Audience: Middle and High School Students
“The human brain is capable of creating more ideas equivalent to that of the atoms of the universe” - Winston Medical Center. Photo by Milad Fakurian from Unsplash.
Hack: If someone’s being rude to you, stay silent and stare at them. The silence and your lack of reaction will make the other person feel extremely uncomfortable and they will probably calm down in a few moments. It may seem absurd, but it works. That’s the beauty of psychological tricks.
Psychology tricks are clever methods used to act in a particular way, without them realizing that you’ve “convinced” them to do so. It makes the other person agree with you, and they feel that it was their original decision all along. Keep in mind that psychology tricks are different from manipulation.
Suppose you’re trying to impress someone. Maybe you try to maintain a constant smile to laugh ratio, or you pay attention to your composure. Psychologically, however, if you want to impress someone or gain their attention, try observing the person’s body language and copy it. This allows the other person to feel comforted, secure, and trusted, allowing them to open up to you better, too. It reveals a sense of connection and leads to building better rapport between you and the person you’re talking to.
Psychological tricks are especially useful when you’re trying to convince someone to do something you want, different from manipulation, which is where the “But You Are Free” method comes in handy. This method has been proven effective through 42 psychology studies on more than 22,0000 people. “But You Are Free” allows you to be more persuasive and doubles your chances of someone agreeing to do as you plan. To use this method, tell the person what your request is — but here’s the catch: you end your sentence by telling the person that they should only do this request if they want to, meaning that the person is “free” to refuse. This reassures the person of their freedom of choice, instead of threatening them over saying “no”.. This allows the person to feel empowered and inclined to your side, ultimately agreeing to what you requested.
While there are a variety of psychological tricks that you can use on other people, you may not realize that every day, you are potentially being psychologically tricked too, which is heavily seen with companies trying to sell their items. For example, you must have often seen the price of items like backpacks and clothes to be $24.99 instead of $25.00. Why not round up? Our brain encodes numbers so fast that a smaller first digit is enough to make the entire number seem much smaller, making $24.99 feel a lot smaller than $25.00. There is also the color coded aspect of things. Take a look at this:
ORIGINAL SALE ORIGINAL SALE
$50 $35 $50 $35
A visual difference is created between the original price and the sale price by bolding the original price and having a different color than the sale price. This makes the sale price seem more appealing, ultimately making a sale price that may not be so significant actually seem more impressive.
Psychological tricks are so common in our everyday lives that they’re often used on us without us even realizing! The use of them can help things to go your way, but can also influence you to do something against what you’d typically do. Ironic! Understanding psychological tricks and their uses can benefit individuals like you and larger groups like businesses. Perhaps you can try conducting your own experiment by asking two people the same question, asking one person regularly and one with the “But You Are Free” method. See how their answers vary. Who knows – maybe you’ll discover your own psychological tricks along the way!
Bibliography:
Ang, C. (2020, September 21). 29 psychological tricks to make you buy more. Visual Capitalist. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/29-psychological-tricks-to-make-you-buy-more/
Snapreads. (2023, May 18). Psychological tricks to influence people and make them say yes - Snapreads Magazine. Snapreads Magazine - Helping You Succeed Through Personal Growth. https://snapreads.com/magazine/how-to-influence-people-2/
Strikingly. (n.d.). 10 sneaky psychology tricks you can use in marketing - building your website. https://www.strikingly.com/content/blog/psychology-tricks/#:~:text=Psychology%20tricks%20are%20clever%20tactics,convinced’%20them%20to%20do%20so
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