Field Guide
Persuasion techniques, in plain words
These are techniques the app's Field Guide explains, in plain words. It's the same Field Guide the app carries: tap a technique on a label to open its lesson.
Cherry-Picked Evidence
Real-looking facts, chosen carefully: one study, one quote, one chart window — with everything that cuts the other way left out.
Engagement Bait
The content is engineered for the algorithm, not for you: outrage hooks, 'wait for it', comment-fishing questions, or a product link at the end of a 'story'.
Fear & Outrage Framing
The story is packaged to scare or enrage you first and inform you second — dramatic music, sinister framing, worst-case language.
Us vs. Them
The content sorts the world into a virtuous 'us' and a dangerous or idiotic 'them' — and invites you onto the winning team.
Manufactured Urgency
A ticking clock is strapped to the message: act now, share now, buy now — thinking time is framed as danger.
Anecdote as Proof
One vivid story — a recovery, a disaster, a transformation — stands in for evidence about what's generally true.
Bandwagon
Popularity is offered as evidence: view counts, 'everyone is talking about', comment walls of agreement.
Hidden-Truth Framing
The claim comes pre-armored: 'they' are hiding this, which is why you haven't heard it — and any debunking just proves the cover-up.
Whataboutism
A criticism is answered not with a defense but with an accusation pointed elsewhere: 'but what about what they did?'
Social Comparison
Social comparison / appearance framing (a body, a home, an income or a result shown as the standard). One striking example is placed where the ordinary range would be, with the spread and the cost of getting there cropped out.