Психологические уловки: как иллюзии и манипуляции влияют на человеческий разум

This post may include affiliate links. #1 So I told my oldest to just stare at the bully the next time he was approached by him, then say "Your one eye is higher than the other one" and then skateboard away. Then, one by one, the other 3 kids in my group all skated past him, stared, then turned to my kid and said "Ya, you're right". The bully went over to his 2 buddies and he must have asked them if it was true that his eyes were uneven. They all stared at him for a minute. He started crying and left the park. I kinda felt a little bad for him but not as bad as I felt when he was being a jerk to my kids and their friends. #2 #3 There’s a reason we’re so captivated by things that seem to mess with our minds. Just think of a magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat, sawing his assistant in half, or pulling a coin from behind your ear. You likely know there’s a trick involved, and yet, for at least that moment, it feels completely real. Why do we fall for it? As Avery Hurt explains in Discover Magazine, there might be props involved, but those aren’t necessarily what make an illusion work. “The real magic,” she explains, “is in the minds of the audience.” That’s because, behind all the smoke and mirrors, there’s neuroscience at work. #4 I had an idiot who is supposed to correct my papers come up to my desk with one that had errors on it. Instead of working with me and being professional, she walked up to my desk and yelled loudly, "TELL ME WHY YOU GOT THIS THING WRONG!!" Usually, a person gets flustered--which is exactly what they are looking for. Instead, turn it around: "So, you don't know?" The rest of the conversation went something like this: "TELL ME WHY YOU GOT THIS THING WRONG!!" "So you don't know?" "I DO KNOW! I WANT TO KNOW WHY YOU GOT IT WRONG!!" "Then tell me. I'm not here to play guessing games with you." "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO FIND--" "Lower your voice and come back when you're ready to work with me. I don't have time for guessing games with you." I turned away from her and focused on my work. Completely took the steam out of her. It didn't improve our work relationship, but I was not going to be her target, either. #5 When I first began in my department, he noticed me putting on perfume and said his wife wears the same one (it’s not anything fancy, just one that’s widely known). Every time I go into my one-on-one with him, I apply the perfume right before. He generally speaks very softly to me and doesn’t snap at me like he does with others, and I’m pretty sure it’s because he smells me and thinks of his wife. Messed up that it takes that to get a manager to treat you humanely, but it works. #6 As neuroscientist Eric Haseltine, author of Brain Safari, puts it, “All magicians know some brain science.” They can take advantage of the way our brains direct attention and interpret what we see. One famous example Hurt mentions is the “invisible gorilla” experiment, in which participants watched a video of people passing a basketball and were asked to count the passes. Roughly half failed to notice a person in a gorilla suit walking right across the middle of the scene. It’s a memorable illustration of how our attention can be selective, allowing us to focus on what we expect to be important while overlooking something else entirely. As Haseltine puts it, “Magic works because your brain oversimplifies the world, seeing what it expects while blinding itself to what it doesn’t expect.” #7 #8 (If that doesn't work. Punch them in the throat). #9 Edit: I know I put seal instead of seat, but I think it’s funny so I refuse to change it. But magicians aren’t the only people who can take advantage of the quirks of the human mind. Part of what makes psychological tricks so fascinating is the possibility that those same blind spots, expectations and assumptions can be exploited in our everyday interactions. And that can be pretty humbling. We tend to think our perceptions are an accurate reflection of the world around us, so discovering that our attention can be redirected—or that we can overlook something happening right in front of us, even a whole gorilla—can feel a little like a revelation. Sometimes the most interesting part of a trick isn’t the trick itself, but realizing that our own minds made it possible. #10 Stay completely silent. Don't ignore them and speak when spoken to but when they are talking, nothing. No "uh-huh"s, no "mmm"s, no "I see". Nothing. Deprive them of all subconscious feedback. You really have to work at it because humans naturally try to feed off one another verbally in conversation. The other person will quickly sense that something is wrong in the conversation and it usually throws them off track enough that they stop ranting or yelling and tell you what they actually want. Best way to shut someone up without being rude. Semiotics professor taught it to me. It works just as well in person but, face-to-face, you have to also avoid nodding, moving your hands and you have to look them directly in the eyes. #11 #12 Maybe that’s why learning about psychological tricks is so appealing: not because we necessarily want to become better at manipulating other people, but because we want that little bit of awareness—to recognize when someone might be messing with us and understand why a tactic works when we encounter it. After all, as Haseltine notes, the cognitive biases that make magic possible can have a more serious side, too. For instance, he explains, “con artists also know how to exploit your expectations (and desires) to lead your brain down a garden path.” #13 One of my coworkers would leave the office at the end of the day and forget his headphones. So he'd leave the office and have to run in again to grab them. I told him I noticed he always forgot his headphones, and how he's self conscious about it and never forgets them anymore. #14 #15 Jim was on to something. When someone deliberately uses the quirks of the mind to steer, unsettle, or manipulate another person, that’s where things start to feel a little darker. So as you go through this list, it’s perhaps worth asking: Is this something clever, something a little concerning, or maybe something you’ve already experienced without realizing? Chances are, you’ll find examples of all three—and that ambiguity might be where the real magic lies. #16 I worked as a camp counselor and this method worked wonders. #17 #18 #19 #20 Wild stuff.