If you have been part of the anti MLM community for a little bit, you may have already heard about the BITE Model which was created by Steven Hassan. If you have not, we will be talking about that today. A lot of people in the anti MLM community compare MLM companies to cults. While this might sound really extreme, if you compare MLM experiences to the BITE Model, there are quite a number of things that are fairly similar. There are several videos that I’ve done on Youtube that either go over the BITE Model, or that I’ve mentioned numerous times. Before we get into the Bite Model, let’s talk about a few things that you should know in preface of the BITE Model.
via: Huff Post
via: Huff Post
Undue Influence
This is something that you will hear a lot in the anti MLM community. If you read the above screenshots undue influence is when a cult or organization uses their influence to take advantage of people. In MLM, this is the people at the top/behind the scenes within the company, in some cases uplines do this as well. This is a topic that I can talk about in more detail, but I wanted to give a general idea of what this is.
Cognitive Dissonance
If you don’t know what this is, the google definition is: the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change. Recently, in the anti MLM community there was a perfect example of this. If you don’t watch anti MLM content on Youtube, you may not know about Emily Leah. She is very vocal about being anti MLM. There are many different anti MLM channels on Youtube, and all of us are very different in how we present our opinions, etc. Emily is known for reaction type videos. A lot of people send her videos of MLM reps to react to, and at the same time, these videos are evidence of what the channels (like myself) who don’t really post reaction videos, are saying is valid. It strengthens our argument, that what we talk about ACTUALLY happens in the MLM industry.
An MLM rep for Monat reacted to one of Emily’s videos. I do believe it was more of a marketing tactic to put herself into the algorithm in Youtube, however that’s just my opinion. This woman proceeded to try and “debunk” some of what Emily was saying in her videos, however. The MLM rep was exhibiting behaviors of cognitive dissonance. A lot of her theories were mostly opinion based (which is fine, we are allowed to have our opinions), but if you are “debunking” you have to use facts, not opinions. A lot of the video was very inconsistent and she contradicted herself a lot. Personally, I feel bad for this rep. She seems very disconnected, and very sad. I know that if she ever stumbles upon this, she won’t agree and she will try to argue that MLM is the best business model, however with her past, I think joining MLM was a last resort. If you want to know more about that, you can watch Emily’s video (linked in the following paragraph), she briefly touches on this towards the end of her response video.
I won’t be sharing her video because I do not believe that it deserves more engagement, however, if you’d like to see any videos about this topic, Emily, Savannah Marie, and myself reacted. Savannah’s video is very long, but she actually reacts to this MLM rep’s video, so if you don’t want to give the rep the view, you can give Savannah the view instead. With all of the drama that has been going on in the anti MLM vs MLM community, in my opinion, I do believe this is going to start to steer away from the actual arguments at hand, and it will turn into a full blown attack mode from both sides. This is very sad to think about, but I have a gut feeling that this will be happening. It will no longer be about the structure, it will be about people personally attacking one another. I hope I’m wrong though. Anyway, I digress, moving on!
The Bite Model
“Many people think of mind control as an ambiguous, mystical process that cannot be defined in concrete terms. In reality, mind control refers to a specific set of methods and techniques, such as hypnosis or thought-stopping, that influence how a person thinks, feels, and acts.
Based on research and theory by Robert Jay Lifton, Margaret Singer, Edgar Schein, Louis Jolyon West, and others who studied brainwashing in Maoist China as well as cognitive dissonance theory by Leon Festinger, Steven Hassan developed the BITE Model to describe the specific methods that cults use to recruit and maintain control over people. “BITE” stands for Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional control.” (source: Freedom of Mind)
Below is a screenshot of Steven Hassan’s BITE Model.
I made an entire video dedicated to me comparing my experiences to this model, which I will leave at the end of this post if you are interested in watching it. The BITE model is broken down into four categories which include Behavior Control, Information Control, Thought Control, and Emotional Control. You can read the screenshot above to familiarize yourself with the four different categories and what they entail.
My Opinion of The BITE Model vs. MLM
Not all of the items listed in each category correlate with MLM, however, there is an alarming amount that do. With my experience, a lot of these things happened to me, and I wouldn’t necessarily say it was at the fault of my upline. My upline could have very well been (in my opinion) brainwashed to believe the information they were spewing. There is a lot of critical thinking, that is taken away from MLM reps. A lot of times you will hear a MLM company or upline say not to Google the company because it’s all lies, or it’s just the “haters” trying to bring the company down. Recently, I was tagged in something that showed a Young Living rep who was in complete denial.
If you don’t know anything about Young Living, there is some history with the founder, Donald Gary Young. He would often go by D. Gary Young to make it appear as though he was a doctor. He was very well known for practicing medicine without a license, and a very long time ago, it was his negligence that caused his (trigger warning) child to pass away. He was helping give birth in a whirlpooth bath and it was later determined that the child had been under water for too long. I talked more about this in my Young Living video on Youtube, and all of my sources are listed in the description box. The Young Living rep responded to these types of comments by stating that, that is incorrect information and it’s all just the haters trying to tarnish YL’s image. Girlfriend, this information is readily available on Google. Also, can you imagine if she is telling her downline all of this?
With my experience in MLM, I took my upline’s word for everything. There was a ton of love bombing, and any negative thing that was said in the private Facebook groups that were not positive were deleted. Some ex reps who have reached out to me were even reprimanded for this “negative behavior.” It wasn’t negative at all, it was critical thinking which MLM companies do not agree with. I would be constantly told that if my friends and family do not support me in my business I need to get rid of them out of my life. Thanks to the MLM companies I was with, I ended up losing a ton of friends because of how annoying I was on social media. A lot of my experiences and the experiences of others who have reached out to me, are eerily similar to cult like tactics. Which is why the BITE model is very well known in the anti MLM community and why it’s important.
MLM Companies cannot survive without their Reps
I realize that I have an opinion on everything, and I do believe that MLM companies cannot survive without their reps. It is the MLM structure that allows them to make more money. If it weren’t for this structure, they would not be making money off of the “failures who didn’t work hard enough.” What’s very disheartening is when MLM companies tell people they didn’t work hard enough and not to blame the structure. Ok, Karen, well then why is it MLM? Would the company survive if it was structured differently? Would the company still be making money if they were not exercising deceptive and predatory practices? Personally, I don’t think so. MLM companies provide sub par products for astronomical prices, and the reps become their best customers. Is it a coincidence that Monat has flash sales on the same day that their reps get paid? I think not. This is why so many MLM companies operate very similarly to cults. Try watching a Scientology video, and then an Amway video for example. Then compare the two.
Also, in case you aren’t subscribed to my channel, here is today’s video which is also pertinent to the topic of today’s post.
Some great resources if you’re looking for a more in depth analysis of the anti MLM movement:
The Genetically Modified Skeptic (he’s not strictly anti MLM, but the anti MLM content he has is top notch and his wife, Taylor, is creating her own anti MLM channel)
Betting On Zero Documentary (on Netflix)
Also, if you’re interested in any anti MLM merch, or Youtube merch to help support my channel and my mission check it out here. There are plenty of other styles, but the below is just a photo of a few things.
Very interesting post. I hadn’t heard of the BITE Model before. One thing that struck me upon reading about it, is how many of these are the techniques used by abusive men (and likely abusive women as well).
Michelle
http://mybijoulifeonline.com