Tag: manipulation

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Art Of Persuasion

Posted on by Jinavie

An effective way to persuade or manipulate someone into doing a favour for you is the foot-in-the-door technique. Firstly, ask the person a small request that they will probably agree to. This is the metaphorical foot in the door. Once that is successful, continue to pry open the door with slowly increasing (not drastically as it raises suspicion) demands. Finally, like a frog swimming in a boiling pot, the person will happily say yes to your original intended request as you escalate the scale of your demand until you reach it. You have successfully made a sale to someone who would have otherwise closed the door on you.

For example, ask your friend if you can borrow a pen. Then, ask if you can borrow their phone to make a phone call. After a reasonable amount of time, ask casually if you can borrow a few coins for a drink from the vending machine. If your friend complies with these requests without protest, ramp up to your original intent of asking if you can actually borrow $10 because you left your lunch at home. If that is successful, then say you might need some cash for the rest of the day and ask to borrow a nice even $50 (with the addendum that you will pay them back soon).

This technique of slowly and surely expanding the size of your demand works because it is far easier complying with a small favour than a big one. Once that is established, the increasing demand becomes more tolerable as the person only compares it to the previous demand rather than seeing the absolute size of the favour. This is called reciprocal concession.

Strangely, the opposite stratagem seems to be just as effective. The door-in-the-face technique works by starting with an unreasonable, ridiculous request. The person will say no straight away, to which you respond with a milder favour, which seems much more reasonable relatively speaking. For example, ask a friend if you can borrow $1000. In most cases, that request will be denied. Then suggest that it is quite a large amount of money and ask if you can just borrow $100 instead. This will be far more effective than asking to borrow $100 from the start.

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Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Reverse Psychology

Posted on by Jinavie

If you tell a child not to do something, chances are he or she will do it. This is a simple rule of parenting that everyone has experienced at some point in their lives. People (especially children and teenagers) are wired in a certain way so that if they are told they cannot do or have something, they react by wanting it more. They then rebel by reasserting their freedom and express anger towards the person restricting their freedom. This is a natural response for a person that is beginning to develop a sense of self and ego, as they feel an instinctive desire to protect their right to free will. This psychological phenomenon is known as reactance.

Although reactance can be very troublesome and annoying to deal with, you can easily turn it around to your advantage if you understand the basic principles behind the effect. Under the assumption that a child will always react to your commands and advice by doing the opposite, we can deduce that if you say the opposite of what you want, they will end up doing what you want. This is reverse psychology. It is a surprisingly effective method of manipulation, especially in those with high reactance (usually children or those who are as immature and stubborn as children).

It has been scientifically proven that reverse psychology is extremely effective in children, as they would rather protect their (perceived) free will than avoiding study or not eating their greens. An example of reverse psychology would be telling a child to stay home when they actually want them to go out and play. However, reverse psychology is not the most ideal way of parenting as it reinforces the idea that it is okay to do the opposite of what you ask, thus undermining your authority.

Reverse psychology works just as well in adults when used right. For example, using a strong imperative tone against a person effectively assaults their ego, which provokes their natural instinct of reactance. If you are not in a position of authority and the person has the option to defy you, it is likely that they will revert to an irrational teenager and do the opposite of what you commanded. However, repetitive use of reverse psychology may lead the person to think that they are being manipulated, causing them to nullify it by reverse reverse psychology. Reverse psychology can be a double-edged sword if this happens, so it is important to know when it is most likely to be effective.

Psychological reactance is more likely to arise if the restricted option appears more attractive and important. The greater the restriction of freedom, the greater the psychological reactance. Also, arbitrary threats produce high reactance as they do not make sense, making people more rebellious. It is important that reverse psychology be used subtly and sparingly on people who are resistant to direct requests. Mastery of the above skills will help you manipulate a person into doing your bidding under the illusion that they are acting on their free will.

Posted in History & Literature

Thirty-Six Stratagems: Chapter 5 – Proximate Stratagems

Posted on by Jinavie

(For all 36 stratagems, click here: https://jineralknowledge.com/tag/thirtysix/?order=asc)

Proximate Stratagems are tactics that utilise something even more fearful than the enemy outside: the enemy inside.

Stratagem 25: Replace the beams with rotten timbers
If you slowly remove the pillars of foundation beneath the enemy one by one, they will naturally fall. More specifically, if you buy off the enemy’s officials and subjects, you can make the country into a useless shell even before starting a war.

Stratagem 26: Point at the mulberry tree while cursing the locust tree
This is a method where you publicly criticise someone’s actions while intending for someone else to indirectly get the message. If you criticise an ally or a subordinate, you run the risk of being betrayed. Thus, it is far more effective to indirectly criticise someone else in a way that the other person understands what you think.

Stratagem 27: Feign madness but keep your balance
It is far better to act like a fool and refrain from misconducting than talking out loudly and committing a rash act. A true leader hides his ingenuity, meaning he may appear as a fool to others. This is the ideal look of a leader. Furthermore, if you keep up an act of foolishness while meticulously planning on the inside, the enemy will drop his guard.

Stratagem 28: Lure the enemy to the roof then remove the ladderMake your army look weak and defenceless to lure the enemy into a trap, then surround and destroy them. On the other hand, this can also mean to intentionally trap your forces to boost their ferocity.

Stratagem 29: Deck the tree with false blossoms
Bluff to suppress the enemy psychologically. For example, if you make it look like your forces are far greater in number than they actually are, the enemy will be hesitant in attacking and you will have the lead. This is very effective when you are outnumbered.

Stratagem 30: Make the guest act as if he was the host
This is the survival strategy cuckoos use where they push the original babies out of a nest and hog the food that the mother brings. It is a strategy where you patiently wait for the right moment when you can sneak in and seize the authority, taking someone else’s resources for your own. An example of this stratagem would be when the reinforcement that is supposed to protect the allied country turn into an invading an army to take over the country.

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Open Hand

Posted on by Jinavie

90% of human communication is non-verbal. This shows how facial expressions and body language have a powerful effect on our subconscious. Even the position of the hand can send a clear signal.

An open hand suggests peace, love and openness. Because of this, if the other person has his or her palm showing, you will feel more comfortable talking with them and view them in a more positive light. Jesus is often pictured in a pose with his arms stretched and palms showing, sending the message: “I would like to embrace you”. The same signal is used to initiate a hug.

On the other hand, a closed hand sends a cold message of strictness and professionalism. Therefore, people who are debating or negotiating often have their hands flat on a table or their lap to symbolise their resolution and defiance.

From this analysis, we can tell that an open hand is a good way to gain the affection of another person. Furthermore, this body language can manipulate the other person’s subconscious.

From my experiments, I found that when given the choice between a closed fist facing up and another fist facing down, the subject would choose the fist with the palms facing up about 90% of the time. Although it is a crude test, it definitely beat the 50:50 statistics that is expected.
This experiment was probably affected by other factors. Especially because people will usually choose the unusual choice due to curiosity (as when told to pick a hand, the person will usually have both fists facing down) and due to the psychology of “the unusual fist will probably contain something more interesting”. Also, most people who chose the downward-facing fist later said that they “deliberately chose the other fist because they felt they were supposed to choose the upwards-facing fist”. Thus, they too were first attracted to the unusual fist.

This test must be done suddenly to bypass the logical conscious mind and have an effect on the subconscious mind. If you take too long to explain the test, the results become skewed. 
Bypassing the conscious mind to suggest an acceptable choice to the subconscious mind – this test shows the basic principles of hypnosis.

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Beer Goggles

Posted on by Jinavie

There’s only one thing other than love that can make a person oversee another’s weaknesses and amplify their strengths – alcohol. The term beer goggles refers to this phenomenon, where a member of the opposite sex appears more attractive due to the influence of alcohol. This is because alcohol inhibits the cerebral cortex where higher order thinking occurs, reducing sexual inhibition and allowing primitive behaviour to surface.
Beer goggles can be utilised to increase the chances of succeeding in courtship if one knows how to manipulate it.

There is even an equation to calculate the strength of beer goggles, produced from actual scientific research and experiments. The equation is:

An = number of units of alcohol consumed
S = smokiness of the room (graded from 0-10, where 0 clear air; 10 extremely smoky)
L = luminance of ‘person of interest’ (candelas per square metre; typically 1 pitch black; 150 as seen in normal room lighting)
Vo = Snellen visual acuity (6/6 normal; 6/12 just meets driving standard)
d = distance from ‘person of interest’ (metres; 0.5 to 3 metres)

Ergo, the more you drink, the further you are from them, the smokier and darker it is and the worse your eyesight, the beer goggle index (ß) rises and the subject becomes more attractive, thus increasing the probability that you will approach that person.