Word or Phrase for "Easily Swayed"

Question

What word or phrase best communicates the idea that a human (or other sentient being) is easily swayed, particularly between moral good and evil? Words I have found that are close are:

• Impressionable - Easily influenced because of a lack of critical ability.
  • Implies that the subject lacks critical skills, and misses the concept of good and evil.
• Gullible - Easily persuaded to believe something
  • Misses the concept of good and evil

I created a typical angels and demons scenario to demonstrate the polar extremes of the the spectrum. In this scenario, I lack the word to describe the humans, who can be influenced towards either end of the spectrum if impressed upon by an external entity.

The angels are devoted to good, and are immovable in their ideals. The demons are wicked, and will feign morality only to manipulate others. Both prey upon the humans, who are ____________.

I think that the key here is the spectrum of good an evil. Here are examples of other spectra and their associated words, for comparison.

• Easily pushed from calm to angry: Temperamental
• Easily moved from determined to hopeless: Weak-willed
• Easily influenced by propaganda: See answers here

Answer 1

Pliable--yielding readily to others

Answer 2

suggestible

Open to suggestion; easily swayed:

a suggestible client would comply

From Etymonline:

1851, "capable of being influenced," from suggest + -ible.

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Some important aspects of suggestibility:

When anyone is absorbed in rapt attention in someone else's inspiring words as they outline an idea or way of thinking, the subjective attention is held because of the logic, the aesthetic, and the relevance of the words to one's own personal experience and motivations. In these natural trance states, just like those orchestrated purposefully by a hypnotherapist, your 'critical faculties' are naturally less active when there is less you would naturally be critical of.

To be suggestible is not to be gullible. The latter pertains to an empirical objective fact that can be shown accurate or inaccurate to any observer. The former term does not. To be open to suggestion, has no bearing on the accuracy of any incoming suggestions: nor whether such an objective accuracy is possible. (As with metaphysical belief.)

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And a well-known example of suggestibility towards the good vs. evil from the book "Everybody for Everybody: Truth, Oneness, Good, and Beauty for Everyone's Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness" by By Samuel A. Nigro:

Answer 3

tractable

tractable: easily controlled or persuaded

malleable

malleable: able to be influenced; pliable or tractable

pliant

pliant: easily influenced; yielding readily to others

Answer 4

credulous  

1.willing to believe or trust too readily, especially without proper or adequate evidence; gullible.

2.marked by or arising from credulity.

Answer 5

Your best option may be to use "morally" or "ethically" as adverbs and pair them with some adjectives similar to the ones you dug up that imply a lack of commitment or dedication. For example, morally impressionable or ethically irresolute. Capricious and malleable could also be good choices.

Answer 6

"wandering in the wilderness without a compass." - Scalese "like a float tossed about by the waves of a turbulent sea." - Tesla

Answer 7

Fallible can fit on the good/evil spectrum.

Capable of making mistakes or being wrong

Where here wrong would be a moral rather than factual judgement. Fallible has its origins in the Latin fallere - to deceive, and also has the connotation of being 'subject to failure' where in use to describe oneself or another, that failure is often moral.

Alternately, a candidate phrase to complete that sentence might be "susceptible to their influence(s)"

Answer 8

"searching for conviction" or "without conviction"

conviction: a firmly held belief or opinion.

or something using the word compliant

Answer 9

The state of acting against one's own moral values, or akratic action -AKA acrasia

Akrasia: Weakness of will: the condition in which while knowing what it would be best to do, one does something else. The phenomenon intrigued Plato and Aristotle, because the Socratic equation between knowing a thing to be good and desiring it makes it difficult to see how weakness of will is possible. Less optimistic philosophies find it equally hard to see how strength of will is possible.

Answer 10

At the risk of sounding extremely arrogant:

The unthinking and unknowing are naïvely | oblivious and easily swayed.

Another somewhat perverse way to describe someone who is easily swayed is innocent.