X-Message-Number: 16974
From: "George Smith" <>
References: <>
Subject: Why people reject cryonics.
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 10:34:48 -0700

There has been some recent discussion in this forum again in regard to why
people reject cryonics.

I see an old assumption arising again.  That assumption is that people make
their decisions based on reason.

Ask any successful salesman if this is true.

People make their decisions based on what other people do.  They are social
robots and follow the lock step march of the masses.

What is necessary in successful persuasion (selling)?  An old formula is
AIDA

Get their ATTENTION.  Break through the self absorbed sleeping state that
passes for consciousness in modern human beings.

INTEREST.  Establish rapport with the prospect.  Thus the salesman becomes
another reflection of what "other people do".

Establish DESIRE.  Help the person imagine what life would be like with the
new improved widget.

ACTION.  Ask for the order.  Members of our society are programmed to obey
authority.

We also know that psychological studies demonstrated that we create reasons
for our actions after the fact.  Avoiding cognitive dissonance is a
fundamental reality of human psychology.  If you wish to change someone's
beliefs don't appeal to their reason.  Get them to do things in accordance
with what you want them to believe.

Confabulation is also a reality in the human mind.  We constantly re create
our memories without the slightest conscious awareness of this fact.  We
often even invent new ones to fill the "blind spots" of our histories in the
same seamless way our brain fills in our visual field over our optical blind
spots.

Why do people reject cryonics?  Because they have not yet been sold on it.

Just my opinion.

-George Smith
CI member

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=16974