Manipulation gets a bad press. It shocks us because it insinuates that we are no longer in control of our thoughts, our behaviour and our lives. Yet there is nothing pejorative about this notion. It refers to a story of the hand. It is the gesture of the physiotherapist that relieves or prevents pain, for example. It is also the dexterity of the magician who removes an object from the spectator’s view, before making it reappear…

The human race has a credulous mind: it likes to believe in promises, just as we believe in the magician’s prowess. This is why manipulation flourishes. From the benevolence of nudge to the brainwashing that has always been the favourite weapon of totalitarian systems, the spectrum is wide. Where does manipulation begin? Who benefits from it? Is it necessarily diabolical? How can it be thwarted and how can it be prevented? These are the questions that specialists are invited to answer in this book.