->''"Man is by nature trusting and averse to conflict. With social engineering you exploit these two components to get anything you want."''
-->-- '''Max''', ''Film/WhoAmI2014''

Social Engineering is when you manage to convince someone to do what you want them to, when they normally wouldn't want to. This also includes when you convince someone you are someone you are not.

These tropes are well used by [[TheSocialExpert Social Experts]] (its super trope TheFace), [[HighSchoolHustler High School Hustlers]], {{Guile Hero}}es, and {{Manipulative Bastard}}s. It's also often the ''modus operandi'' of a ConMan. Also frequently used by real-life hackers ([[TropeNamer from where the term originated]]). Those posts on social media saying your DragQueen name is your childhood pet plus the street you grew up on? Those are password recovery questions. Hackers use the information provided in questions like that to gain access to people's online accounts ''all the time'', but Hollywood would have you believe it was [[HollywoodHacking pure techno-wizardry]].

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Here are some tropes that involve Social Engineering:
[[index]]

[floatboxright:
+ DirtySocialTricks
]

[[/index]]
[[index]]
* BadReviewThreat: Threatening to give a business an excessively negative review if said business doesn't bow to your every whim.
* BavarianFireDrill
* CheckpointBluff
* ClipboardOfAuthority
* CorrectionBait
* {{Gaslighting}}: Manipulating people into believing that they are insane and that what they know actually happened they either hallucinated or remembered incorrectly.
* ImpersonatingAnOfficer
* InsidiousRumorMill: Convince members of your social circle to turn against someone else within the same social circle by lying or manipulating them
* ItsForABook
* KansasCityShuffle
* MischiefForPunishment
* PolitenessJudo
* ReversePsychology: Getting a person to do something by pretending you want them to do the opposite.
** BriarPatching: Tricking a person into doing something by pretending the outcome is detrimental on your part.
** DuckSeasonRabbitSeason: Winning an argument by tricking the other participant into switching sides so that they'll unknowingly start defending your side of the disagreement.
** FencePainting: Convincing someone to do some menial or otherwise unpleasant task by pretending it's a privilege to do it.
** ForbiddenFruit: Banning something makes people more interested in obtaining/doing it.
** ReversePsychologyBackfire: Reverse psychology fails because the person it's tried on instead does exactly as they're told.
** SchmuckBait: A person inexplicably gets deceived by a trap that couldn't have been more obvious.
* SafetyInMuggles
* SarcasticConfession
* StoneSoup
* TrickedIntoAnotherJurisdiction
* VerbalJudo
* TheWindowOrTheStairs
[[/index]]
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