I eagerly opened the envelope the postman brought home the
other day. Out came a leaflet. It was the photocopy of what appeared to be an
advertisement in a newspaper. The sender didn't identify himself or herself. The
text, which was in Malayalam, fascinated me. Let me give you a rough translation.
There was a miracle at Vailankanni.
[This, as you may know, is a coastal town in Tamil Nadu. St Mary's shrine there
attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from different religions and regions
every year.] One Sunday Mother Mary appeared in the form of a child to a
devotee and said, “I will come back to earth shortly to do penance for [others’]
sins. Inform everyone. Anyone who distributes 1000 copies of this announcement
will have his wish fulfilled in fifteen days. Those who don't act on it
immediately will suffer a great deal within twenty-two days.” Then she
disappeared.
One Mumbai resident who heard
about this got 1000 copies of this announcement printed and distributed. As a
result, he got Rs 6.8 million. A rikshaw driver distributed 850 copies, and he
got a small pot of gold. An unemployed youth distributed 500 copies of this
leaflet and found a job in a few days. Another man tore up the leaflet he
received saying it was humbug. Within three days his son died. […]
Therefore, please publicise this
information by distributing leaflets so that everyone can get Mother Mary's
blessings.
From a believer
I tossed it into the waste bin. Then I picked it up. I felt
it deserved to be examined carefully for lessons in persuasion.
Whoever sent it to me
was persuaded to do so either because of fear of harm or of hope of good
fortune or perhaps a combination of both. Or is someone playing it safe?
Whatever it is, what is the basis of such a strong blend of emotions? Why would
anyone believe stories like these? There are no names, no dates, no addresses if
you want to check what happened (if anything happened at all). How can anyone
accept a causal link between someone’s decision not to circulate an anonymous
leaflet and a death in the family? Why, then, do people lose their common sense
and circulate such ridiculous stuff? The persuasive power of the unknown is so
strong that even a mention is enough for many of us to comply with its apparent
wishes. If you are scared of snakes, even a paper snake can make you run.
Unlike forwarding an email to everyone in one's address
book, making photocopies of an announcement, putting it in hundreds of
envelopes, writing genuine addresses on these envelopes, sticking stamps and
posting them cost a believer time and money. Why would he/she do it? How about
the first person who started this chain? Was he/she a believer? A prankster? What
did he/she get out of it?
For me, this is another instance of emotions firmly
establishing their supremacy over reason.
Photo credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velankanni_Town
When I had for the first time received a similar e - mail, I forwarded that to as many people as I can as first of all forwarding the mail did not take much time and somewhere at the back of my mind there was some hidden fear of being harmed if I did not complete the assigned task. But, soon I found out a series of similar mails where in I was asked to repeat the same process of forwarding e-mails for good luck / benefits. What I felt was a mixture of scenarios as I did not know about the first person who started a similar chain mail and for what reason he / she might have carried out such an activity? So, only based on my past experiences I could make out that the fear of god, whether on a large scale or small, is sufficient enough for us to believe in these kind of mails. The main reasons being some fruitful expectation and majorly the fear of being punished / harmed because of any of our misdeeds in past.
ReplyDeleteIf I talk about the persuasive capacity of similar mails / e-mails, so as I had noticed that attendance of people at religious places and works had increased many folds over time, what ever the hidden expectation of the individual / group be. So, these mails surely act as a good persuasive technique initially, when no one knows of some similar existing ritual / prank. But, as we are moving more and more in to the logical environment where in we know labour reaps reward and more eager we are to assess the exact outcome from any of the undertaken activity, so it is becoming tough to fool people by just sending prank mail without any supporting as the proof of the activity. Also, with the vast range of knowledge sharing across people and groups had helped to lower the chances of being persuaded by similar mails.