To examine folk beliefs on manipulative techniques targeting the unconscious and their effects on free choice and level of awareness, we collected judgments based exclusively on examples participants volunteered themselves. Our sample (N = 961) consisted of respondents from 6 continents with 46 different nationalities and residing in 27 different countries. Participants were first asked to report (via free text) a personal experience in which they suspected that unconscious manipulation had taken place. After this, they rated their experience across a number of dimensions (e.g. level of awareness of manipulation, success of manipulation, level of free choice, level of concern). Consistent with previous findings, participants thought of marketing as the most common context in which unconscious manipulation takes place (45% of all participants) followed by research (11%) – typically psychological studies, therapy (2%) – typically hypnosis, media (11%) - incl. entertainment, news media, social media, and politics (3%). In addition, free choice, awareness, and most other ratings were not reliably predicted by the context of the example volunteered, or by group level differences (place of residence, age, gender, religiosity, political affiliation, education), suggesting near universally shared beliefs in the way unconscious manipulation is being conceptualised. As observed in previous work, we also find that, irrespective of context, participants believe that even if manipulated, they retain some degree of free choice. We focus the discussion on new insights that the data set revealed with respect to other domains of influence and manipulation.