FUD: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt - Effectiviology - Deepstash
How to Be Happy

Learn more about psychology with this collection

How to find purpose and meaning in life

How to cultivate gratitude

Techniques for managing negative thoughts

How to Be Happy

Discover 100 similar ideas in

It takes just

13 mins to read

FUD: Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt

FUD: Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt

  • FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) is a collection of feelings and emotions that influence our thinking.
  • It was coined by Gene Amdahl, who worked at IBM and later founded his own company.
  • Business, media, politics and even some religions use FUD intentionally, as they understand its power and how vulnerable people are to it.
  • Marketers and salespeople often exploit these behaviour patterns in people and manipulate them by planting doubts and uncertainties about a competing product or service in their minds.

84

363 reads

FUD Usage In Tech Companies

Various tech companies use fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) to control customer behaviour. They plant fake news, confusing press releases and benchmark tests to influence the decisions of prospective customers.

Example: Announcing ‘vaporware’ products, something that isn’t even in existence, just to harm the sales of the existing products of competitors.

72

267 reads

Amplifying The FUD

Customers are often pushed towards a particular product due to marketers amplifying the FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) state.

  1. They claim the product is backwards compatible, or is fully compatible with a variety of hardware, implying that the competitor's product isn’t.
  2. They claim that their product requires minimal training of employees.
  3. They try to sell the worth of the product by claiming that millions of customers use it.
  4. They try to hasten the decision by giving limited time discount offers.
  5. They play the ‘limited stocks’ game or suggest how others have benefited from the same.

76

176 reads

FUD: Propaganda Tool

Instilling fear, uncertainty and doubt in the minds of people isn’t new. Governments and political groups have been fearmongering for centuries.

Most mainstream media carries a certain narrative or agenda in their news reporting, promoting the feelings of FUD in readers in order to coax them into buying the publication, clicking the article link, or simply believing the propaganda.

72

176 reads

How FUD Is Created And Used

Spread intentionally and unintentionally, FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) techniques are quite common. Some of the most utilized techniques to create or amplify FUD among people are:

  1. Making negative statements about a rival.
  2. Pushing the narrative on possible negative results, while exaggerating the impact or likelihood of the same.
  3. Amplifying people's existing negative emotions.
  4. Confusing them through lots of information.
  5. Questioning their beliefs.
  6. Attacking their source of information.

79

143 reads

Common Biases And Belief Patterns

FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) techniques use various belief patterns and cognitive biases already present in people.

  1. Authority Bias: People are already conditioned to believe authority figures.
  2. Bandwagon Effect: People often do what others are doing.
  3. Slippery Slope Argument: Suggesting that a certain action can set off extreme results, pushing us towards the wrong path.
  4. Appeal To Emotions: Most manipulators appeal to our fears, exploiting our emotions for their gain.
  5. Reverse Psychology: Indirectly coaxing people to do the opposite.

79

130 reads

Oscar Munoz

“Uncertainty always creates doubt and doubt creates fear.”

OSCAR MUNOZ

73

169 reads

How To Deal With FUD

We first need to identify the various fears, uncertainties and doubts (FUD) we have in ourselves, trying to resolve them when we know what they are and from where they are coming from.

One can deploy the principle of cui bono, asking yourself ‘who benefits?’ from this FUD being created in you. Likewise, various cognitive biases can be dissected.

Keep in mind that people often believe what they hear, and only object towards something wrong if they have full knowledge of the same and can therefore identify the error.

76

147 reads

Reducing FUD In Other People

  1. Be clear and objective about your product or service and what the features are.
  2. Answer common questions through a collection of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
  3. Offer demos so that customers can themselves make up their minds about your service or product.
  4. Having customer testimonials and a good website also helps in reducing FUD, also known as the halo effect.

73

153 reads

CURATED BY

cha_

I salute those people who smile despite all of their problems.

stash-superman-illustration

Explore the World’s

Best Ideas

200,000+ ideas on pretty much any topic. Created by the smartest people around & well-organized so you can explore at will.

An Idea for Everything

Explore the biggest library of insights. And we've infused it with powerful filtering tools so you can easily find what you need.

Knowledge Library

Powerful Saving & Organizational Tools

Save ideas for later reading, for personalized stashes, or for remembering it later.

# Personal Growth

Take Your Ideas

Anywhere

Organize your ideas & listen on the go. And with Pro, there are no limits.

Listen on the go

Just press play and we take care of the words.

Never worry about spotty connections

No Internet access? No problem. Within the mobile app, all your ideas are available, even when offline.

Get Organized with Stashes

Ideas for your next work project? Quotes that inspire you? Put them in the right place so you never lose them.

Join

2 Million Stashers

4.8

5,740 Reviews

App Store

4.7

72,690 Reviews

Google Play

samz905

Don’t look further if you love learning new things. A refreshing concept that provides quick ideas for busy thought leaders.

“

Shankul Varada

Best app ever! You heard it right. This app has helped me get back on my quest to get things done while equipping myself with knowledge everyday.

“

Ashley Anthony

This app is LOADED with RELEVANT, HELPFUL, AND EDUCATIONAL material. It is creatively intellectual, yet minimal enough to not overstimulate and create a learning block. I am exceptionally impressed with this app!

“

Sean Green

Great interesting short snippets of informative articles. Highly recommended to anyone who loves information and lacks patience.

“

Giovanna Scalzone

Brilliant. It feels fresh and encouraging. So many interesting pieces of information that are just enough to absorb and apply. So happy I found this.

“

Jamyson Haug

Great for quick bits of information and interesting ideas around whatever topics you are interested in. Visually, it looks great as well.

“

Laetitia Berton

I have only been using it for a few days now, but I have found answers to questions I had never consciously formulated, or to problems I face everyday at work or at home. I wish I had found this earlier, highly recommended!

“

Ghazala Begum

Even five minutes a day will improve your thinking. I've come across new ideas and learnt to improve existing ways to become more motivated, confident and happier.

“

Read & Learn

20x Faster

without
deepstash

with
deepstash

with

deepstash

Access to 200,000+ ideas

—

Access to the mobile app

—

Unlimited idea saving & library

—

—

Unlimited history

—

—

Unlimited listening to ideas

—

—

Downloading & offline access

—

—

Personalized recommendations

—

—

Supercharge your mind with one idea per day

Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.

Email

I agree to receive email updates