The 7 Ways Donald Trump Influenced Voters' Brains

Donald Trump won the presidency, fair and square.

The news hit some like a ton of bricks. The polls were dead wrong. Everyone was surprised at the "upset of the century". Well, almost everyone.

182 days before election day, I went on record with my prediction. I did a live broadcast on Periscope titled "What Trump is Doing to Your Brain" and laid out why I believed his campaign was the most influential out of any of the candidates. "Like it or not," I said, "Trump's gonna win this thing."

The point isn't that I guessed the outcome, the point is how I did it. Even though I once was a professional magician, this time my prediction had nothing to do with trickery, sleight of hand, or showmanship. Instead I relied on the facts of human influence.

This article will outline the 7 influence tactics that moved so many voters to Trump's side.

(NOTE: I've compiled dozens of real-life influence stories into a book, Applied Influence. It's not officially out yet, but at the end of this article, I want to give you the first 35 pages.)

First, a few disclaimers...

• I live in Massachusetts.
• I did not vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.
• This is not a list of reasons why Donald Trump is qualified to be president, simply a list of reasons why he won the election.
• I understand that Hillary lost the election just as much as Trump won it, however this article will focus almost exclusively on what Trump's campaign did well.
• I'm not saying that anyone who voted for Trump was stupid, weak-minded, or manipulated to do so against their will. Far from it.
• I'm also not saying that it was wrong for him to run a smart campaign or even that he was intentionally being persuasive. This is simply not a moral commentary.
• I'll do my best to stick to the facts and remain as unbiased as a human being can be.
• The following analysis is in no particular order.

Okay, now that all that is out of the way, let's begin with an obvious reason why Trump appealed to our brains...

1. The Advertiser's Law
Big companies spend millions on advertising because they know it takes a minimum of seven encounters with a brand before a buying decision can be reached. The more we are exposed to a brand, the more we like it.

"Neurons that fire together, wire together," is something you might hear a neuroscientist say. As brands are exposed to us more and more, the physiology of our brains is altered in such a way that makes it easier for us accept and even prefer those brands next time we encounter them.

This is why that song we hated at first grows on us after it receives constant radio play.

"Trump" is a brand and "The Donald" is its celebrity spokesperson.

After invading reality TV with "The Apprentice," he proceeded to take over the news media. Love him or hate him, everyone was talking about him at every stage of the campaign process. He dominated the headlines for months.

Hillary, although a celebrity in her own right, still couldn't compete with the Donald Trump attention-magnet media phenomenon.

Point for Trump.

2. Clarity at "30,000 Feet"
What was Donald Trump's campaign slogan? If you're like the dozens of people I asked while preparing for this article, you immediately blurted out, "Make America Great Again!" But when I asked what Hillary's slogan was? I either got blank looks or a stammering that sounded something like, "Umm...I'm with Her? Ahh....Stronger Together? Errr...When they go low, we go high?" Or my favorite guess, "A Pantsuit in Every Closet?"

Trump had a simple crystal clear vision that could be summed up in one sentence. Hillary's was more complicated.

Simple is more appealing to the brain than complex.

An analysis of the candidate's announcement speeches using readability-score.com showed that an average fourth grade student could read and understand Trump's speech, while it would require a seventh grade reading level to understand Hillary's.

Point for Trump.

3. Blank Space "on the Ground"
Donald Trump uses language in an interesting way. He focuses on power and emotion words like "problem," "tremendous," "wrong," "better," etc. He's all too eager to point to the flaws of the current administration and make big promises for the future, but when it comes to the details...he's not so forthcoming.

Many accuse him of spouting gibberish and nonsense, but Donald Trump is the consummate salesperson. He focuses on simple ideas and emotion and lets his listeners fill in the blank space.

This is a brilliant tactic because when you fill in the blank space with your own ideas and understanding of how he's going to do it, you aren't likely to disagree - because THEY'RE YOUR OWN IDEAS.

Hillary on the other hand laid out her plan clearly and some agreed and some didn't.

Point for Trump.

4. A "Them" to Hate
When a line divides a people into two groups, there will be a sense of "team spirit" on each side of the line. This explains why Red Sox fans hate Yankee fans, and why the rivalry extends far beyond the baseball field. It feels personal.

Any dividing line will work. "I'm a Mac" vs. "I'm a PC." "I'm a vegetarian" vs. "I like bacon." When you have a "them" as your enemy, it strengthens the bond of "us".

Marketing guru, Dan Kennedy says that aligning against a common enemy is one of the smartest marketing tactics that a company can employ. Worked pretty well for Apple in 1984 and it continued to work for them in the Mac vs. PC ads. In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, there was an instantaneous bonding within America as "United We Stand" became the rallying cry.

Strangely, even when you divide people randomly, say by a coin toss, the "heads" people will cooperate with other "heads" people and they'll compete with the "tails" people. "Heads rule, tails drool!" We bond quickly with the "us" group, and we demonize the "them" group - even when the ONLY reason we have is because they are "one of them" and not "one of us".

Trump didn't go the Republican vs. Democrat route. Those lines are pretty well established and it would have been difficult for him to make a Democrat feel as though he were part of the "us" group. Instead, he used illegal immigrants as the "them" group in order to foster more of a feeling of "us".

In fact, he went one step further. He conjured up the image of a literal, physical line between "us" and "them". A wall. A big one. One that "they" would pay for.

In truth, I doubt this wall will ever be built. But even if it never is, it has already done its part to get Trump elected.

Hillary's inclusive perspectives didn't give anyone a "them" to hate. There was no common enemy to rally "us" together.

Point for Trump.

5. The Pain Button
Human desire comes in two varieties, the desire to move towards pleasure and the desire to move away from pain.

The pleasures we move towards, however, are those that are the most difficult to acquire. Studies show that from a very young age, we show a preference towards those things that seem just a bit out of reach. The things we already have, however? Boring. Who wants to play with any one of a dozen of your own Barbie dolls when your sister has THAT Barbie doll?

Donald Trump was the new, shiny, orange toy. Democrats? We've played with those for eight years. Clintons? We had one of them for eight years too. Obama's policies? Hillary promised more of the same.

Ordinarily, there is a fear of change. But all Donald Trump had to do was point to the pain and the problems (often using one of his favorite words, "disaster") in order to make us want to move away from what we already had and make us want to look to someone new for leadership.

This seems to contradict the Advertiser's Law, but the difference is tense. The Advertiser's Law applies when we are evaluating future options and the Pain Button principle applies to things we already possess.

When you buy a new car (maybe it's a Lincoln, because you've seen a zillion Matthew McConaughey ads), you're going to love it. The next day, you'll love it a little less. The day after, even less than that. It doesn't just depreciate in monetary value, it depreciates in novelty value because it is something you already possess.

Adaptation explains how rich baseball players can whine about their contracts. It explains how an Academy Award winning actor can still want to challenge himself with new roles. It also explains how Donald Trump was able to make one of the most prosperous nations on Earth feel like it needed a reboot.

Hillary was a poster child for more of the same. She was the Lincoln you've already owned for many years. Donald Trump, on the other hand was a shiny new orange convertible.

Point for Trump.

6. He Pushed the Swings
"If he doesn't win Florida, he can't win the Presidency."

"No Republican candidate has ever gotten to the White House without winning Ohio."

These and other statements from Donald Trump and the media created a real sense of urgency for voters in those key areas.

Hillary Clinton's stance was a lot more confident, and a lot less urgent. "If she doesn't get Florida, then she'll pick up North Carolina," and similar thoughts seemed to be the prevailing vibe going into Election Day.

If your candidate doesn't HAVE to win your state, then you don't HAVE to get out and show your support.

Trump needed every vote and he campaigned hard in areas of particular importance. Hillary's overconfidence did not create any sense of urgency for her supporters to get out and vote.

Trump ended up winning almost all of the crucial swing states.

Point for Trump.

7. Spooking the Horse Brain
Human beings aren't always rational. (Have you noticed?)

Donald Trump was and is a salesperson. He understands the importance of selling the "feelings" and not the "facts". Salespeople have understood this for a long time and the reason it works is because of how the brain is organized.

Daniel Kahneman in his seminal book, Thinking, Fast and Slow describes our two thinking "systems". He calls them "System 1" and "System 2," but I prefer the terms "Horse" and "Rider". It gives us a better metaphor to work with.

Very briefly, the "horse brain" is the animalistic (limbic) part of our brain. It's main concern is survival and it thinks fast but a bit sloppy. The "rider brain" is our rational brain (prefrontal cortex) and it is more slow, methodical, and rational.

In short, the language of the horse is "feelings" while the language of the rider is "facts". Rational thinking, weighing pros and cons, outlining plans, all attempt to target the rider brain and therefore all get ignored by the horse brain.

If the horse is hungry and wants to get to a pile of hay, the rider is not going to stop it. The rider is not in charge. The horse is far too powerful. This is why Donald Trump was able to say, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, okay, and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay?" He knew that all the rider brain thinking in the world wasn't going to change his voters' minds. Instead, if you want to get a horse brain to move, you use the same things you would use to get a real horse to move: pain (see "pain button" above) or fear.

Fear was Donald Trump's most powerful tactic of all. When a horse is spooked, there's nothing the rider can do. The horse is going to run from whatever it is scared of, rational or not.

Trump tapped into all kinds of fears and biases like xenophobia, homophobia, Islamophobia, misogyny, fear of terrorism, and others to spook the horse minds of voters of all races, religions, and sexual orientations.

Hillary attempted to appeal to horse brains with her "our children are watching" ad campaign or her "Daisy" ad which questioned whether Trump is too unstable for nuclear codes. But her message wasn't as direct and clear as Trump's. When it comes to the fear department, I think most people can agree...

Point for Trump.

There is an 8th reason...

8. Because He's a Man
This might appear a bit controversial at first glance...that's why I'm reserving it for my own blog instead of here on Psychology Today. Besides, I can't really credit Donald Trump's campaign with the "strategy" of him being a man.

Click here to read the 8th reason.

I promise...it's science and NOT my personal opinion. At least...I think.

UPDATE

It looks like some sources are reporting that Donald Trump won the popular vote too. I guess I can't say I'm surprised.

I've decided that I want everyone to have access to influence strategies that work. I've started writing a book called Applied Influence and I want you to have an advance, 35-page excerpt.

• First - It features true stories of regular people and impossible influence. From hostage negotiations, to getting kids to eat their veggies.
• Second - It explains the science behind why the influence attempt was successful, in a simple, straightforward way, similar to this article.
• Third - In addition to learning the principles of influence, you'll learn word-for-word scripts and techniques that will help you become more influential at work and in life.

Sound good?

To download a PDF excerpt of my next book, Applied Influence: CLICK HERE.