MK3|Oct. 8,2025
If you haven't read an earlier piece that I wrote titled The Fog Acronym go ahead and do so, this follows right behind it.
FATE
1. F - Focus
This refers to attention and concentration. Human behavior is fundamentally shaped by what we choose to pay attention to and what we are consciously aware of.
Influence: By controlling or guiding a person's focus (often through novelty, surprise, or carefully placed distractions), you control the data they process and the context they use to make decisions.
2. A - Authority
This refers to the inherent human tendency to obey and defer to perceived power, competence, or leadership.
Influence: Activating the authority lever means establishing your credibility and command through your appearance, discipline, competence, and demeanor (as detailed in the previous answer). When authority is established, resistance is naturally lowered.
3. T - Tribe
This refers to the deep, primal human need for **belonging, social connection, and group acceptance.
Influence: This lever is activated by linking the desired behavior or decision to group identity.
People are heavily influenced by the norms, expectations, and behaviors of the group they belong to or aspire to belong to. Creating an "in-group" feeling accelerates trust and compliance.
4. E - Emotion
This refers to the understanding that emotions, fears, and feelings drive decisions much more powerfully than logic or rational thought.
Influence: To persuade someone, you must identify and strategically activate their key emotional drivers (fear of loss, desire for status, need for security).
Once the appropriate emotional state is triggered, the subject becomes far more susceptible to the suggested action or outcome.
FEAR
Novelty (Focus): Introducing unusual, unexpected, or brand-new elements to capture and maintain attention.
How they do it: This taps into the brain's dopamine reward system and its natural tendency to seek conclusions (the Zygarnic effect).
Cults achieve this by promising access to secret knowledge, new ceremonies, or higher "levels" that the member is not yet privy to, constantly creating an anticipation of what's next and keeping the brain engaged.
Emotional Triggering (FEAR formula - E): Deliberately eliciting strong emotional responses.
How they do it: As part of the FEAR (Focus, Emotion, Agitation, Repetition) formula for conditioning, if an individual is being triggered emotionally in various conversations or through content, it's a significant warning sign of conditioning.
Agitation (FEAR formula - A): Disrupting a person's emotional state or environment to prevent predictability and keep their brain constantly stimulated.
How they do it: This is applied in cults and can even be used on oneself. By introducing disruptive elements or constantly changing the environment (like rearranging furniture), the mammalian brain is signaled that "something's different," forcing it to pay attention and remain in a state of heightened awareness, which aids in conditioning .
Repetition (FEAR formula - R): The consistent and repeated application of the focus, emotion, and agitation elements over time.
How they do it: This is crucial for long-term conditioning. By repeatedly exposing the individual to novelty, emotional fluctuations, and agitation, the influence becomes ingrained.
Emotion Loops (Tension and Release): A conversational or psychological pattern that alternates between creating tension (e.g., fear, instability) and then releasing it (e.g., safety, comfort).
How they do it: Similar to the "good cop, bad cop" dynamic. By cycling through these emotional states, the brain experiences decreasing cortisol (stress) and increasing GABA (safety chemical).
Each "release" goes a bit deeper, leading to increased feelings of safety and a higher degree of suggestibility towards the influencer's goals, whether it's recruitment or a sale.
Identity Agreements: A subtle persuasion method where the influencer focuses on getting the target to agree to small statements about their self-identity rather than their beliefs.
How they do it: Cult recruiters, for instance, don't focus on abstract ideas. Instead, they ask questions that lead to agreements about who the person is (e.g., "Are you the kind of person who supports healthy things?").
These tiny, consistent agreements about one's self-concept create a "foot in the door" that makes it harder to deviate later, as it would conflict with their self-perception.