The Psychology Of Spam
from the going-for-the-lowest-levels-of-maslow's-hierarchy dept
Tracey Schelmetic is giving her take on spam. First, she points out that there's no suprise (of course) whatsoever that spammers lie. As she says, "Apparently, you CAN'T grow large naughty bits just from drinking a delicious, high-protein shake every day for a week, hot co-eds are really NOT dying to meet you, you actually have to move your butt off the couch to lose weight". More importantly, she tries to take a look at the psychology of spam - pointing out that a lot of spam appeals to people's vain needs. Her solution? Help people improve their self-esteem so they have less incentive to buy into whatever spammers are selling: "If you hear a friend say he'd like to lose 10 pounds and meet an attractive woman, hand him a banana and introduce him to your sister." Sounds better than half the anti-spam plans out there these days.
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