How to make people do something you want them to do
Every one of us probably has done it a hundred times but might not have any idea of it. Reverse psychology is a strategy that people use to influence someone to achieve their expected outcome. It's a trick to make people do something that they don't want to do at first. We can call it a form of manipulation. It is an indirect approach to getting what we want. Many people apply reverse psychology to kids. However, reverse psychology can be harmful even with the best intentions. So before applying it, one should be clear about what purpose they are using the method. Here are some steps for correctly using reverse psychology:
There are two particular ways to use this technique. Either you try to make them do it in every possible way, or you just tell them the exact opposite of what you want. Mix it up with some bitter truth which they won't like to hear for sure.
Being calm is the main thing in this method. Any hint of anger or disrespect will turn the other person off.
People are more sensitive to tone than to explicit content. Containing negative tones prompts you to open up to and deal with any underlying stress, hurt, and anger. It reduces the chance that the other person will avoid dealing with what you say by shifting attention to how you say it. Cleaning up your style of expression puts you in a stronger position to ask people to do the same or act better toward you in other ways. And if not used with the correct tone, there is a high possibility that they might seem exactly that way. This is why the tone and manners in which this technique is used are very important.
In a relationship, if one of the partners insists that they don’t want a birthday gift, but in reality, they do. To surprise the partner, the other one buys them a gift anyway. Which, as it turns out, is actually what they wanted them to do.
However, if the partner continues to tell that they don’t want a gift on every single birthday, then the other partner might eventually stop buying gifts, which would disappoint the partner since they wanted the other one to get them something. This is how sometimes the method backfires.
