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Ernest Dichter
American psychologist (1907-1991) · United States · On the map · Academics · Died at 84
Ernest Dichter was an American psychologist and marketing expert known as the "father of motivational research". Dichter pioneered the application of Freudian psychoanalytic concepts and techniques to business - in particular to the study of consumer behavior in the marketplace.
Ernest Dichter is read about 25 times a day, in 7 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 17 June 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 60 days, one point a day.
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About this person
Ideas he established were a significant influence on the practices of the advertising industry in the twentieth century. Dichter promised the "mobilisation and manipulation of human needs as they exist in the consumer". As America entered the 1950s, the decade of heightened commodity fetishism, Dichter offered consumers moral permission to embrace sex and consumption, and forged a philosophy of corporate hedonism, which he thought would make people immune to dangerous totalitarian ideas.
