Wikipedia's first sentence called it “american-based psychologist and marketing expert who is often considered to be the "father of motivational rese”. Today it says “american psychologist and marketing expert known as the "father of motivational research"”.
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Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
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The opening as it read in 2015
Ernest Dichter (14 August 1907 – 21 November 1991) was an Austrian-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. 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. According to a New York Times article in 1998, he "was the first to coin the term focus group and to stress the importance of image and persuasion in advertising". In Vance Packard 's book on Dichter and his practices, he recalls meeting Dichter in his castle and finding children watching televisions while resident psychologists, crouching behind special screens secretly filmed and studied their every action so that they could inform advertisers how to manipulate their unconscious minds. Dichter called such focus groups his "living laboratory". One such session led to the invention of the Barbie Doll: "What they wanted was someone sexy looking, someone that they wanted to grow up to be like," Dichter reported, "Long legs, big breasts, glamorous." To Packard, Dichter's gothic mansion was a sinister factory that manufactured and implanted self-destructive desires.1
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 668374293.
The opening as it stood in 2010
Ernest Dichter (14 August 1907, Vienna – 21 November 1991, Peekskill, New York ) was an American-based psychologist and marketing expert who is often considered to be the "father of motivational research." He received his doctorate from the University of Vienna in 1934 and emigrated with his wife Hedy (née Langfelder) to the United States in 1937. In 1946 he founded the Institute for Motivational Research in Croton-on-Hudson, New York (later in his home in Peekskill) and in the succeeding years founded similar institutes in Switzerland and Germany. Dichter pioneered the application of Freudian psychoanalytic concepts and techniques to business — in particular to the study of consumer behavior in the marketplace. Ideas he established were a significant influence on the practices of the advertising industry in the twentieth century. According to a New York Times article in 1998, he "was the first to coin the term focus group and to stress the importance of image and persuasion in advertising". Dichter is credited with originating the Exxon slogan "Put a tiger in your tank" in collaboration with Chicago advertising copywriter Frederick D.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 347492924.
The opening as it stood in 2020 4 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Ernest Dichter (14 August 1907 – 21 November 1991) 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. 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.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 933431640.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Ernest Dichter (14 August 1907 in Vienna – 21 November 1991 in Peekskill , New York ) 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. 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.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1170404233.
The opening as it stood in 2025
American psychologist (1907–1991) Ernest Dichter (14 August 1907 in Vienna – 21 November 1991 in Peekskill , New York ) 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. 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.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1273422480. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “american-based psychologist and marketing expert who is often considered to be the "father of motivational rese”. Today it says “american psychologist and marketing expert known as the "father of motivational research"”. Read the current article and compare.
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
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What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
american-based psychologist and marketing expert who is often considered to be the "father of motivational rese
Now
american psychologist and marketing expert known as the "father of motivational research"
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
