User:Kku/Mind shaping

Mind shaping or mindshaping in the context of social cognition means socializing individuals in ways that make human populations more homogeneous. It relies on man's capacities and dispositions to imitate, to be natural learners, and to conform to and enforce social norms.

"A mindshaping effect is an effect on the development or structure of a mind. My telling you that I’ve broken your computer causes a mindshaping effect in you. It makes you angry. My teaching a child how to tie his shoelaces causes a mindshaping effect in him. It makes him able to tie his shoelaces. My thinking about and deciding what to do next year for Christmas causes a mindshaping effect in me. It produces in me the intention to do certain things next year for Christmas. Etc."

In derived usage, mindshaping is a euphemistic term frequently used in marketing and management context for the active and on-purpose shaping of consumer's minds through any of the following, often for long-term influencing of customer behaviour for the mind shaper's profit:
 * experiential and social marketing
 * customer relationship management
 * indoctrination
 * persuasion
 * persuasion techniques
 * subliminal suggestion
 * brainwashing

Instead of active influence through others, there are also a number of self-help techniques that are marketed and sold with the promise to help the customer alter his or her mindset towards a better (more relaxed, ambitious, etc.) attitude through meditation, self-suggestion, etc.