February 1, 2016

Waitresses in Red


Vector illustration of vintage menu cover for pub or cafe retro waitress in red dress holding tray with beer order New Year and Christmas holidays Santa girl in red hat and with braids

Today I wish to draw your attention once again to some of the games played to win your hearts and minds. Just a few days ago I saw Donald Trump appear on television at a rally, open collar, no tie, red baseball cap, and the American Flag pin on his lapel. So what?

Primes
Do you know the power of the color red? Did you know that a waitress will get larger tips if she wears red and this is regardless of the customer’s gender? Are you aware that the American Flag pin is a prime, that is, it feeds a particular kind of response, just like the red dress or a bottle of hand sanitizer? For example, if you answer a survey designed to measure your bias on a scale of liberal to conservative, that the simple presence of a jar of hand sanitizer will skew your answers toward the conservative. And if you think about it this prime becomes obvious—hand sanitizer is a warning, a cautionary foretelling of danger, germs, disease, etc. This alone causes us to think of protection and that leads us toward some conservative values. And what about the open collar—I mean we never saw Trump in his Apprentice show with an open collar, so why now?

Do you know what a tie means? Are you aware that primes such as a briefcase have been shown to diminish sharing? Why? Because business primes suggest profit and even selfishness to the average person. Think about that, do you think that successful business people share less? Take the tie off, open the collar, wear a blue shirt even and now the image is one that suggests blue-collar values. Does that matter to most Americans? Think of the Occupy Wall Street movement and you have your answer. As an interesting aside, as the Iowa caucuses convene, Trump is leading with blue-collar evangelicals. Coincidence?

Free will is not be free
I flesh all this sort of thing out and how it impinges on our every decision in my book, Gotcha! The Subordination of Free Will. But if you haven’t yet read it—to today’s point: please be aware of the many ways you are manipulated, the numerous tools and techniques that are used against you to silently tweak your subconscious. There is a common saying that freedom is not free. Well free will may not be as free as you think either.

As always, I appreciate your feedback and thanks for the read.

Eldon Taylor

Eldon Taylor

Eldon Taylor
Provocative Enlightenment
NY Time Bestselling Author of Choices and Illusions
www.eldontaylor.com