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Consider Mike for this.

I want a term that describes Mike, who is very easily 'convinceable'. But, Mike is not foolish or innocent. In other words, anybody able to fog a mirror can go, convince, and fulfill their wish.

Simplest example is...a salesperson with a bogus product going to Mike; it's easy for him to convince Mike. Mike purchases product without any hassle or a contractor going to Mike, convincing him for a fraudulent scheme project without much efforts.

What do we call Mike? A word for a person who can be convinced easily; but please mind it, he's not foolish or innocent. He's just easily convinceable.

My homework: I tried OneLook Reverse but could not get the term :(

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    Gullible is first that springs to mind - or maybe credulous
    – DoneWithThis.
    Commented Mar 18, 2015 at 11:24
  • @Tetsujin ahhh...gullible is so close! :) thanks
    – Maulik V
    Commented Mar 18, 2015 at 11:47
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    Naive is another word that springs to mind.
    – TimR
    Commented Mar 18, 2015 at 12:33
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    Not a single word, but I think it's worth a mention. "To be easily led" (First of the phrases) i.e. "Mike is easily led".
    – JMB
    Commented Mar 18, 2015 at 14:53
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    @TRomano Rather than provide vague quotations / analogies, please be more direct in helping the Questioner by stating what you think the issue is and why. Otherwise, your comment may sound sarcastic and your point can be lost. As I see it, you probably take issue with OP's use of "foolish" as in, "One who is gullible is foolish." It may be a definition of foolish that the OP isn't thinking about.
    – CoolHandLouis
    Commented Mar 18, 2015 at 18:43

2 Answers 2

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Gullible is good IMO.

From http://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/gullible: easily fooled or cheated, especially : quick to believe something that is not true. I'm not gullible enough to believe something that outrageous. They sell overpriced souvenirs to gullible tourists.

Credulous also fits, but from my experience/cultural-exposure, many people have told me they were (or someone else was) gullible, but I don't recall anyone describing someone as credulous. Strange.

Wikipedia has a comparison under gullibility:

  • Gullibility is a failure of social intelligence in which a person is easily tricked or manipulated into an ill-advised course of action. It is closely related to credulity, which is the tendency to believe unlikely propositions that are unsupported by evidence.

There is also some comparison (and interesting discussion) of the terms in wikipedia's credulity though (IMO) the definitions given are not as precise as the various references suggest.

This ngram is interesting, showing that credulous has declined in the 20th century. This COCA report shows gullible is more common now.

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  • Credulous to me tends to imply naïveté more strongly than gullible, and is more often associated with a group while gullible is more often associated with an individual. Anyone could be gullible in a particular situation, but in my experience credulous is more related to being unsophisticated in general. "Oh I can't believe I was so gullible when I talked to that salesperson last week." versus "The salesperson took advantage of the credulous populations of small towns throughout the state."
    – ColleenV
    Commented Mar 18, 2015 at 19:51
  • @ColleenV A quick look at some COCA collacates and examples doesn't seem to support that distinction..
    – CoolHandLouis
    Commented Mar 18, 2015 at 22:12
  • I don't think I articulated it well, and I do think you're right (obviously) about credulous being more rare. To me gullible describes individuals most often and credulous is used more often with groups or things, like "credulous stares" or "a credulous account of an event" or "credulous children". It's perfectly fine to say "he was credulous" but I would probably choose "he was gullible".
    – ColleenV
    Commented Mar 18, 2015 at 23:21
  • Yes, this one is quite close to what I want. +1 :)
    – Maulik V
    Commented Mar 19, 2015 at 4:40
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"Influenceable" or "susceptible" might work for that.

Edit:

It seems my answer was downvoted because I didn't include the definitions of the words. I didn't think posting the definitions of these was necessary, but anyway, here they are:

influenceable (comparative more influenceable, superlative most influenceable) - Adjective

  1. Capable of being influenced.

and

susceptible (comparative more susceptible, superlative most susceptible)

  1. likely to be affected by something

    He was susceptible to minor ailments.

  2. easily influenced or tricked; credulous (medicine) especially sensitive, especially to a stimulus

  3. that, when subjected to a specific operation, will yield a specific result

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    – Community Bot
    Commented Feb 28, 2022 at 7:31
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