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Old 2011-03-03, 13:38   Link #36
Solace
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Quote:
But to the best of our knowledge, he hasn't lied (i.e. say something that's not factually true) yet, so...
In communication, it is often what you don't say that is more powerful than what you do say. Kyubey's greatest asset (in the anime at least), is his masterful poker face. Because we can't read his body language, we have to examine his words.

He's basically been giving out just enough information to manipulate others into thinking how he wants them to think. If I told you that food was going to go up in price tomorrow, what is the first question you would ask? It probably wouldn't be "but what about the day after that?". Now if I said that food was going up tomorrow and that the price would drop the next day, your question would be completely different.

By telling you the first statement, I can use that to manipulate you to do things like say....buy a ton of food immediately for fear of the high cost tomorrow. But if you knew that the price would drop the next day, you would just wait.

In our moral system, we tend to frown on this behavior even though it is a known business practice. For example, someone could post a misleading news article that omits certain facts, or publish a rumor of scarcity for a product when there really isn't one. A known practice in many stores is to keep shelves half stocked, to give you the impression that the item is popular and might be sold out if you do not buy it right there.

Poor knowledge of all sides of the story impairs your judgment and creates poor decision making. Compound this with say, strong emotion, and you have a recipe for disastrous decision making impulses.

Why Kyubey is the perfect person for this job is because he is disarming. He's a smooth talker, he's cute, he's never aggressive, and he "technically" doesn't lie. He's able to deflect criticism by saying things like "you didn't ask". He's the ultimate salesman.
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