Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say

by Douglas Rushkoff

Noted media pundit Douglas Rushkoff gives a devastating critique of the influence techniques behind our culture of rampant consumerism. With a skilled analysis of how experts in the fields of marketing, advertising, retail atmospherics, and hand-selling attempt to take away our ability to make rational decisions, Rushkoff delivers a bracing account of why we buy what we buy, and helps us recognize when we're being treated like consumers instead of human beings.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sociology, Psychology, Politics, History, Philosophy, Social Science

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Douglas Rushkoff is a New York-based writer, columnist and lecturer on technology, media and popular culture.

Reviews

[Burt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to read this book without getting angry. I've paged through it over the past few years, always trying to go through it in a straight line. However, I seem to end up, more often than not, just paging through it.

The book studies the art of manipulation. How it's plied and how it's used to keep us as a people from getting up or resisting. It goes as simple as your local shopping mall to as complex as your shopping mall (the micro and macro level of coercion in commerce is amazing).

One of the best cases in point points out that the book is made to be coercive itself. No one communicates for the sheer pleasure of it. Everytime someone opens their mouth, it's because they want something. Everytime someone does something, it's because they want something. This book lays that fact bare and displays it within the first couple of pages, then deconstructs how it is people make you compliant with their wishes and how the coerce you into doing things they want you to do.

I'd say read the book, but that would be coercing you - wouldn't it...?

[Abel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Algunos trozos del libro se han quedado un poco viejos (ahora mismo creo que tiene la friolera de 20 años) pero el mensaje sigue 100% vigente. Sólo hay que cambiar unas tecnologías por otras y unos vendedores por otros. De hecho, da yuyu ver cómo el Maravilloso Mundo de Internet nos está intentando convertir a todos en vendedores de algo. Como poco, de nosotros mismos.

[Fernando del Alamo · Rating 4 out of 5]

En este libro, el autor nos da un repaso sobre las técnicas que se utilizan ya no para convencer a una persona de algo, sino para que esta persona asimile actuar de determinada manera olvidando la razón.

Está dividido en varios apartados, tantos como sistemas hay para hacerlo según el autor, como el cara a cara, la creación de atmósferas para convencernos de algo, los perfumes, la creación de espectáculo, las relaciones públicas y las estructuras piramidales.

Me ha gustado mucho una parte en la que dice los 20 puntos que él considera en un grupo de gente para que sea una secta. Muy acertados.

El último capítulo, en el que habla de Internet, lo he leído en diagonal. Hay que pensar que estelibro es del año 2000 y hoy día lo que dice está algo pasado.

Libro muy entretenido salvo esta última parte, salvo el últio capítulo, como comentaba, y a los que guste la sociología, psicología y dinámica de grupos, le encantará.

[Brett Powers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in a time before shopping malls were abandoned by consumers finding better deals and less hassle online, this book is a little dated, but if you're old enough to remember the pseudo-rebellious consumerism of the 90's, you will have a better understanding of the stories this book tells about the evolution of our consumer culture. Douglas Rushkoff writes with an analytical wit that feels (to me) like a Chuck Palahniuk character writing a non fiction book about marketing and consumerism.

Coercion features interviews with old-school salesmen sharing their techniques, then contemporary Madison Avenue professionals opening up about newer strategies, the creation and evolution of shopping malls and flagship stores, the tactics of religious, political, and professional sports organizations; this book covers a good stretch of modern history and subjects without being too lengthy, while the writing style is entertaining and easy to digest.

This book satisfied the cynic within me which never seems to die.

[Anita · Rating 5 out of 5]

From pg. 270: "Coercion is much more debilitating than persuasion or even influence. Persuasion is simply an attempt to steer someone's thinking by logic. Influence is the act of applying readily discernible presssure: I want you to do this; I have power over you, so do it. Coercion seeks to stymie our rational processes in order to make us act against, or, at the very least, without, our better judgement. Once immersed in a coercive system, we act without conscious control. We act automatically, from a place that has little to do with reason."
This book was interesting and actually addresses all three issues. Being aware of the ways in which we are being manipulated is the first step in countering these tactics. I think the 20 steps presented in the chapter on Pyramids was one of the best summary of elements defining cultish organizations. I liked the way the author was able to extrapolate these characteristics and illustrate how they operate to make people vulnerable.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I asked my Dad to choose from his bookshelf and give me a book to read. He came back with Coercion by Douglas Rushkoff.

This book investigates the art of manipulation and how coercive tactics are used everyday. It was hard to read this book without getting frustrated and I think the chapter about Pyramid Scheme’s frustrated me the most. It was interesting to read about the similarities between multi-level marketing company’s who use the pyramid scheme and cults.

The most interesting fact I learned from this book was where to sit in the cinema. If you sit on the right, you will more likely engage more emotionally to the film because you are looking up and to the left which activates the right side of the brain, which is responsible for creativity. Sit on the left of the cinema for documentaries, so you watch it with a more logical mind.

I’m giving this book 4 stars because this book was published in 1998 and I’ve read it in 2019 so it’s a little dated but it’s still relevant! I’ve learned a lot from this book so I think I shall read Rushkoff’s more recent releases.

[Mark Gazica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though a little dated at this point, Rushkoff does an excellent job of depicting how (90s) contemporary American culture coerces as to act in ways that are not always in our best interests. My favorite part about reading contemporarily relevant books well after their publication is seeing how many predictions the author is able to get right, and boy does Rushkoff predict sweeping trends like social media, cell phone mania, and 24 hours news anxiety. His writing can be a little stand-offish at times, but when dealing with such volatile subject matter, perhaps it's better to just be blunt.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given at least some of this book covers the internet and it was written in 1999 it has dated. It was OK though I came away feeling I had less knowledge than I could have had about how people are persuading me and no idea what to do about it.

[Gabriel Eggers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I little bit dated now, but a nice primer on thinking about the coercive tactics employed by marketeers and how coercion has altered our society, lives, and behavior. This is definitely a particular viewpoint and a fairly dark one in many respects, but there is a lot of truth to it.

[Nightkid · Rating 3 out of 5]

　應該是成書年代距今略嫌遙遠一些，書中所述的強制推銷術技巧並無太大新意－－事實上，作者提到的大部分技巧，我已從其他林林總總的書籍中看過。
　　全書中最有共鳴的是大型購物中心的內容：大型購物中心的設計目的，是為了讓顧客迷路，每次要購物時，顧客總要繞過一間又一間的商店，才抵達目標店鋪，感覺其實蠻糟糕的，這亦是我不喜歡逛街的原因。

[Mina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Написана е увлекателно за книга с толкова много полезна информация.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dated; but a nice overview of some of the techniques used by marketing and advertising.

[Ken Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing how we're manipulated, do we really have our own thoughts?

[Darryl Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought provoking, but now somewhat dated. Reading it in 2025, nearly 26 years after it was first published, the book still has value today.

[Dixie Flatline · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the positive side, the book enumerates in a thorough and riveting prose the various ways that big business, the advertising industry and small door-to-door and car salesmen use to influence our desires and thinking and to get us to buy more and more products we might not necessarily need.

The book covers strong sales tactics based on personal charm and persuasion skills used by salesmen of all stripes; explores the science of scents, sounds and product placement to make us more likely to buy in stores; laments the conversion of sporting events into advertisement vehicles; dives into the art of public relations, of telling the same truth but changing the story; follows the evolution of printed and TV advertising, cautions us from getting trapped in pyramid schemes, and finishes with the Internet.

Unfortunately, in the effort to instill the sense of alarm and to capture the imagination of the reader, the author overdoes the colorful, invective descriptions to ridiculous levels. How about this: "Fueling this crisis most of all are the media-savvy consumers who, like bacteria treated with antibiotics, grow ever more resistant to the machinations of this fractious industry"; or "The people making television are programming not just their fall lineups; they're programming /us/". Similar passages can be found throughout, and pull the level of the discourse towards something that could be heard from weird demonstrators in front of the White House, rather than from a scholarly expert in the subject.

The chapter about the Internet is hopelessly outdated - ten years is an age in the evolution of the Net. I feel that none of the pessimistic predictions made by Rushkoff have come true, and actually, the free / non-profit (Wikipedia) and user-driven (Flickr, Facebook, Twitter...) sites are only getting more popular and influential.

In fact, and not only in regard to the Internet, many of the dire predictions and observations made by the author do not ring true to me. As a Millennial used to the Internet and devouring mountains of information on a daily basis, I do not find advertising and persuasion affecting me or my purchasing decisions in the ways described by this book. But it was an interesting read nevertheless, so it earns the two stars.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a marketing guru, but I've always been interested in the psychology of how to communicate, market, persuade, and influence. When I picked up this book years ago, it was to learn just that. However, when I picked it up to read it, it was to help my marketing team design a marketing platform that wasn't sleazy, cheesy, or out-dated.

What I learnt was both our own mind's workings and how to market in a way that won't haunt me.

Rushkoff shows you the history of marketing in all it's glamour, triteness, and coercive horrors from really beginning in the Roaring 20s to modern day. He leads you on a historical journey showing how the art and science of marketing evolved with the times, how it became an aggressive "arms race" between potential consumer and companies.

What Rushkoff doesn't show you is the human element of communicating with one another. Reason? This book is more of a cautionary tale of just how bloody corrupt things can get, but how as each of us get used to the marketing, we become resistant to it. Cult mentalities (Apple), MLM marketing schemes (Mary Kay/Tupperware/Cutco/etc), themed flagship stores (Disney/Nike/etc.) are all part of the modern world. They are made to delight, subtly guide you into their narrative, show you how the world can be, and invite you to be part of their narrative.

The way he writes it with a definite distaste towards the beauty of making a branded fantasy world and inviting others to live in it. This is none clearer than in the last chapters on modern marketing in the age of the internet. It's not just the banners everywhere that we have learnt to ignore no matter how gaudy and flashy they are, but his displeasure at the way the internet is being used for a commercial use instead of mostly for letting knowledge free-flow from person to person without restriction.

While he might hold a vaguely Utopian view on the commercialisation of everything (which seems to ignore cultures at large), Rushkoff points out some more darker shades of this reality in how "they" track us across the internet and team up to offer us personlised experiences -- no matter how much this might box us in.

All in all, this was a very informative book. It's hard to believe that I learnt some history, psychology, marketing tactics, and even some cyber security.

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rushkoff's writing is as clear and interesting as usual, even if the content itself is somewhat necessarily dated.

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I started reading this book back in 1999 (give or take a year or two). When I started reading it my view of the world was completely "based on reality" as I would have likely put it then. I studied people and (I thought) I understood how easily most people were herded like cattle by finding out what they wanted and then using whatever that was to direct them towards an end that was beneficial to me.

I still think there is a lot of potential truth to that; but now I think that the whole idea of living with those sorts of things in mind is (if you will excuse the pun); coercive. My desire to coerce others has died.

I experienced a paradigm shift around the year 2001; this why I largely stopped reading this book and even then I only visited a few pages from time to time. ... Simply having it around was reminder enough of what I had read. Roughly eighteen years later I started reading it a bit more regularly again. My paradigm shift of nearly two decades previous had matured. And now I considered the insights book provided, as sort of "pointers" to a common weakness, or perhaps corruption in man. So much of this book is "spot on". Within the discipline of modern anthropology, this book has become a sort of second bible to me.

"Our chief comforts often produce our greatest anxieties, and the increase in our possessions is but an inlet to new disquietudes." - Oliver Goldsmith

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally someone more cynical than me! In Coercion, Rushkoff recounts his adventures in advertising and marketing after Media Virus made him a talking head for the mass media. Throughout the book he shows how marketing has co-opted fringe culture's weapons. The underlying premise of the book is that there really isn't one group or concept that controls the world/marketing/culture. Coercion isn't just happening from the top down; every culture and subculture is influencing others and together our culture is a network of coercion. I think this belongs in the marketing library right alongside Duncan J. Watts' work (and I guess The Tipping Point since that work has created the dominant terminology we use).

[John G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up at a massive clearance sale, glad I did. This book was written in 1999, right before the internet took hold and I'd love to read more of the author's books since then. I like his tone, he's clearly an insider I might even call him a bit of a whistle blower, but a reluctant one. This book is disturbing, the author still has personal integrity which I'm sure is what compelled him to share these trade secrets. Very eye-opening for sure, confirms my already low opinion of marketers, demagogues, salesmen, religious charlatans, advertisers, and the media in general. I'm very interested in reading more of this guy's work, he does have a website too at: http://www.rushkoff.com/

[Colleen Wainwright · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is dated in many places; I skimmed, then skipped the entire section on virtual marketing. It's also overly long for how deep it dives, and I was annoyed by the author's seeming discomfort with his own complicity in feeding the beast.

But many of its truths remains evergreen: we're still a consumerist culture; we're still fear-based organisms; we're still handing over our freedom and the happiness that comes with it to people who promise us salvation in whatever form looks good right now. It would have made a killer long piece in The Atlantic or Harper's or the Guardian, and may have begun that way—Rushkoff was a regular contributor to a few pubs, including the Guardian, back in 1999. Worth cherry-picking the parts you're interested in.

[Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about the techniques that marketers use to make us want, nay need their stuff. It discusses the psychological, sociological, and behavioral research that goes on behind the scenes as marketers compete for our "wallet-share" and "mind-share". Best of all, it profiles the PR professionals that large companies call in when they have done very bad things. The information may be a bit outdated (published in 2000, I read it in '01), but it was an engrossing read at the time and changed the way I've looked at marketing since.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book looked like it would be a lot more interesting than it was. This may be because Coercion is dated - written/published in 1999/2000. Had I realized that, I might not have bought it. Rushkoff's palpable disappointment that the Internet didn't save us from the "arms race" of consumers and advertisers trying outfox one another is so raw, it could only have been pre-bubble. Notably missing from a book of this vintage, of course, is a catalog of the ways our current administration has so shamelessly coerced and manipulated the electorate.

[Andrew Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rushkoff is fun to read, but sometimes his work sacrificies substance for style. To be sure, I am generally on board with his anti-corporate agenda, and this book is a great introductory exploration of the coercive tools used by marketers and politicians to control the behavior of "the masses."

However, Rushkoff has a tendency - shared by many lefty media critics - to noodle off into pop-psychology. His arguments are often persuasive, but rarely feel complete. That being said, he does a much better job on this topic than most po-mo academics.

[Mitchell Easter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Subliminal messages everywhere? Surely I am just being paranoid, right? LOL This book details many of the ways that companies employ atmospheres (not just targeted music, but smells, the light and ambiance, etc.) to subtly affect the way shoppers shop, and other psychological techniques that people such as car salesmen are taught to get YOU to do more of what they want you to do - in other words, buy their products or services!

[Jarrod · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a Psych 201 weekend read. Rushkoff is a good writer who tells an informed story. Coercion reveals numerous ways in which the average consumer of nearly anything (cosmetics, religion, entertainment, etc) is persuaded into wanting, committing, and buying. An interesting read on human behavior and self examination.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rushkoff successfully manages to cut through the static and doublespeak of contemporary marketing to show his readers the mechanisms by which corporations, government, and religions manipulate public opinion - not to mention the public themselves. Read this and have your eyes opened.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another study on the many facets of advertising, including architectural design (! a new one to me!) and aromatics (!huh!? yea. exactly). Get to know the headless enemy of autonomy and its' artillery.

[Tippy · Rating 3 out of 5]

meh. A lot of obvious things, but there was a lot of cool psychology stuff in here. I did learn that stores use the "club cards" to gain information about you to target their advertisements. That's pretty brilliant actually, and of course after reading this it seems so obvious.

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. I have my college freshman read a couple of chapters for class and then I offer an essay topic about atmospherics as an option for their first paper. The majority of them choose to write on said topic. Oh, and he's a great speaker to boot. Glad he's now on Goodreads!