So, you have done your threat assessment and self-assessment leading you to the decision to take up karate (or any martial discipline for that matter). As you travel through the way of karate and rise in rank you begin to hear murmurs and stories in the dojo locker room. Terms, see they are important, are bandied about between snapping towels and other such locker stuff like, “Hidden techniques” and “Secrets of the Style,” etc. Tickling your curiosity you move to a better listening position to hear more but when you do they shut down the conversation and talk about pizza for after. You have been exposed to what one terms as “influence principles” that are the basis for, “The Compliance Profession.”
The compliance profession used influence principles to make suggestions that would influence the listener to do something, to believe in something or to say something. You have seen this daily in life and some refer to the subset of the compliance profession of “sales.” It is also referred to as, “Persuasion.”
Dr. Robert B. Cialdini (PhD) lists them as (from his book titled, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”:
Reciprocity. Think of this as “You scratch my back; I'll scratch yours.” ... Simply put, people are obliged to give back to others the form of a behavior, gift, or service that they have received first
Commitment and Consistency. Everyone has a self-image — a way of thinking of him or herself. ... People like to be consistent with the things they have previously said or done.
Social Proof (Consensus). The idea of social proof is already quite common in the online world. ... Especially when they are uncertain, people will look to the actions and behaviors of others to determine their own.
Authority. ... This is the idea that people follow the lead of credible, knowledgeable experts.
Liking. ... People prefer to say yes to those that they like.
Scarcity. Simply put, people want more of those things they can have less of.
If you really look at these you will find several of them being implemented in an unconscious way in the above story that trigger something within each human being so they tend to be swayed and in this case, since you are really happy and enjoying your dojo experience, you want to be “one of the guys” and you want to be “liked” and that using terms like hidden or secret you feel a draw to that which you currently cannot have (scarcity). Folks do this naturally and once you learn how to see it consciously, recognize it and then you are able to work to reduce its influence - mostly, cause even the experts fall pray to influence principles.
Note: remember this persuasion stuff cause you will find it of great benefit when it comes time to discuss the principles of self-defense.
Let me state what you already know logically, there are no “hidden techniques,” there are no “secrets of martial arts,” and there are no, “special martial arts.” They all exist, they all serve a purpose and the only secret hidden things are those things you have not been exposed to, for if they were even your dojo-mates and the sensei would not know that you don’t know them. Think compliance, suggestibility, and misdirection, oh my!
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