in the record (PDF p. 72, printed p. 389) says the records were destroyed by Technical Services Division staff on the verbal orders of its chief, Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, who testified that he was carrying out Helms's verbal order, which Helms confirmed. Marketing framing: none common. Bears on A6.1: an advert cannot cite a hidden CIA method as settled fact when the agency's own records of the programme were destroyed and the surviving ones are mostly financial.

    What it does not show

    • Single hearing record; the account of who ordered the destruction rests on testimony quoted in the record, not on the destroyed documents.
    • The 1977 discovery shows that not all records were destroyed, so "most" is the wording the record supports, not "all".
    • Says nothing about what the destroyed records contained.

    Who it applies to

    Depends on the setting and the people involved.

    Source

  5. PlausibleIn 1977 the CIA's Director told the Senate that the agency had no evidence of great usefulness from the MKULTRA experiments and agreed they produced few useful results; a CIA witness knew of no drug developed under the programme that had reached operational use.

    Why this label

    One study, or indirect evidence from a nearby question. Demonstrates: in one exchange (PDF p. 47), asked by Senator Huddleston whether knowledge from the experiments had been useful or applied to present operations, Admiral Turner said "we have no evidence of great usefulness on this"; asked whether the experimentation produced few useful results or had little application, he replied "I think that is basically correct", adding that the agency had been concerned at the time about what might be done to CIA prisoners abroad. A CIA witness, Mr. Laubinger, said he knew of no drug or similar product developed under the programme that ever reached operational use. This is the agency's own assessment given in a hearing. It concerns the programme's research outputs, mainly drugs; it supplies no evidence that any programme output could reliably control behaviour. Marketing framing: government "mind control" is said to work on command (common framing, unattributed). Bears on A6.1: the agency's own account of its results is closer to "little of use" than to a method that works on command.

    What it does not show

    • The agency's own assessment, in one exchange, with a leading question and a hedged answer ("basically correct"); not an independent evaluation.
    • Turner's answer and Laubinger's remark concern drugs and operational use, not psychological or social methods.
    • Much of the programme's record had been destroyed (see mkultra-record-c2), so the assessment rests on incomplete files.
    • Does not show that no such effect exists, only that these witnesses had no evidence of one.

    Who it applies to

    Depends on the setting and the people involved.

    Source

  6. PlausibleBefore two people meet, more than 100 of their self-reported traits and preferences did not predict which particular person they would end up wanting.

    Why this label

    One study, or indirect evidence from a nearby question. Demonstrates: in two speed-dating studies, models fed more than 100 pre-date self-reports predicted some of how much people desired others in general and how much others desired them in general, but could not predict desire for a specific partner beyond those tendencies; in a preregistered 7-month study of 208 singles, the perceiver-by-target compatibility account got only modest support. Marketing framing: a single hidden attraction trigger that works on a particular person (see dating-frameworks-c7).

    What it does not show

    • Same research group produced both studies; no independent replication found
    • Speed-dating and young single samples, mostly US
    • Self-reported traits; models predict statistically, not for an individual
    • Absence of prediction here does not show compatibility does not exist, only that these measures did not capture it
    • Eastwick et al. 2022 ran a different design (7 months, 208 singles), not a replication

    Who it applies to

    A pattern across groups of people, not a statement about any one person.

    Sources

  7. Supported with caveatsThinking about something repeatedly is not a sign of positive feeling: reviews link repetitive thought and rumination to depression and anxiety, and its effects depend on content and context.

    Why this label

    Several studies agree, with stated limits such as student samples or lab settings. Nolen-Hoeksema and colleagues reviewed evidence that rumination worsens depression and problem solving and erodes social support. Watkins reviewed when repetitive thought is constructive (planning, recovery) versus unconstructive, depending on valence, context and abstract versus concrete thinking.

    What it does not show

    • Both sources are narrative reviews, not systematic reviews or meta-analyses, which is why the level is not well-supported.
    • Reviews concern rumination on distress and problems, not on a person one is attracted to; applying it to attraction is an extrapolation.
    • Much of the evidence is correlational and self-report, with an experimental subset.
    • Constructive repetitive thought exists, so the claim is that preoccupation is not diagnostic of attraction, not that it is always harmful.

    Who it applies to

    A pattern across groups of people, not a statement about any one person.

    Sources