SarahC comments on The Dark Arts - Preamble - Less Wrong

44 Post author: Aurini 11 October 2010 02:01PM

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Comment author: pjeby 14 October 2010 04:02:36AM 11 points [-]

Influencing someone to take an action that you know she will regret afterwards is manipulative.

What if you also "manipulate" so that it will also not be regretted afterwards?

In marketing at least, there is the concept of customer retention through anticipating and countering buyers' remorse... which mostly, AFAICT, consists of providing a customer with arguments to use to explain to co-workers, friends, relatives, spouses, or whomever why their purchase decision was a good one. This strongly implies that at least in the purchasing arena, the main reason people come to have buyers' remorse (besides crappy products) is that the purchase makes them look bad in the eyes of others.

Hence the marketing adage that the primary function of facts and logic in a sales pitch is to provide the customer with a rationale that lets them prove to themselves and others that they made the right decision... but only after they've been convinced to make that decision based on emotion.

I believe there's some discussion in the PUA field of similar "buyer's remorse" issues and providing the same sort of supporting rationale, except that such rationales are more to allow those women who are uncomfortable with casual sex to rationalize that it e.g. "just happened" (i.e., neither she nor the PUA truly intended it, so she is neither a slut nor a victim) or that it falls into the category of "once-in-a-lifetime encounter", or something else that can be reconciled with her belief system or social image in a non-harmful way.

In either case, a wise "salesperson" takes care to find a way to allow a person to reconcile their actions with their self-perception of "character" or their "usual self".

Comment author: [deleted] 14 October 2010 04:50:42AM 2 points [-]

Incidentally, my personal model of an "ethical PUA" is Founding Father Gouverneur Morris, who told his lover, "I never lost respect for those who consented to make me happy on the principles of affection."

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 14 October 2010 12:26:52PM 2 points [-]

Isn't that kind of a low standard? I'm glad he doesn't do slut-shaming, but I'm curious about what the women involved think about his effect on their lives.

I expect he's said other things you've liked, but what you quoted is actually that unusual, it might enough by itself to explain why women are apt to be nervous around men.

Comment author: [deleted] 14 October 2010 01:00:03PM 1 point [-]

If it helps, he lived in the 18th century -- he was one of the framers of the U.S. Constitution.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 14 October 2010 01:06:47PM 2 points [-]

Thanks-- I didn't bother to google, and your phrasing left it unclear about whether he was a Founding Father of the US or PUA.

Still, how common do you think it is for men to see women as lowering their own status by consenting to sex?

Comment author: [deleted] 14 October 2010 01:31:09PM 5 points [-]

Still pretty common, unfortunately.

But I wouldn't single out a contemporary man for praise just because he didn't slut-shame. It's more remarkable 250 years ago.

Comment author: wedrifid 14 October 2010 03:17:00PM 2 points [-]

Still, how common do you think it is for men to see women as lowering their own status by consenting to sex?

Depending on the social group somewhat less common than women lowering the status of others via judgement on that criteria - for most part it is women who are the more direct rivals with other women.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 14 October 2010 05:58:55PM 1 point [-]

I wasn't clear-- I meant the specific case of a man lowering the status of a woman for consenting to sex with him.

Comment author: CronoDAS 15 October 2010 01:26:36AM *  3 points [-]

Hamlet, Act IV, Scene V:
(Ophelia is singing bawdy songs)

Quoth she, before you tumbled me,
You promised me to wed.
So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed.