It's occurred to me that the reason #DuckDuckGo is such an unshakable trend is #DDG marketers are fully exploiting the concept of #socialProof. https://ignitevisibility.com/social-proof/ They have mastered this approach to manipulate people. Everything they do is to leverage social proof. #showerThoughts
@resist1984
Seems to basically be a synonym for good reputation. Are you saying they are manipulating their reputation counter to their actual value?
@tilduke That's an oversimplification. If you're familiar with logical fallacies, #socialProof is a covert way of injecting the "bandwagon fallacy" into your head subconsciously. But it's not just about creating an illusion of numbers of people, but more importantly *people like you*.
@tilduke They want viewers to see people that look like the viewer backing the politician, so that they subconsciously think "people like me like this guy".
@tilduke #DuckDuckGo wants privacy seekers to see other privacy seekers & privacy authority figures referencing #DDG. So DDG does things like donates huge amounts to projects like the #EFF, so that EFF will not only not condemn DDG, but actually recommend DDG. Bruce Schneier is a sell-out because of this. Schneier (a DDG board member) has a DDG search bar on his blog.
@tilduke So when people see Bruce Schneier endorsing DDG, they listen, and follow that example. It works because most people don't know who the sell-outs are. Every move DDG makes is to further the manipulation of #socialProof.
@tilduke E.g. notice how campaigning politicians used to have a curtain or flags behind them when they talk? Now notice that in the past ~10 years or so it has changed, so now there are *people* behind the politican w/a lousy view of the back of the politicans head? That's a deliberate abuse of #socialProof. They place a mix of races, genders, ages, and attactiveness behind the politician.