28 Industries That Have Their Entire Foundation Built On Fooling People, As Per This Thread
Interview With Expert“All’s fair in love and marketing,” for that’s where the world has come to today as the business of foolery is in complete bloom. What’s more surprising is the high amount of people who blindly fall prey to these deceptive industries, and at times, don’t even realize that they’ve been fooled.
There are a few enlightened people, however, who know that the glamour these industries portray is just a facade and gushed to answer the question, “What industries are built on intentionally misleading people?” Some of them, you might be aware of, while some might shock you. Just scroll down and check them out for yourself!
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Did anyone write US Health Insurance yet?
No, the health insurance industry isn't making money by fooling people. It's making money by killing them.
Religion is worse, give me your money now and you will be rewarded in the afterlife.
Even the foreigners know you have to pay astronomical sum for healthcare in the US. Where's the fooling?
Religion.
This should be top 3! Especially if they ask for money or makes you hate other, or look down upon non-believers or the "wrong" believes even if within same religion.
MLM’s- Amway, Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, Monat, Herbalife etc. If anyone approaches you and says they have a great business opportunity for you: RUN.
Haha yeah those scammers. Anyone , I have a huge cone shaped business opportunity for you. Just pay me 100,000 pounds for your first shipment of my amazing new product and then sell it to your friends and family. Make sure to apply the tithe paid to me on all your sales
As you go through the list, you will realize that most of these industries are making millions by mooching off of people's oblivion or even greed. It definitely makes you wonder why some folk still get deceived by them even after being aware of their real intentions.
Well, to get a deeper insight into the human psyche when it comes to these deceptive businesses, Bored Panda got in touch with Eden Lobo, a counselor and psychology professor. She said that when people invest time, money, or emotional energy into a brand, they may experience cognitive dissonance when confronted with evidence of being misled.
"To reduce this discomfort, they may rationalize their continued trust in the brand by downplaying the misleading behavior or convincing themselves it was a one-time occurrence," she added.
Diamonds.
Those detox drinks. You have your liver and kidney(s).
For sure. Sometimes it feels good to drink some smoothie, but if you can, make it yourself, The premade ones are full of sugar. (or corn-syyrup in USA).
Plastics. They are not nearly as recyclable as the industry wants you to think, and they cause immense damage to our natural world as well as both known and unknown harm to human health.
Sounds dumb, but I have contacted manufacturers of my most used products demanding they use either #1or 2 packaging. If they are gonna use it, at LEAST use something you don't have to discard. Got a couple positive feedbacks and vows to change, and they did, eventually.
We also spoke to our expert about the psychological principles that are most commonly exploited by industries to mislead people. She noted that these principles often target cognitive biases, emotional responses, and decision-making processes.
Prof. Lobo explained, "The scarcity principle is one such trick, as people perceive scarce or limited resources as being more valuable. Another one would be social proof when herd mentality takes over and people tend to follow the behavior of others, especially in uncertain situations."
Another aspect she stressed was the fear of missing out, aka, FOMO, as people fear losing opportunities or experiences others are enjoying. She elaborated that industries use language like "trending now" or showcase users seemingly living better lives through their products, creating pressure to conform and buy in.
Flushable Wipes.
No.
No they are not flushable.
Stop it.
Plumbers and city sewer workers despise these things.
“The beauty industry – ‘This cream will make you look 20 years younger!’ Spoiler: it won’t.”.
And the cheep stuff was better than the expensive stuff. Nivea won in an smal trial here in Sweden. 8800eaec00...867c81.jpg
Payday loans.
And how they target low-income neighborhoods. They are predatory at best. I took out a loan through a furniture company that offered payments for their furniture. I didn’t realize they financed through a payday loan company. I paid that sucker off as soon as I could! They required you to come in to make your payment and wouldn’t send any reminders of upcoming payments. They made it as difficult as possible to actually make a payment.
Prof. Lobo also explained how industries often use emotional triggers to influence consumer decisions because emotions are powerful drivers of behavior and can override logical reasoning.
She mentioned that people want to fit in, be admired, or feel exclusive, so these businesses use people's desire for status or belonging to their benefit. Hope, as per her, is another emotion that appeals to aspirations for a better life, success, or happiness, that can be used to exploit people.
"Some other emotions that these companies leverage are: nostalgia (evoking fond memories of the past creates positive associations), love (the need for emotional bonds is leveraged to sell products tied to relationships), self-doubt (highlighting perceived flaws pushes consumers to seek solutions), or curiosity (unanswered questions or teasers drive engagement)," Prof. Lobo added.
The timeshare industry. It's highly predatory and they sell it as if you're getting this amazing deal that's an "investment" that you can pass to your kids. Everyone I know who has bought one has regretted it and they're almost impossible to sell.
Astrology, tarot cards, crystal healing and various other forms of woo.
This one falls into the "religion" category for me in that if you want to believe it and it brings you comfort and strength to get through life then go for it. But, don't use it as a replacement for actual medicine, or basing all your relationships on whether your signs are compatible or not, things like that.
We also sought some help from Prof. Lobo to help recognize and resist misleading tactics. She claimed that it requires a combination of psychological awareness, critical thinking, and practical strategies. Here are a few tips that she emphasized:
- Cultivate emotional awareness: Misleading tactics often exploit emotions like fear, greed, or guilt. Recognizing when emotions are being manipulated can help you pause and reassess.
- Understand cognitive biases: Familiarity with biases (e.g., scarcity effect, or social proof) makes you less likely to fall for them.
- Slow down decision-making: Many misleading tactics rely on urgency to prevent thoughtful consideration.
- Ask critical questions: Scrutinizing claims reveals inconsistencies or missing details.
- Practice media literacy: Understanding how information is presented helps identify manipulative framing or exaggerations.
Lastly, she concluded, "By understanding these and other psychological tools, people can develop greater resistance to misleading tactics and make more informed, deliberate decisions. Awareness and practice are key to becoming a savvy consumer."
Chiropractors. "Adjusting" your spine does not prevent or cure disease. I have taken care of several patients in my career who have had strokes due to carotid or vertebral artery injuries from chiropractic "manipulation".
When they invent a pill that aligns my vertebra, I'll stop going to my Chiropractor. There are patient deaths/injuries across every medical discipline. I'm sure that there are bad ones out there (as in any med field), but there are good ones as well.
Fitness. As someone with credentials in the industry, I can tell you it's a disgusting cesspool of misinformation and gurus/companies preying on the ignorant masses without any care for their health.
When you understand the psychology behind the deception, it really boggles your mind about how far these industries can go just to make money. Well, our expert definitely helped highlight how you can fight back.
So, misleading industries, give me your best shot, I am sure I will be able to resist your deceptive punch this time around. What about you? Which industries in the list have fooled you before? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Unpopular opinion but in the last 5 years, some trades and pivoted away from How can we beat help our customers? to How can we extract the maximum amount of money for the least amount of lowest quality service... I am in the Garage door industry and I am watching some companies build literally mathematical models on how to extract the most money and what sales tactics drive it. HVAC and roofing have been it as well.
Folks - for the love of God, try to get multiple quotes and focus on smaller local businesses.
Fvcking corporate buzzwords strike again. Trades have never "pivoted" in any direction, business owners change their minds about $h!t. And if you're beating your customers, you're sure as hell not helping anyone in any way. Not to mention the simple fact that no company has helped people, companies exist only so they can profit.
Anything to do with essential oils, a 24 billion dollar industry based on lies.
They smell good. That’s it.
Tea Tree Oil though have scientifically shown to be antibacterial and anti fungal. Maybe not at 100% the same as made made stuff, but not just totally made up. https://youtu.be/jQXuBL2yfJ4?t=359
Gambling.
Most of the ‘health and beauty’ industry. Makeup is what it is and gyms do what they say on the tin it’s all the BS stuff in between that sells false promises: beauty treatments, supplements, weird exercise tools, diet plans, detox plans, weird programmes that try to weave astrology etc into health…. There’s a lot of stuff that’s at best useless and harmless but quite often useless and harmful.
Rent to own stores. Aaron's, Renta Center.
Some folks need the furniture, appliances, etc and can not qualify for a store card. The prices charged are WAY outside reasonable, but they have no other choice until they can build credit up/back. See the need, hate it, but they DO serve a purpose.
Finance.
Source: I worked in finance for two years. It could be a lot easier to understand, but if it was you wouldn’t accept terms on their conditions.
Ever seen a car advert? Almost always cars driving in the mountains or speeding through an empty traffic free city.
(sun)glasses. No way a titanium wire and some glass cost the same as a new iPhone with its super high-res screen, incredible processors, crazy cameras, GPS, high speed networking, video and audio playback and on an on.
Also iphones and apple in general should be on this list. For how expensive they are they are super fragile and not as advanced as they claim.
Anyone selling Superfoods, total bs.
Some are real superfoods. The green powdered algae like Spirilina is 99% protein and is easily absorbed. When it was first discovered, it was touted as being the new protein that was going to end famines and feed the world. Then the health food corporations got control of it and priced it higher than gold. By contract beef is only 22-25% protein. Mostly fat and is hard to digest.
Food commercials.
Is it though? I'm genuinely asking. Do you really go into [insert name of takeaway/fast food place] and believe that Joe behind the counter is a food artist making you a sexy hamburger for the handful of shillings he makes every day? I don't. I want my food to look tasty, but I don't expect it to be backlit with Def Leopard playing in the background when it's handed to me 🤭
Before the ride-sharing apps like Uber, the taxi industry was pretty much a mafia.
The magic industry! Where the hell did the bunny go? It was in the hat, and now it's gone!
What's wrong with magic? This is entertainment that is not hurting anyone.
Tech. After the mbas and all bros takeover. Crypto, AI rush, social media, ads and so on.
Nursing homes belong here too, at least in the US. Many are deliberately understaffed, and the employees make pittance wages while management rakes in potentially 100x what their staff makes per staff member. So you get subpar care for the elderly from overworked people while the executives are laughing all the way to the bank. Vile.
The building my employer is in now used to belong to a giant nursing home group. They initially used it as a compounding pharmacy, but by the time we toured it before buying it was used as storage for their lawsuit paperwork. Every single room was a stack of boxes 6' high, with a 3' path between it and the wall all the way around the place. Each box apparently represented one legal suit against them for maltreatment of people under their care. It was sickening.
Load More Replies...Property Management Companies, particularly those that manage longterm leasehold properties on behalf of a landlord where the tenants have no say in which company is used. They set their own "management fee" and overcharge for every thing they do and seemingly have no repercussions when they mess up. Can't get rid of them using "right to manage" as not one contiguous block. Currently looking at taking them to court (again), but difficult without (costly) legal advice.
Fast fashion. It's all low quality, mostly plastic material that inevitably ends up in a landfill. I hate seeing those "Shein Hauls" people do because it's so damn wasteful.
It's bad, but it's not a scam. No one promises to the customer that it won't happen
Load More Replies...How about pharma and their ads? Let's watch 30 seconds repeatedly about something we "need"...is this supposed to be trendy?
Ask your doctor if Smegmolia is right for you. Possible side effects include dry skin and/or death. Void where prohibited by law.
Load More Replies...IRS refunds. Keep YOUR money for a year and then make you pay someone to help you get it back.
You can file your taxes for free and the IRS website has links to places that do that. Or maybe adjust how much is being taken out of your check and handle it yourself at the end of the year.
Load More Replies...Nursing homes belong here too, at least in the US. Many are deliberately understaffed, and the employees make pittance wages while management rakes in potentially 100x what their staff makes per staff member. So you get subpar care for the elderly from overworked people while the executives are laughing all the way to the bank. Vile.
The building my employer is in now used to belong to a giant nursing home group. They initially used it as a compounding pharmacy, but by the time we toured it before buying it was used as storage for their lawsuit paperwork. Every single room was a stack of boxes 6' high, with a 3' path between it and the wall all the way around the place. Each box apparently represented one legal suit against them for maltreatment of people under their care. It was sickening.
Load More Replies...Property Management Companies, particularly those that manage longterm leasehold properties on behalf of a landlord where the tenants have no say in which company is used. They set their own "management fee" and overcharge for every thing they do and seemingly have no repercussions when they mess up. Can't get rid of them using "right to manage" as not one contiguous block. Currently looking at taking them to court (again), but difficult without (costly) legal advice.
Fast fashion. It's all low quality, mostly plastic material that inevitably ends up in a landfill. I hate seeing those "Shein Hauls" people do because it's so damn wasteful.
It's bad, but it's not a scam. No one promises to the customer that it won't happen
Load More Replies...How about pharma and their ads? Let's watch 30 seconds repeatedly about something we "need"...is this supposed to be trendy?
Ask your doctor if Smegmolia is right for you. Possible side effects include dry skin and/or death. Void where prohibited by law.
Load More Replies...IRS refunds. Keep YOUR money for a year and then make you pay someone to help you get it back.
You can file your taxes for free and the IRS website has links to places that do that. Or maybe adjust how much is being taken out of your check and handle it yourself at the end of the year.
Load More Replies...