Be wary of any person who tries to establish themselves as an authority in order to influence you or persuade you.

Traditionally this can be done by titles, the clothes a person wears, and any symbol that can be used to establish authority.

I discussed this earlier in my article Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Shows How The Power Of Authority Can Be Used To Manipulate You

But it can also be done in more subtle ways.

Here are two ways which are the most destructive in establishing authority.

1. Anyone who claims you must do and accept what they say without question… meaning their authority is absolute.
2. Anyone who uses body language, voice tonality, and words like an angry parent speaking to a naughty to child would.

It may sound silly but the majority of people will respond to the angry parent type person. This person can come in the form of a teacher, a boss, a priest etc

These are key techniques that guys like Hitler, Sadaam, Osama and to a lessor extent George W. Bush use in their manipulation arsenal. Often they claim some sort of divine authority but this is not always necessary in order to establish influence over you.

Anyone who does these things is dangerous to themselves and others.

On a small scale level which involves verbal abuse, it can lead to the destruction of self esteem of the individual who is being dominated by the authority figure. It can also lead to a dependency to the authority figure by the individual.

Thats one of the reasons why abused wives can’t leave their abusive husbands.

Cults often use this tactic in their bag of manipulation tricks.

On a large scale you have wars created by the authority figure. People who allow themselves to be manipulated by the authority figure go to war and murder other people.

(As an aside, almost every idea that human beings have is B.S. and cannot be trusted.)

Some people, like doctors, are worth listening to on occasions but don’t accept their word as absolute.

Some authority figures you will have to obey 99% of the time are police officers. (Not 99% of the time though because some cops are bad cops.)

Asking two questions can attain a meaningful defense against the detrimental effects of undue influence gained through authority.

1. Is this authority truly an expert?
2. How truthful can we expect this expert to be?

The first question directs our attention away from symbols and toward actual evidence for authority status.

The second advises us to consider not just the expert’s knowledge in the situation, but also his or her trustworthiness.

With regard to this second consideration, we should be alert to the trust-enhancing tactic in which a communicator may first provide some mildly negative information about himself or herself. This can be seen as a strategy to create the perception of honesty–making subsequent information seem more credible to those listening.

If anyone tries to do these things you may respond in one of the following ways. (I leave it up to you to choose which is the most appropriate response in any given situation.)

“No thank you”