&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #99ccff;&quot;&gt;In psychology, the study of brainwashing, often referred to as&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;thought reform&lt;/em&gt;, falls into the sphere of &quot;social influence.&quot; Social influence happens every minute of every day. It&#39;s the collection of ways in which people can change other people&#39;s &lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;beliefs, attitudes and behaviors&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #99ccff;&quot;&gt;. For instance, the&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;compliance&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #99ccff;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;method aims to produce a change in a person&#39;s behavior and is not concerned with his attitudes or beliefs. It&#39;s the &quot;Just do it&quot; approach.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Persuasion&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #99ccff;&quot;&gt;, on the other hand, aims for a change in attitude, or &quot;&lt;em&gt;Do it because it&#39;ll make you feel good/happy/healthy/successful&lt;/em&gt;.&quot; The&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;education&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #99ccff;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;method (which is called the &quot;propaganda method&quot; when you don&#39;t believe in what&#39;s being taught) goes for the social-influence gold, trying to affect a change in the person&#39;s beliefs, along the lines of &quot;&lt;em&gt;Do it because you know it&#39;s the right thing to do.&lt;/em&gt;&quot; Brainwashing is an invasive form of social influence that combines all of these approaches to cause changes in someone&#39;s way of thinking without that person&#39;s consent and often against his will.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #99ccff;&quot;&gt;Example situation;&amp;nbsp;During the&amp;nbsp;Korean War, Korean and Chinese captors reportedly brainwashed American POWs held in prison camps. Several prisoners ultimately confessed to waging germ warfare &amp;mdash; which they hadn&#39;t &amp;mdash; and pledged allegiance to communism by the end of their captivity. At least 21 soldiers refused to come back to the United States when they were set free.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;It sounds like a lot but skeptics point out that 22,000 POWs from communist countries refused repatriation versus only 21 American soldiers [source:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.straightdope.com/21343712/is-brainwashing-possible&quot;&gt;Adams&lt;/a&gt;].&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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