Anthropic

Performed authenticity

AI detected as: Manufactured Authenticity

The deliberate construction of "realness" — confessional tone, casual filming, strategic vulnerability — designed to lower your guard. When someone appears unpolished and honest, you evaluate their claims less critically. The spontaneity is rehearsed.

Goffman's dramaturgy (1959); Audrezet et al. (2020) on performed authenticity

Anchoring

AI detected as: Revelation Framing Via Contrast

Presenting an extreme number or claim first so everything after seems reasonable by comparison. The first piece of information becomes your reference point — even when it's arbitrary or deliberately inflated. Works even when you know the anchor is irrelevant.

Tversky & Kahneman's anchoring heuristic (1974)

Anthropomorphism As Normalization

This technique was detected by AI but doesn't yet map to our curated glossary. We're tracking its usage patterns.

Anchoring

AI detected as: Contrast-based Framing

Presenting an extreme number or claim first so everything after seems reasonable by comparison. The first piece of information becomes your reference point — even when it's arbitrary or deliberately inflated. Works even when you know the anchor is irrelevant.

Tversky & Kahneman's anchoring heuristic (1974)

Social proof

Presenting the popularity or consensus of an opinion as evidence that it's correct. When you see many others have endorsed something, it feels safer to follow. This shortcut can be manufactured — fake reviews, inflated counts, and cherry-picked polls all simulate consensus.

Cialdini's Social Proof principle (1984); Asch conformity experiments (1951)

In-group/Out-group framing

AI detected as: Anthropomorphic Framing

Leveraging your tendency to automatically trust information from "our people" and distrust outsiders. Once groups are established, people apply different standards of evidence depending on who is speaking.

Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979); Cialdini's Unity principle (2016)

Association

AI detected as: Halo Effect

Pairing a new idea, product, or person with something you already feel positively or negatively about. The goal is to transfer your existing emotional response without any logical connection. It works below conscious awareness.

Evaluative conditioning (Pavlov); IPA 'Transfer' technique (1937)

Anchoring

Presenting an extreme number or claim first so everything after seems reasonable by comparison. The first piece of information becomes your reference point — even when it's arbitrary or deliberately inflated. Works even when you know the anchor is irrelevant.

Tversky & Kahneman's anchoring heuristic (1974)

In-group/Out-group framing

Leveraging your tendency to automatically trust information from "our people" and distrust outsiders. Once groups are established, people apply different standards of evidence depending on who is speaking.

Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979); Cialdini's Unity principle (2016)

Association

Pairing a new idea, product, or person with something you already feel positively or negatively about. The goal is to transfer your existing emotional response without any logical connection. It works below conscious awareness.

Evaluative conditioning (Pavlov); IPA 'Transfer' technique (1937)

Performed authenticity

The deliberate construction of "realness" — confessional tone, casual filming, strategic vulnerability — designed to lower your guard. When someone appears unpolished and honest, you evaluate their claims less critically. The spontaneity is rehearsed.

Goffman's dramaturgy (1959); Audrezet et al. (2020) on performed authenticity

Curiosity gap

Creating a deliberate gap between what you know and what you want to know, triggering curiosity as an almost physical itch. Headlines like "You won't believe..." are engineered to exploit this. The content rarely delivers on the promise.

Loewenstein's Information Gap Theory (1994)