We see messages every day and everywhere. We see them in the news, advertisements and social media. Unfortunately, a lot of these messages may not be as authentic as they are made out to be. Organized persuasive communication (also referred to as OPC), is designed to influence our behaviors and our thoughts.
As defined by Vian Bakir and cowriters, “[OPC] refer(s) to all organized persuasion activities (including advertising and marketing, propaganda, public relations, organizational communication, information/influence campaigns, psychological operations, strategic communication and a whole host of other overlapping terms)” (Bakir et al. 2018, p. 312).
Understanding how certain tactics work is important in recognizing deception, incentives and coersion that are used to influence people without realizing they are being manipulated. Being able to sniff out these tactics and recognize when a message is manipulative is important as a society in our authentic decision making.
What Turns Persuasion Into Manipulation?
An article written by Andrew Chadwick and James Stanyer on disinformation, misinformation, and misperceptions quotes philosopher Don Fallis on the influence of media by saying “ we citizens ‘cannot acquire, all by ourselves, all of the knowledge that we need to live our lives. We often have to rely on information that we receive from others’” (Chadwick, Stanyer, 2021, p. 1)
A lot of us may think of traditional advertisements or political campaigns when thinking about persuasion. Persuasion is not always as straightforward as that and can sometimes cross the line of manipulation. Incentives, coercion and deception are key aspects of understanding the manipulation.
- Incentives: Incentivization can be defined as an aspect of persuasion that involves promising rewards or benefits. An example of a manipulative incentive would be a political candidate promising tax cuts in order to garner votes from people who may not have initially been voting for them (Bakir et. al, 2018, p. 323).
- Coercion: This is where OPC becomes the most direct and forceful. It is an act of persuasion that drives someone to act against their will because of a threat, which can even include physical force (Bakir et. al, 2018, p. 324). Coercion is almost always transparent between the parties involved, but extremely exploitative and essentially takes away a person’s choice to act freely (Arango-Kure, Garz, 2025, p. 6). An example of coercion would be an employer threatening to fire their employees if they were to speak out about unfair or unethical working conditions and environments.
- Deception: Deception is persuasion by lying or distorting the truth. This completely violates the concept of informed consent. People don’t have the correct information in order to make an accurate, informed decision. Deception can come in the form of lying, omission, distortion and misdirection (Bakir et. al, 2018, p. 322). A relevant example of deception is the use of AI to create videos or images that are completely fake in order to spread false information.
When persuasion entails giving us rewards, threatening us, or lying to us, we lose the right to making an informed decision. The idea of individually making a choice gets taken away.
Persuasion and PR: Walking the Manipulative Line
Public relations tends to find themselves right in the middle of the idea of incentives, coercion and deception. Authenticity in PR is essential, especially in terms of connecting the organization to the key publics. Public relations leader Edward L. Bernays actually stated that the purpose of pr was to “engineer consent” and that a good public relations practitioner would be able to shape public opinion in a way to benefit businesses and organizations. Many academics and practioners found this to be manipulative and in turn sparked the search for a way to responsibly and ethically communicate with publics (Shin, Heath, 2020, p.32). The ethical side of public relations is supposed to connect organizations with their key publics through trust, but PR can also have the manipulative tendency to cover up issues or use pressure.
Informed Consent Is Important!
Democracy is dependent on the public having the ability to make informed decisions. With the constant filtering and deception seen through influencers, social media, PR and advertising, are we truly able to make an informed decision. PR is a tool for influence as much as it is a tool for communication. Unethical use of PR can fuel the publics lack of/skewed information. It is important to identify and understand some of the tactics used in manipulative messaging in order to make informed decisions for ourselves. Understanding the aspects of what can make a message manipulative can be eye-opening in terms of feeling like we are truly, authentically informed.
Keywords:
Persuasion, Manipulation, Incentives, Coercion, Deception
Resources:
Arango-Kure, M., & Garz, M. (2025). Manipulation: An integrative framework of unethical influence in marketing. Journal of Business Research, 197, 115476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115476
Bakir, V., Herring, E., Miller, D., & Robinson, P. (2018). Organized Persuasive Communication: A new conceptual framework for research on public relations, propaganda and promotional culture. Critical Sociology, 45(3), 311–328. https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920518764586
Chadwick, A., & Stanyer, J. (2021). Deception as a Bridging Concept in the Study of Disinformation, Misinformation, and Misperceptions: Toward a Holistic Framework. Communication Theory, 32(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtab019
Shin, J-H., & Heath, R. L. (2020, December 22). Public Relations Theory: Capabilities and Competencies.