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How Manipulation Works Masterclass (9-in-1 Course Bundle)
Role Play
Rating: 4.3 out of 5(21 ratings)
3,306 students

How Manipulation Works Masterclass (9-in-1 Course Bundle)

You'll learn about all possible types of manipulation, and how to defend yourself, in nine different industries
Created byVasco Patrício
Last updated 2/2026
English
English [Auto],

What you'll learn

  • You'll learn about the different types of manipulation in research and science
  • You'll learn about specific examples of how each type of manipulation may be used in research
  • You'll learn about how to protect yourself against each of these types as a scientist
  • You'll learn about combinations of the different types of manipulation in research or science projects

Course content

3 sections102 lectures4h 27m total length
  • Introduction4:41
  • Useful Information2:09
  • Consistency Manipulation6:28

    Discover how consistency manipulation uses commitment and first-person actions to steer behavior, via escalation, the Ikea effect, habits, rationalization, and contracts like terms of service.

  • Consistency Manipulation Quiz
  • Consistency Manipulation in Asset Management2:07

    Explore how consistency manipulation affects asset management, where verbal agreements shape future compliance and suppress questioning. See how allocation decisions and demands trigger cost bias and alignment traps.

  • Consistency Manipulation in Corporate/Careers1:24
  • Consistency Manipulation in Executive Relations1:51
  • Consistency Manipulation in Legal Practice1:43
  • Consistency Manipulation in Marketing1:32
  • Consistency Manipulation in Politics1:20
  • Consistency Manipulation in Research2:02
  • Consistency Manipulation in Sales1:36
  • Consistency Manipulation in Startups1:23
  • Emotional Manipulation4:47
  • Emotional Manipulation Quiz
  • Emotional Manipulation in Asset Management1:05

    Explore how emotional manipulation can influence asset management, including emotionally attached fund managers, pressure on traders and analysts, and investor decisions driven by fear of losses.

  • Emotional Manipulation in Corporate/Careers1:20
  • Emotional Manipulation in Executive Relations1:25

    Explore how emotional manipulation shapes executive dynamics in the boardroom by leveraging fear, greed, and status to force buy-in or action through threats, promises of profit, or intimidation.

  • Emotional Manipulation in Legal Practice1:06
  • Emotional Manipulation in Marketing2:00

    Explore how marketers wield positive and negative emotions, fear and scarcity, and anticipation to drive action by linking dream outcomes to a product through the hero's journey pattern.

  • Emotional Manipulation in Politics1:20
  • Emotional Manipulation in Research1:16
  • Emotional Manipulation in Sales1:52
  • Emotional Manipulation in Startups1:29

    Explore how founders' emotions and vision shape startup dynamics, revealing emotional manipulation patterns like forcing unrealistic bets, changing their minds, taking others' ideas, pressuring strict deadlines, and promising clients outcomes.

  • Effort Manipulation5:36

    Examine how perceived effort drives action via effort manipulation, where two thirds of effort is mental. Apply techniques like low effort words, fewer options, and uncertainty reduction to boost engagement.

  • Effort Manipulation Quiz
  • Effort Manipulation in Asset Management1:47
  • Effort Manipulation in Corporate/Careers1:20
  • Effort Manipulation in Executive Relations1:21
  • Effort Manipulation in Legal Practice2:21
  • Effort Manipulation in Marketing1:27
  • Effort Manipulation in Politics1:09
  • Effort Manipulation in Research1:37

    Use effort manipulation in research to change perceptions of the work and secure support from others by portraying tasks as quick and easy.

  • Effort Manipulation in Sales1:18
  • Effort Manipulation in Startups1:46

    Explore how startups manipulate effort to make products seem easier, drive growth, and preempt doubts with simple pitches, landing pages, and quick access.

  • Role Play: Consistency, Emotion, Effort
  • Standard Manipulation6:54

    Standard manipulation changes criteria to skew comparisons, creating unfair evaluations through exceptions, motivated reasoning, and hidden double standards. Demand transparency to expose differing standards and guard against biased performance reviews.

  • Standard Manipulation Quiz
  • Standard Manipulation in Asset Management2:08
  • Standard Manipulation in Corporate/Careers1:32
  • Standard Manipulation in Executive Relations1:08
  • Standard Manipulation in Legal Practice1:45

    Explore standard manipulation in legal practice by requesting different adjudications or damages as exceptions, and by portraying cases as non-comparable to precedents using extra criteria.

  • Standard Manipulation in Marketing1:27
  • Standard Manipulation in Politics1:15

    Explore how standard manipulation in politics creates favorable comparisons and hides the actual criteria, using tactics like trust us claims, different criteria, or exceptions.

  • Standard Manipulation in Research2:16
  • Standard Manipulation in Sales1:27

    Explore standard manipulation in sales through unfair comparisons that judge competitors harsher than your own product, aided by motivated reasoning and selective criteria.

  • Standard Manipulation in Startups2:29

    Expose survivorship bias in startups and how it shapes success narratives and widely held judgments. Highlight how events, awards, and sponsorship can distort standards, reward manipulation, and influence employee outcomes.

  • Pressure Manipulation5:09
  • Pressure Manipulation Quiz
  • Pressure Manipulation in Asset Management1:27
  • Pressure Manipulation in Corporate/Careers1:09

    Explore how pressure manipulation operates in corporate settings, from using intensity and bluffing to create fear and scarcity, and how leaders and HR respond in real-world scenarios.

  • Pressure Manipulation in Executive Relations1:37
  • Pressure Manipulation in Legal Practice1:25
  • Pressure Manipulation in Marketing1:46

    explore how pressure manipulation in marketing leverages artificial scarcity, time limits, and fear of missing out to prompt rapid purchases through emotional triggers.

  • Pressure Manipulation in Politics1:28

    politicians use pressure manipulation to instill fear and panic, driving action or votes by painting nightmare scenarios and signaling real or artificial scarcity.

  • Pressure Manipulation in Research1:15
  • Pressure Manipulation in Sales1:25

    Explore pressure manipulation in high-pressure sales, where closers push for immediate decisions, use intimidation on calls, and deploy fake scarcity to seal the sale right away.

  • Pressure Manipulation in Startups2:13
  • Identification Manipulation5:59
  • Identification Manipulation Quiz
  • Identification Manipulation in Asset Management1:19

    Identify manipulation tactics in asset management that emphasize common diligence to secure allocations and persuade traders to adopt changes in investment processes, such as allocation size.

  • Identification Manipulation in Corporate/Careers1:15

    Identification manipulation uses managers with strong social skills to claim common ground and show understanding, persuading reports by sharing personal experiences and suggesting career-path alignment.

  • Identification Manipulation in Executive Relations1:32
  • Identification Manipulation in Legal Practice2:03
  • Identification Manipulation in Marketing1:20
  • Identification Manipulation in Politics1:13
  • Identification Manipulation in Research1:32
  • Identification Manipulation in Sales1:09

    Identify manipulation tactics in sales by recognizing how salespeople build connections through shared experiences, personal traits, and feelings during face-to-face interactions in sectors like real estate and high-ticket sales.

  • Identification Manipulation in Startups2:13
  • Role Play: Standard, Pressure, Identification
  • Fact Manipulation5:50

    Examine how fact manipulation works by changing numbers, omitting data, and shifting context through comparisons, with tools for demanding transparency and placing facts in proper perspective.

  • Fact Manipulation Quiz
  • Fact Manipulation in Asset Management1:54
  • Fact Manipulation in Corporate/Careers0:59

    Discover how managers and employees manipulate facts, lying about results or perks to influence decisions. See how twisting or omitting negatives can boost support in meetings.

  • Fact Manipulation in Executive Relations1:21

    Analyze how fact manipulation occurs in boardroom contexts when executives change metric weights across projects and initiatives, downplaying management while highlighting sales and operational optimization.

  • Fact Manipulation in Legal Practice1:55

    examine how fact manipulation occurs in legal practice through obfuscation and omission, potentially constituting perjury or compromising credibility by presenting partial truths, with examples about confidential information and percentage.

  • Fact Manipulation in Marketing2:01
  • Fact Manipulation in Politics1:31
  • Fact Manipulation in Research1:34
  • Fact Manipulation in Sales1:42
  • Fact Manipulation in Startups2:13
  • Context Manipulation8:09
  • Context Manipulation Quiz
  • Context Manipulation in Asset Management2:03

    Examine how context manipulation in asset management changes baselines and metrics like alpha, risk, and value at risk, and how fund comparisons and past performance can mislead.

  • Context Manipulation in Corporate/Careers1:45
  • Context Manipulation in Executive Relations1:36
  • Context Manipulation in Legal Practice1:37
  • Context Manipulation in Marketing2:01
  • Context Manipulation in Politics1:29
  • Context Manipulation in Research1:17
  • Context Manipulation in Sales1:46

    Explore how context manipulation reshapes sales by comparing products, using anchoring and discounts, and highlighting the good of your offer over competitors.

  • Context Manipulation in Startups2:31

    Explore how startups manipulate context by framing markets, comparisons, and associations to shape investor perceptions and perceived credibility.

  • Labeling Manipulation6:53
  • Labeling Manipulation Quiz
  • Labeling Manipulation in Asset Management1:39

    Labeling manipulation in asset management can occur accidentally and leave a lasting, misleading impression on funds, traders, and IPMs, even after a strong track record and performance rebounds.

  • Labeling Manipulation in Corporate/Careers1:19
  • Labeling Manipulation in Executive Relations1:24

    Explore how labeling manipulation operates in executive relations, from subtle adjectives to destructive accusations, and learn how powerful labels shape perceptions and undermine teams.

  • Labeling Manipulation in Legal Practice1:37
  • Labeling Manipulation in Marketing1:49
  • Labeling Manipulation in Politics1:33
  • Labeling Manipulation in Research1:23
  • Labeling Manipulation in Sales1:13
  • Labeling Manipulation in Startups2:17

    Explore labeling manipulation in startups by comparing competitors with negative labels, creating sticky impressions, and labeling people and products to influence perception and decisions.

  • Role Play: Fact, Context, Labeling
  • Outro3:39

Requirements

  • You don't need any prior knowledge (naturally, a knowledge of persuasion/psychology helps, but is NOT required)

Description

A MATTER OF MANIPULATION

Manipulation is, no doubt, dangerous in the world of today.

It's important to be able to identify it so that you can stop it in its tracks.

You can be manipulated:

  • At work, by your manager or coworkers;

  • In business relationships, by partners or suppliers;

  • In relationships or friendships, through emotion or even bullying;

  • By politicians, the media or others, with false numbers;

  • By any type of person that wants to drive you to a specific type of action;

Although manipulation is easy in practice, it's hard to master if not properly explained. Among other reasons, because other courses don't talk about all possible types of manipulation (emotional, numerical, psychological, etc).

In fact, you'll be lucky if they cover more than one type.

Let's face it. No course can cover all possible types of manipulation.

That was, until this course came out.



LIKE ALL OTHER COURSES. UNLIKE ANY OTHER COURSE.

Unlike other courses on persuasion and manipulation, this one is extremely comprehensive. With this course, I am to cover all possible types of manipulation.

There are countless types of techniques, including:

  • Making the other side feel comfortable with you, so they drop their guard;

  • Obfuscate or change the actual facts to make something seem better or worse;

  • Compare something to better or worse things to change its value just due to the comparison;

  • ... and many other techniques;

In this short course, we have only one goal: to cover the different types of manipulation. How people manipulate using emotion, using the target's identity, using the facts, and so on.

In order to achieve this, we split manipulation into the following types:

  • Consistency Manipulation (get someone to state something or do something favorable, and they will keep aligned with that);

  • Emotional Manipulation (emotional blackmail, bullying someone, or making them feel different emotions);

  • Effort Manipulation (change the perceived effort of something and you change how frequently people do it);

  • Standard Manipulation (measure different things by different criteria, and they seem of different value);

  • Pressure Manipulation (pressure the other side through intimidation, deadlines, or others, and they rush to action);

  • Identification Manipulation (make the other side feel heard or understood and their drop their guard);

  • Fact Manipulation (hide facts, change facts or simplify facts and you change something's value);

  • Context Manipulation (change what something is compared to, or emphasize specific characteristics, and you change its value);

  • Labeling Manipulation (attribute something a simplistic name or label, and you change its value);

By the end of this course, you will know all about these types of manipulation, as well as how to fight them.



WHAT IS THE MASTERCLASS?

As part of the "How Manipulation Works" series, I have developed nine different courses for different verticals.

The legal practice. The corporate world. Asset management. Politics. And many others.

This masterclass contains all 9 courses rolled up into one.

This is the course for the type of person who is very curious (or undecided!) and wants to know how manipulation can be used in any and every area of life.



THE PERFECT COURSE... FOR WHOM?

This course is targeted, naturally, at any type of student that wants to learn more about how manipulation is performed, or how to stop it.

More specifically, the ideal student for this course is someone who:

  • Wants to know how to question the numbers and labels provided by politicians or news outlets;

  • Doesn't want to be emotionally manipulated or even bullied by people at work (possibly, their bosses);

  • Wants to be able to know when people are faking numbers or using double standards, in work or life;

  • Wants to know when others are changing the options just to make something seem better in comparison;

  • Wants to be able to fight emotional manipulation or emotional blackmail by friends or coworkers;

  • Wants to learn how to not be pressured into taking action by people that are very present or intense;

  • Doesn't want to fall into traps when other make something seem too easy or too good to be true;



LET ME TELL YOU... EVERYTHING

Some people - including me - love to know what they're getting in a package.

And by this, I mean, EVERYTHING that is in the package.

So, here is a list of everything that this course covers:

  • You'll learn about the nine main types of manipulation you can fall prey to (consistency manipulation, emotional manipulation, effort manipulation, standard manipulation, pressure manipulation, identification manipulation, fact manipulation, context manipulation and labeling manipulation;

  • You'll learn about how the psychological principle of consistency works, and how people use it to force others to act in alignment with what they have said or done before;

    • You'll learn about the persuasion technique of active choice - forcing someone to state something in the first person, such as "I will do this" or "I will buy" in order to force them to keep aligned with their statement later;

    • You'll learn about the persuasion principle of escalation of commitment. By asking for small favors or small agreements, you can then ask for bigger and bigger ones later;

    • You'll learn about why getting someone to take action on something makes them more likely to value it. For example, the IKEA effect - you will like more a piece of furniture if you've put in effort towards assembling it yourself;

    • You'll learn about how habits are a form of consistency. What you do once, twice ends up becoming ingrained in you;

    • You'll learn about the psychological principle of rationalisation - how people make emotional decisions, and then later try and justify them with logic;

  • You'll learn about how emotional manipulation works, by forcing the other side to feel a specific emotion, or feel guilty for their actions against you, such as emotional blackmail;

    • You'll learn about how hype and desire work by building up something in a person's mind, regardless of its actual value in reality;

    • You'll learn about how the concept of twisting the knife works, by making someone visualize the nightmare scenario of something to later drive them to action;

    • You'll learn about how bullying and emotional blackmail work, taking negative actions and forcing the person to feel responsible for them;

    • You'll learn about how fear and panic work. If you "press someone's buttons", you can easily drive them to action emotionally;

    • You'll learn about why emotional manipulation relies on the victim identifying with the person's reactions, and how the key in avoiding it is to eliminate those trained reactions;

  • You'll learn about the psychological concept of perceived effort - why, when something seems easier to do, people are more likely to do it - and how this effort can be changed;

    • You'll learn about how "low-effort words" such as "quick", "simple" and "easy" can be used to make something seem less effortful;

    • You'll learn about how reducing the number of available options makes people take action more easily (the paradox of choice);

    • You'll learn about how preempting doubt and negative situations can drive people to action (tackle their objection before they even have it and they are more likely to do something);

    • You'll learn about the concept of implementation intention (asking someone "How would you do this?" or "What would it take?" makes them visualize it, which makes it less effort, and makes them more likely to do it);

    • You'll learn about how inserting structure and/or progress into a process makes people more likely to finish it ("You are at step 3 of 4");

  • You'll learn about how standard manipulation works by having different standards for different people or elements;

    • You'll learn about how standards can be made different by hiding the criteria used in the first place;

    • You'll learn about how standards can be manipulated by making exceptions for specific people;

    • You'll learn about how motivated reasoning works (we do more diligence on the things we don't like, and vice-versa);

    • You'll learn about how unexpected rigidity changes standards (on paper, the requirements are the same, but unofficially, there are different things that different people must comply with);

    • You'll learn about how standard manipulation relies on hiding the criteria used in the first place, and the key to disarming it is through transparency, and forcing comparisons between cases;

  • You'll learn about how pressuring the other person using your presence and intensity is a dangerous type of manipulation;

    • You'll learn about how intimidation in specific works, by pressuring the other person so much you prevent them from even talking or contesting you;

    • You'll learn about how urgency works by forcing you to make an unprepared decision, using, for example, deadlines, or limiting the availability of something (in reality or just in your perception);

    • How bluffing and escalation dominance work - the other side takes action repeatedly as to never give you an opportunity;

  • You'll learn about how identification manipulation works, through the other side pretending to have something in common with you to make you more influenceable;

    • You'll learn about how empathy works, showing understanding of the other side, but also how it can be manipulated to make you feel understood and be more influenceable;

    • You'll learn about how affect labeling works, decreasing the intensity of your emotions by addressing them verbally, and stopping you from feeling emotions intensely;

    • You'll learn about how mirroring works, making someone feel subconsciously understood, which leads them to trust the other side more and be more influenceable;

    • You'll learn about how common ground works - mentioning tastes or life experiences in common with others to make them trust you more and be more influenceable;

    • You'll learn about why the biological principle of caring about others makes us tend to be nice to others who understand us - or pretend to - and makes us open to manipulation;

  • You'll learn about how fact manipulation works through simplifying, hiding or just lying about facts;

    • You'll learn about how statistics can be misleading by changing axes, comparisons, timeframes or others;

    • You'll learn about how lack of transparency about competing or contradictory information can make fake facts seem more real, and why comparison with other elements is crucial to avoid this type of manipulation;

  • You'll learn about how context manipulation works - by changing what you compare something to, you change its perceived value;

    • You'll learn about how you can choose what you contrast something to in order to change the value of something ($20 book vs. $10 ones is expensive, vs. $70 ones is cheap);

    • You'll learn about how you can change the option set you place yourself in to change your value and manipulate the other side (for example, as a professional, comparing yourself to other teams, to other people in the same team, to other people in the same position in the past, or other comparisons);

    • You'll learn about how the peak-end effect works - by having one highlight and ending on a high note, people forget about negative or boring parts of a presentation;

    • You'll learn about why context manipulation relies on us subconsciously accepting the options we're given instead of contesting them;

  • You'll learn about how labeling manipulation works - by giving something a specific name, even if simplistic or negative, it tends to stick, and spreads easily;

    • You'll learn about how bullying works by using negative labels - labeling someone a "failure", or "loser", or similar, and making it spread;

    • You'll learn about how stereotypes are a type of labeling manipulation - labeling a large quantity of people with simplistic names;

    • You'll learn about how the presence or absence of a name can humanize or de-humanize someone, making them a "true person" or a nameless stranger;

    • You'll learn about how scientific-sounding words can be used to make something seem of higher authority, without actually changing anything in it (saying "a theory" instead of "a thought", or using words in product names such as "quantum", "exponential", "atomic" or similar);



MY INVITATION TO YOU

Remember that you always have a 30-day money-back guarantee, so there is no risk for you.

Also, I suggest you make use of the free preview videos to make sure the course really is a fit. I don't want you to waste your money.

If you think this course is a fit and can take your knowledge of how to protect yourself from manipulation to the next level... it would be a pleasure to have you as a student.

See on the other side!

Who this course is for:

  • You're anyone in science or research, who wants to learn how to identify and stop manipulation around them!
  • You're anyone who wants to know what manipulation traps exist, so you can simply avoid them