Religion, Sex and Division — The Top 3 Best Sellers of the West
What sells — reaching people as an influencer and creator without pimping your integrity out to the world
After years of working in social media and studying the social psychology behind content, engagement and performance, I am never surprised by what sells.
We have all heard the saying, “Sex sells.”
But what we don’t hear about is how much religion and division sell too.
In reality, religion and division sell more on social media because they are socially acceptable to more people. So people can engage in and share religious and divisive content without sacrificing their good name in the community.
Before you say that this list is incomplete without money, I considered that and left money out for two reasons.
First, four things don’t roll off the tongue as smoothly as three do. Most importantly, money doesn’t sell. It is a simple a one-size-fits-all placeholder for whatever it is that people actually want.
Anyone who has created content consistently and has been thoughtful in their strategy can confirm that religion and division sell like hotcakes.
For those of us who wish to bring harmony to the world, finding out that the world seeks out division can be heartbreaking. As far as religion and division go, we see creators sell out all the time.
Yes, you have to mix the Cheetos with the broccoli, or you will just be singing to the choir.
But you can only go so far before you dilute your message and falsely represent yourself — in a desperate attempt to get more engagement, more shares and more follows.
Many newbies to the creator world come with the idea that people want content that makes the world better — content that makes them better. Reality stops them in the tracks of their enthusiasm when they see what the vast majority of people want and what they don’t want.
Mass manipulation of the consumer
It was 1929 when Freud and Bernays paved the way for mass manipulation of the consumer. Since then, it has been no secret that people make choices and consume based on how that consumption makes them feel.
When Betty Crocker made their first box cake, there was no egg in the recipe. They only added eggs after their first launch was unsuccessful.
Considering that, at the time, a woman’s identity and self-worth were contingent on her ability to homemake, it made sense that women did not feel secure feeding their family a cake they didn’t make.
An idea formed which was both brilliant and utterly deceptive.
The box cake didn’t need the egg. But women did.
If they added an egg, women would feel that the cake was made by themself, because they would be adding something from their own kitchen.
Voila!
We still add eggs to boxed cake today for no reason other than to make us feel better about ourselves.
Just like Betty Crocker added eggs to their recipe to make us feel better about using their mix, creators add ingredients to their content for the same reason — regardless whether they agree with the ingredients or not.
How far is too far for the honorable creator?
For a creator who wishes not to sew seeds of division and doesn’t promote religion, the question becomes how much of your integrity you are willing to sacrifice to reach people.
Will you write uncaringly about racism and politics — for the sake of views? Will you flood the internet streets with content that co-signs people’s self-sabotaging bullshit and encourages division? Will you create content about a version of God that you don’t believe in? Will you create clickbait that feeds off of shock value and dopamine hits?
Will you manipulate your viewers into engaging with content that offers no value to their life?
If you choose the high road, you can still evaluate what it is about these things that sell. You can apply these concepts to the packaging of your message, without exploiting your audience.
Why does sex, religion and division sell so well?
I will provide a brief synopsis of why these things sell.
Take what you will, leave the rest and come up with your own ideas.
Why Sex Sells
Is this even a question? I will trust your imagination on this one — we all know why sex sells.
Why Religion Sells
First, I disclaim that my observations do not represent the entire spectrum of the reasoning behind the popularity of religion. It is also important to note that I am not referring to theology or deep pursuits of spirituality, but religion in headline culture form.
Headline culture religion is very limited to a small set of platitudes and beliefs that make people feel safe and justified.
The underlying messages in these surface perversions of religion go something like this:
God is all-powerful and you are meek. Everything is possible through our Lord and Savior and everything will be okay because God will save you. All you have to do is type “yes” that you agree and you will receive almighty favor.
Everything is by the grace of God and what you do doesn’t matter much because you have no power and it doesn’t matter how poorly you treat the world — it is all in the hands of God. Just be grateful and share a poster that talks about God’s will and you will spend eternity in heaven.
I am not here to discuss the level of validity in these messages or make a religious stance or to sort out the good and the bad social constructs of Western religious culture. But most of us will agree that the headline version of these messages is in some way diluted and even toxic.
Analyzing the top-performing religious content, you can see why it draws people to it.
- The masses want to feel safe, and they don’t want to put much work into obtaining that security.
- Most people do not wish to think for themselves. Life is much easier when they are simply following the leader.
- Jumping on bandwagons cures loneliness and isolation.
- Acceptance of responsibility is very unpopular. Content that allows people to feel more justified and less guilty about their place in the world flies off the shelves. The affirmation that everything will be okay, no matter what, takes the burden off of our shoulders.
To summarize, everyone wants freedom, security, acceptance and love.
Why Division Sells
How low will you go? Adding room for meaningful disagreement is powerful beyond measure. But intentionally sewing seeds of discord to render views is a compromise I have not been willing to make.
This one thing, out of all the things the world wants, is the thing that burns my soul on the deepest level.
The world wants division.
Yes, I said it.
I am not speculating here. These are the facts of our experience, the proof of which can be found all over the internet.
We have reached millions across the globe for years with our messages. The top-performing quotes and concepts divide people from other people. They make one right and the other wrong.
People love a little jab that sounds positive. They can share it as a post on social media and give that little jab, either to the world or whoever they presently disagree with.
Here is a linked example of our current top-performing quote which is also our most viral original quote of all time.
Its original version has been recreated and cited by some of the most successful of social media influencers — like David Wolf, Women Working, Love Wide Open and many more.
If you have to hurt other people, in order to feel powerful, you are an extremely weak individual. — Bobby J Mattingly
As with any good viral quote, it has even been stolen by hundreds of people, like this person who doesn’t only skip citation but adds their name.
Now, you can see the positive aspect of this message. But the world of the writer and creator is just like life itself. People rarely hear what you are saying. They hear and see what they think and believe — they see themselves.
Unfortunately but also, fortunately, people did not take this message the way its author meant it.
Here is the context that most never read.
Everyone hurts. Everyone has been hurt by someone and everyone has hurt someone. It takes a great deal of strength and integrity to admit when you are wrong. Feeding the urge to hurt others because you have been hurt only weakens your resolve to heal and creates more pain and suffering. If you learn to forgive yourself and others, you gain the strength of empathy and the power of compassion. When you intentionally inflict pain on others because your heart is broken, you only cause more heartbreak. If you have to hurt other people in order to feel powerful, you are an extremely weak individual. But inside the realization of this weakness lies the key to true power. Once you acknowledge that you have been wrong and make a legitimate effort to make things right, you begin to shed the false skin of ego and step into your authentic self. That is where your real strength and power lies.
As you can see, Bobby wrote this sentence in an excerpt that was not about blaming others but about personal inventory and self-focus. People take what they want and leave the rest.
You can look through this one quote anywhere online and see that most people who engage and share it are using it as a jab towards someone else, not to look at themselves.
Often, viewers used the quote to bash Trump. If you are thinking about how that’s fair because you think it applies to Trump, you are missing the point.
The point is, the purpose of the message was not to encourage the belittling of others. But it is the shreds of divisiveness that you find in that one sentence that made it go viral.
So why?
- People want to be right and making others wrong makes them feel more righteous.
- Although people over-share platitudes about self-acceptance and independence, humans have an innate yearning to be vindicated in their choices — especially as they relate to the other, allegedly more lowly, people around them.
- Self-righteous indignation, aka drama, is addicting. Many people become consumed with the drama and self-aggrandizing nature of everything being an emergency and everything having an enemy. You can see this in what has recently been named virtue signaling.
- And again, Jumping on bandwagons cures loneliness and isolation.
One can sum this up in several explanations, which all work — regardless of your world view.
You can call it ego, self-will run riot, unconsciousness, pain bodies, or the like.
Whatever explanation you choose, our Western love for divisiveness comes from the dominating and excessively dualistic culture in-which we live.
In short, people want division because in our dualistic-lexicon-driven set of beliefs — they already are. The subconscious aim is to show ourselves and the world that we are the good ones and they are the bad ones.
You can be mindful of what sells and govern yourself accordingly without pimping your integrity out to the world.
The line between strategy and exploitative manipulation is one that only you can draw.
Written by Holly Kellums
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