How seduction experts build trust in the pick-up artist community

Please note this is a hybrid event, taking place at Aston University and on Teams

Title: "You need to work her down to the bone": how seduction experts build trust in the pick-up artist community

Speaker: Annina Van Riper (University of Birmingham)

Abstract:

The Pick-Up Artist (PUA) community is lead by self-proclaimed seduction experts who coach the community on seduction techniques. As part of the “manosphere,” a community concerned with men’s rights, these experts claim to rely on rote linguistic strategies to persuade women to be more agreeable to their desires (Dayter & Rüdiger, 2019). However, the strategies that experts promote reinforce harmful gender dynamics and have been linked to a pipeline of violence against women. To further explore this connection, this research analyses PUA "how-to" videos to explore how these experts position themselves as leaders and establish trust with the PUA community. Crucially, stance (i.e., linguistic resources used to express personal feelings, one’s commitment to a proposition, and assessments of others) is used to evaluate three antecedents of trust: ability, benevolence, and integrity (Mayer et al., 1995).

Host or Publisher Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics