Dark Persuasion: A History of Brainwashing from Pavlov to Social Media

A "highly readable and compelling" account (Science) of brainwashing’s pervasive role in the twentieth and twenty—first centuries

“Riveting. . . . Dimsdale . . . shows how the art of dark persuasion a generation ago led almost inevitably to today’s misinformation, cyberbullying and cultlike behavior on the Internet.”—Dina Temple—Raston, Washington Post

This gripping book traces the evolution of brainwashing from its beginnings in torture and religious conversion into the age of neuroscience...