The Chemistry Land site sheds light on the common techniques used by the movie industry, magicians and other master manipulators to make unsuspecting people accept altered realities. Be it a simple card trick, a sitcom laughter track, or a blatant product placement, these wizards of deception have honed their powers of suggestion and persuasion into an art.
Snip from the site:
From individuals to countries, we often want to persuade others to perceive things a certain way or to think a certain way. There are many standard techniques for doing this. Below are some of them. You can use these techniques to do your own persuading, and you can also use this knowledge to keep yourself from being fooled.
Will we ever wise up to the spin ? Probably not. The human mind loves to suspend its disbelief and be amazed by the impossible.