30 Psychological Tricks That Blew People's Minds

Tricks to help you master the mind.

Published 3 years ago in Ftw

While, at the time of this writing, psychic powers have yet to come in pill form, we can exercise some profound psychological tactics that make us that much closer to becoming an unstoppable god amongst mere mortals. In case you were less into Psychology and more into Criminology, there's always our underground handbook of unethical life hacks to flip through.

1
Whenever I’m feeling nervous or anxious about something I just tell myself how excited I am to do it and trick myself into actually calming down. Works well for presentations

2
Smile as soon as you first see people (you want to like you) as you greet them, like hey buddy how you doin ?! And look genuinely happy to see them... don't matter whether its girls, guys, young, old.. it'll make them excited to see you like every time I don't get it but there's psychology to it and it actually changed my life

3
Minimizing. If you feel like something is a really big chore or you just can't get yourself to get up and go do something, minimize it to a small insignificant part. Instead of doing all the garden work, say you're just going to take the tools out so when you want to work you can. 90% of the time once you're up and doing the small thing, the big bad chore doesn't seem so bad now and you end up doing it.
4
If you ask someone to move over to an arbitrary different location to talk (could be 5 feet away) they are much more likely to listen to you and follow instructions. (One of my tricks as an elementary school teacher.)

5
By walking with your head and eyes forward like you’re deliberately going somewhere, people will move out of your way. I first tried this in a crowed mall when I was 14 and was blown away. I felt so powerful at 14 lol.
6
Don't know what to say but want to keep the conversation going? Repeat the last phrase of the last thing the person said as a question. Eg: As a question? Yes. As a question. Raise your voice so it's clear that you want them to go on.
7
If you find yourself overthinking, stare at a fixated point. To fetch memories, your eyes need to move. So if you’re staring at a singular point, it’s very difficult to overthink.

8
Stop talking. If you want to get more information out of someone, just let them speak. There are times in a conversation that things stop. Most people want to fill this themselves, but don't. Let the other person do it. This is especially useful if you think the person and their story is full of shit.
9
You can give a person talking on their phone an object and they will most likely take it because they are focused on the call. I regularly hand people empty plates, most of the time they just keep talking and don't notice what I'm doing.
10
At a garage sale, my father wanted $5 for a desk. It sat all day. Eventually, he wrote $10, and $20 above the $5 and crossed them out making it look like he'd dropped the price twice. It was gone in under 30 minutes.

11
Give young kids the illusion they are making a decision to do something that you really want them to do. Kid won’t eat their carrots and wants dessert now? You say to them do you want to eat your carrots first and then dessert? Or would you like to save your dessert for tomorrow and eat your carrots now?
12
A therapist told me that anger is a secondary emotion and should be treated like a traffic light, you should stop at yellow before jumping to red. Ask yourself what was the first thing come to your mind triggered you is it being ignored, feeling trapped, unheard, insecure etc... Because your first thought is what you actually feel your anger comes last. I'm a calm natured person rarely get angry, this advice helped me to identify my weaknesses and anxiety. You can apply this to any emotion not just anger.
13
People who feel guilty will over explain to justify their actions. I do insurance claims. I don't need to know why you backed into a pole, I don't care. It's covered, all I need is the incident and damage description. But man some people feel so bad about it, they won't stop going on about how the sun was in their eyes but they should have looked better and they can't believe it happened, and they have a reversing camera and sensors which were supposed to help but they didn't and they're so angry with themselves and it's a new car and they can't believe they've done this.

14
If someone makes a derogatory joke about you in a group setting, play dumb and ask them to explain. It’s not funny the second time and they will look like an AH
15
Talking myself to sleep. I’ll think things like, “my bed is sooooo comfortable. Sleeping is soooo easy. I love sleeping. Sleeping is great.” Instead of agonizing over why I can’t sleep. Positively reinforcing myself is my new lullaby lmao
16
People are more likely to believe something you tell them if it's self depreciating. You can make up some sort of lie but if you add something negative about yourself in it it sounds more believable.

17
When you want/need something from someone, ask them for help with it. Rather than "hey can you do this for me?", say "hey can you help me with this?" People are more inclined to be helpful than to just take on the task for you
18
To avoid Canadian standoffs when you and another person are walking towards each other in a hallway, square up your shoulders and tilt your head in the direction you plan on going. The other person will move out of the way 9 times out of 10
19
If you don’t look a toddler in the eyes after it falls or hurts itself and just act like all is fine, there’s a good chance they won’t cry

20
If you want someone to like you, ask them questions about themselves.
21
My first workplace trick that I still use regularly: people will procrastinate with their own work, but drop everything to quickly "correct" someone else's work. Example: Bill needs to provide a paragraph of text to go in your company's brochure. He's been dragging his feet forever and it's the last thing you're waiting on but he keeps putting it off. Go to where his paragraph should be and write a shitty version of what he's supposed to do. Don't invest more than ten seconds. "We do widget services. We are good at it. Our services are good for your widget needs." Send it to Bill saying "hey I filled in the last paragraph about widget services; can you check and make sure it meets your criteria, and I'll send it along to the boss for approval?" You'll have Bill's polished, fully composed text in about ten minutes.
22
Door in the face technique. Basically, someone who would have said no to a certain request if you asked it initially, is more likely to say yes to that request if you FIRST ask for something so big that you KNOW they'll say no, and then the thing you actually want seems reasonable by comparison when you ask it afterward

23
If you want people to like you, ask them for small favours they can easily do for you. Everyone likes to feel useful even if they don't realize it.
24
"The Wally Reflector" Thanks to Dilbert-man Scott Adams, I learned the Wally Reflector at a young age. It's very simple. If someone tries to pawn their work off on you, ask them to do something for you first related to said task. 9 times out of 10 they'll leave and try to find someone else. "Hey can you finish this report for me? I'm going on vacation and want to leave a little early to beat traffic to the airport." "Sure, I'd love to help! But, could you possibly send me a quick email with a bulletpoint list of what needs to be in the report, just so I don't miss anything?" "Uhhhh, on second thought..."
25
Silence as a conversational/interrogation tool. People will rush to fill the void.

26
Cunningham's Law, the best way to get an answer on the internet is to post the question with a misspelling, anal people will be drawn to correct and mock you and one will invariably have the answer you're looking for.
27
If you need an answer, don't leave the question open-ended. This hell-site is full of comments like "HuRr DuRR maH giRLfriENd cAn'T dECIde WhEre to EAT!" Don't ask, "What do you want for dinner tonight?" Ask, "You feel like pizza or burgers tonight?"
28
Want someone to tell you a secret? Just start guessing out loud. People have the tendency to correct you. I’ve had people revealing their full passwords to me starting off by saying “you look like someone that would put an exclamation mark at the end of their password”. No? “Well then it’s probably your birth date”. And so on.

29
If you want someone to be nicer to you, compliment them behind their back. If they find out they'll perceive you as nicer as most people say bad things behind other's backs. Either way if they act shitty towards you they seem like the bad guy, and because its behind their back it doesn't look like ass-kissing
30
When you ask for something, give a reason. Any reason. Any reason at all. In the study that popularized this idea, it was people asking to cut in line for a xerox machine (copier). They would literally say "Can I cut you in line?" But sometimes they would also say "I'm in a rush" (a valid reason to cut in line) and sometimes they would instead say "I need to make copies." Except, it's a copy machine. Everyone is there to make copies. What they found is that, when the request isn't high-effort, a terrible reason (Langer called it "placebic" information) is just as effective as a good reason. Worst case is just that it's a high-effort ask, and in those situations it makes no difference so might as well ask.