Posted on May 18, 2005

Introduction

The purpose of this document is to introduce you to a form of psychological influence known by its Indian word, Masska.

Masska in Hindi word that actually means "buttering" others (or Subjects) to a point that they become easily receptive (or influenced) to your request or point of view. According to our findings, Masska comes in many flavors (which is the subject of this article), and its categories and types are a growing list. For the people who are curious, me and some of my friends at United Airline, started to implement Masska in our day to day business dealings. To our surprise, it has been a very effective tool of persuasion. Of course, it is not guaranteed to work 100% of the time, but in my humble opinion it always can give you the edge that you need. Please try it, and let us know how it works, and if you come across an new category, please don't hesitate to drop me a line, and I will be more than happy to add it.

Players

Masska needs an Actor to perform it, and it need a Subject (or a victim) who would be on the receiving end of Masska.

Purpose

As it has been already explained in the introduction section, Masska's main object is influence the Subject into accepting the desired objective, which can be as satisfying a little request such as an advice, borrow money, get a date, or even just to be liked and accepted.

Application

For Masska to be effective, you need to do the following:

• Carefully study the Subject, and keep a keen eye on psychological weaknesses. For example, the Subject could be suffering from recognition problem, self-esteem, loneliness, overweight, age, looks, ... etc., all of these weakness has to be carefully studied.
• You need to recognize the main objectives, otherwise, your Masska could be wasted.
• You need to carefully study all Masska Categories and Types (see the below section).
• In many situation, it may be required to apply many Forms or Types of Masska. In such a case, it should be noted that the order and the combination of the applied Masska Types is very important.
• As Masska Types are being applied, you need to carefully study the Subject's reaction and Masska's effectiveness. In such a case, you might have refine the dosage of Masska to the proper amount so the objective could be achieved.
• Do not get carried away with Masska, it could have the reverse affect on the subject.
• For Masska to be effective, the Subject must be engaged in the Act. So he/she should not be on the receiving end of your verbal and physical Masska. It is very important to get the Subject involved.
• Be careful from the reverse affect of of Masska, see below definition for more details.

Background

For a very long time, I have built a natural immunity against Masska. Unintentionally, a system have been created to quickly recognize Masska, and almost immediately filtered it out, so Masska almost has no affect on me whatsoever. For a while, I really thought that there is no need for Masska; you have no idea how wrong I was. It has been a shock for me how most people make decisions based on their emotions rather than careful analysis and a clear rational process. Since I have been emotionless in my decision making process, I really thought the whole world is like me. I always assumed that if the right arguments are presented, people would just follow though with the rational decisions. Again, how wrong I was!

Anyhow, where I work at United Airlines in Schaumburg, IL, an Indian Software Engineer, Supriya Basu, often praised me before asking. This form of Masska was overwhelming to the point that I was sometimes annoyed of it. Later, it came to my attention that this form of praising others (or "buttering") is called Masska in Hindi, and that is how the ball started to roll.

Masska Names

Masska could have many names. Many confuse the Types of Masska with Masska names. A Type of Masska is a Masska that has a clear goal or an intention behind with the clear intention to influence the Subject.

Masska Categories

I have been able to identify two Masska Categories: Verbal Masska, and Physical Masska. It should be noted that for a Masska Type to be recognized it has to have influencing factor that helps in achieving the intended objective.

Verbal Masska

Verbal Masska is the the type of Masska that requires verbal communications on the Subject. So far, the following Types have been identified.

Physical Masska

Physical Masska is the the type of Masska that requires body movements to influence the Subject. It should be noted that this category cannot by applied on its own, but in combination with Verbal Types of Masska. So far, the following Types have been identified.