WEBVTT - How Reverse Psychology Works 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:04.200 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:12.880 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:17.160 There's Charles W Chuck Bryant. This is Stuff you should Know. 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:21.360 I'm a little grumpy about this topic. I'm just gonna 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:24.320 go ahead and throw that out there because it's pretty thin. 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:30.240 Well not only is it thin, but just the older 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:35.200 I've gotten, man, it's just all we're talking about reverse psychology, 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:39.080 and I see it's used with like kids sometimes and stuff, 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:42.320 but then when it gets to like relationships and dude, 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:46.919 professional relationships in business, I just it's a little discussed. 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:51.720 It all feels like manipulative games. And the older I've gotten, 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:54.440 the more I just have no time for that garbage. 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:58.760 And I'm just you know, like, be honest. Even if 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:01.080 things don't turn out, well, yeah, at least you were 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:05.480 honest and you weren't being some manipulative puppet master. It's 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:09.319 just gross, dude. I ran across advice on how to 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:12.560 use reverse psychology to get your boyfriend back. There's a 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:15.400 site called ex Boyfriend Recovery dot com and it gives 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:21.120 tips on it. It really insists on asking the question, 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:25.039 do you want the person who you can use reverse 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:28.160 psychology to get back. And if you're using that kind 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:30.120 of stuff, it's like, this is the tactic you're taking 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:33.960 to get your your boyfriend back. Um, then is this 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:38.280 Is this the kind of relationship you really want in life? Agreed? 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:40.640 So I'm right there with you. I think I think 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.480 people are so afraid to walk away from a relationship 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:48.200 even if it's toxic. Um, we don't touch on that 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:49.800 kind of stuff much. We should do more stuff on 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:52.800 relationships like that because it is tough, and I get it. 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:55.960 But um, I don't know. Man, you get a little 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:58.400 age under your belt and it's very easy to just 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:03.680 say get out of that. Treat yourself with kindness and respect, 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:06.760 even even if you take that out of the equation. 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:10.160 You shouldn't manipulate other people and being in a relationship 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:12.640 with you, not at all. That's a pretty good rule 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:15.360 of thumb that applies to just about everybody. It will 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:18.360 lead to badness. You also should not be such a 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:21.960 desperate human being that you buy something you can't afford 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:26.920 to impress the salesman who's selling it to you. Another 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:29.360 good rule of thumb that might work on me. Actually, 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:31.480 maybe that's why it bug me too. Oh yeah, I 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:37.080 can't afford that. I'll take two, all right, I'll show you. 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:41.120 All right, that was all preamble. Yeah, but we sadly 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:44.200 covered a lot of this topic and just that preamble. 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:48.800 So we're talking reverse psychology. And it turns out psychology 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:53.600 itself doesn't even really recognize reverse psychology, although it is 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:57.000 definitely a thing. Like you can point to certain instances 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:00.880 of reverse psychology, and the basis of it is that 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:05.920 you are telling somebody to do the opposite of what 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:09.600 you want them to do. And what you're doing when 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:13.320 you get them to react and do the opposite of 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:15.440 what you're saying, which is what you really want them 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:19.280 to do, what they're displaying is is a is recognized 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:24.160 by psychology. It's a it's something called reactants. And with reactants, 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:29.160 people oppose what they're being told out of a sense 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:33.639 of independence or protecting their sense of autonomy. But for 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:36.880 whatever reason, even if it's not in their own best interests, 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:39.680 they'll do something that's the opposite of what they're being told. 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:44.360 That's reactants. Reverse psychology is priming that pump in order 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:47.720 to manipulate somebody into doing what you want. Yeah, and 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:49.800 a lot of the examples given in this article are 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:53.760 very ham fisted, but I'm going to use them anyway. 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:56.800 Like this first one is just a pure definition of 0:03:56.800 --> 0:03:59.520 what it could be. Is Uh, a wife wants her 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:02.760 bedroom ainted, so she asked the husband, you know, can 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:04.360 you please paint the bedroom? And he's like, no, I 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:06.920 want to paint the bedroom, until she finally goes, you 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:10.080 know what, Uh, you're not such a great painter. Anyway, 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:11.720 I'm gonna paint in the bedroom because I'll do a 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:15.680 better job. And then in this article, off the couch, 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:21.160 I'm going to the Sherwyn Williams right now, go everywhere 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:25.040 he pauses the football game. Uh. So that's the just 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:28.920 a very bare bones example of how, um, someone might 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:32.760 try and manipulate their husband or wife, yeah, into doing 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:36.480 a chore instead of having just a grown up relationship 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:39.200 where you tell your husband maybe we should talk about 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:42.000 painting the bedroom and he goes, I'll entertain that because 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:44.880 you're a valid human and you have opinions and needs 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.359 and what's and if you don't do this, you're in 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:52.400 a big, big trouble. Yeah, it's not just adults, though, 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:57.080 is it, Josh? What that reverse psychology is used on No, 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:01.640 typically it's used on children. UM, something as simple as 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.680 saying like, UM, I'll bet you can't finish washing the 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:08.120 dishes before you know your TV show comes on. That's 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:13.440 a good positive use, yes, UM. And psychologists who do 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:15.800 recognize and talk about this kind of stuff because it 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:17.960 is worth talking about, and there is a certain amount 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:22.400 of service among psychologists too. UM. I guess talk to 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.760 parents about the use of reverse psychology UM, because it 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:28.800 isn't necessarily something you want to use a lot. You 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:31.479 want to use it sparingly, and there are certain UM 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:34.720 qualifiers that you need to use, like, for example, you 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:41.039 shouldn't use negative reinforcement or negative reverse psychology, right, And 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:43.640 this was actually a pretty good example. I think, UM, 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:46.479 like you'r you want your kid to hang their bike 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:49.360 up in the bike rack above the cars in the garage, 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:53.080 So negative reverse psychology would be if you really want 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:55.080 them to do that, for you to say, you know what, 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:57.559 let me do it, because you're so dumb you'll drop 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:02.159 the bike on the car. What kind of monster would 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:05.839 do that? Apparently they're out there, But that is a 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:08.440 great example of negative reverse psychology. You really want your 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:11.000 son to hang that bike up but you end up 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:14.320 insulting him in the process of trying him to get 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:16.000 you know, get him to do something right. And then 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:18.599 the kid's self esteem is in the toilet and it 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:23.359 spoils around counterclockwise if it's a kid from the Northern 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:27.240 hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern hemisphere, which is not true, 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:30.159 by the way. And I also don't think I didn't 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:32.000 even find this in there. This is just me. I 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:34.560 don't think you should put your children against one another either, 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:37.960 Like you know, I bet you can't finish your green 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:42.440 beans like your big brother can. Um. I grew up 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:44.440 in a family with a big brother that was way 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:49.039 better than me. The way smarter and better looking beans 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:50.960 really took effect on that one. No, but I have 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:54.000 to say my parents never compared us or never expected 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:57.040 me to be him, which was great. Uh. They probably 0:06:57.040 --> 0:06:59.320 did it accidentally, but they did it behind your back 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.360 maybe so, but at any rate, always they go to 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:05.880 bed and be like, I really like that Scott. He'll 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:07.480 tell you what he did today. Oh, I'm a big 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:11.320 Scott fan myself. That was all the buzz behind the scene, 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:15.720 Scott Scott. So some more recommendations if you're a parent 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:20.440 using reverse psychology is that, Um, you again, you don't 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:22.480 want to use it too often because even a dumb 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.080 kid can see through what you're doing eventually. Yeah, and 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:28.080 they're going to think you're a manipulator. Yes, you don't 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:30.920 want your child to think of you as manipulative. Even 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:32.960 if you are. You want to very at least manipulate 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:35.960 them into not thinking that. So you want to be 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:39.880 smart about using reverse psychology. And then there's a whole 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:44.880 school of thought among some parental advice columnists that say 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:48.480 you shouldn't use reverse psychology at all. It's a really 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:51.720 bad idea across the board. It's a form of dishonesty. 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:54.440 I think. Yeah, and what your kids do pick up 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:57.679 on this, they will they will be like, well, my 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:00.640 my parent doesn't really mean anything they say. It will 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:03.560 also teach your teaching your kid not to listen to you. 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:05.880 And there's a good example of that in this article 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:09.160 where if you really wish that your son would cut 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:13.760 his long hippie hair, um, a type of verse psychology 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.280 would be to come up to him and stroke it 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:18.160 and be like, I hope you never cut this hair. 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.520 It looks so good, and then the kid sure, And 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:23.680 then maybe because he's creeped out. The kid goes to 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:26.040 the barber the next day, has his hair cut and 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:29.680 joins the army. You know, so you got what you 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:33.440 wanted your kids out of the house. He joined the army. Um. 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:37.200 But you also have taught him to not listen to you, 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:40.720 especially if you praise how good his hair looks um 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:43.560 after he cut it. So not only do you not 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.520 mean what you say, you're also kind of wishy washy 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:48.200 because you like the long hair, but now you like 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.640 the short hair, and you're praising the kid for having 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.560 done the opposite of what you told him to. That's 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:58.560 so this is all all this combined. It's it's basically 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:02.679 it sounds like lazy parenting, yeah, you know, or or 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:09.120 cold calculated terrible parenting. Yeah. Psychopathy Yeah that. Uh. Let's 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:12.360 take a break here and we'll come back and finish up. Now, 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:14.080 I'm just kidding. We'll come back and talk a little 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:36.040 bit more about who might be affected by reverse psychology. 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:42.160 All right, Experts say, if you're a narcissist, man, I 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:46.119 really hate that. I saw that in this article. Experts. Yeah, experts, 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:48.920 but they do say, Josh, if you're a narcissist, or 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:52.200 if you're a control freak check or if you're Type 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:55.000 A that you might be more susceptible to being manipulated 0:09:55.640 --> 0:10:01.240 by a um reverse psychologist. Why is that? Well, because um, 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.600 you want that control. Yeah, and that's ultimately what it 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:07.360 comes down to. So like, none of this will possibly 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:10.600 work if the person doesn't feel that their autonomy and 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:15.120 sense of freedom and sense of self destiny is not 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:18.320 at stake here. That's what you're doing, is you're you're 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:23.720 you are, You're assaulting that person's ability to choose, and 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:26.439 so they're going to choose the opposite to reassert themselves. 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:30.960 And apparently people who are type a's are more likely 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:34.640 to sense that their autonomy is being tread upon a 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:38.160 more passive person that type B, which we should do 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:40.920 an episode on that where that came from type A 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:46.760 type and definitely we should do one on personality inventories. UM, 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:49.880 but the type BE people, you really shouldn't use reverse 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:52.200 psychology on them because they'll end up doing what you ask. 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:55.320 So you're you're asking them to do the opposite of 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:57.000 what you want and then they'll just go do that, 0:10:57.040 --> 0:10:58.760 you know, yeah, just asking what you wanted to do, 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:00.720 and they might go, yeah, great, I'll do that right. 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:04.160 The problem is people who use for psychology are the 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:06.920 same people who who worry that the person they're talking 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:09.680 to is not going to do what they want. You 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:13.080 know what I mean, I guess it's not true. Uh. 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:18.200 There's a doctor, a psychologist named Janette Raymond and Los Angeles, 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:22.319 of course, who says that it's not so much I 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:26.679 don't know. It's not so much the personality type though, 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.199 but the dynamics of the relationship, which makes a lot 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:32.280 of sense. It does. Um. I also read an article 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:36.800 in Psychology today on this about that context has a 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:38.839 lot to do with it to whether it works or not. 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:41.080 And this was a two thousand eleven posts. So it's 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:43.680 kind of charming that the guy uses Charlie Sheen and 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:49.160 rehab as an example. He's saying, he's saying that, UM 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:52.480 saying something that like if one of Charlie Sheen's friends 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:54.840 had said to him, like, don't go to rehab. You 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:58.080 totally don't need rehab, don't go, Charlie Sheen very likely 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:00.360 would have been like, awesome, Yeah, you're right, I agree 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:04.880 with you. Because number one, his desire to not be 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:08.800 in rehabbing to do tons of cocaine, and his desire 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:11.640 to be proven to prove that he doesn't need help 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:15.679 would definitely trump any petty fleeting desire to prove that 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:20.120 person wrong and and regain a sense of autonomy. What 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:23.160 a weird time that was. It really was. He was 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:26.120 the most famous person in the world for about a month. Yeah, 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:30.240 didn't you go see his tour? No, okay, I read 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:35.160 about it. I didn't see Mike Tyson. Yes, Tyson two 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:37.880 do very different things. I'm not equating those two. Someone 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:41.320 I knew went to that stupid Charlie sheensur and apparently 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.520 the people who went were really unhappy because he tried 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:47.320 to make it like just some normal thing. You're like, no, 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.120 tell us all your drugs, like a legitimate stage show, 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:53.560 which it was not right, And like he wouldn't talk 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:56.839 about any of his drug stories or sex stories or 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:01.000 anything like that. He was just basically it's just doing, uh, 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:04.200 just talking. And yeah, he got booed a lot. Yeah, 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:07.439 And I think even now Charlie Sheen is like, that 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:10.440 was that was weird? Well, why did do all that stuff? 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:14.200 He just came to Yeah, just I think he even 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:19.160 admits what a what a dumb period in my life. Um, 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:21.960 I could talk about that guy all day. I don't 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.800 think we should do with Charlie Sheen episode. Okay, I 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:26.880 like him. Platoon I think is one of the best 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:29.440 movies ever made, and he did really well in it. Yeah. 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:33.320 Good movie. Men at Work. I never saw it. You 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:37.440 have to see Men at Work, do I? Yeah? Casablanca 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.720 first though, sure, okay, just to appease the people in 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:43.520 podcast land. If he asked me personally, you could watch 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:46.079 him at the same time. Um. They give a really 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:49.600 bad example to me in here about Julian Ossange, which 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:53.880 of wiki leaks. This is like, this almost made me, Um, 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:56.960 just throw my laptop away while I was reading this. Yeah, 0:13:57.080 --> 0:14:01.800 it said basically, um an examlause. If Julian Assange had 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:05.440 been not been told to stop, if basically the US 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:09.280 government had said fine, just go do it, he would 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.120 have lost interest and and never would have published all 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:17.080 those diplomatic cables in this article. Terrible, terrible example. Yeah. 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.320 I actually just scratched it out. Are not you with 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.200 a pin? Looked like a knife. You just went back 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:27.600 and forth like carving it up. Man. I really can't 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:30.800 believe it made it in there. So children though, Um. 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:33.360 One of the big reasons kids, Uh, it works on 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:37.800 kids is because if you're a parent, um, and I'll 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:41.360 find this out at some point, not yet obviously, but um, 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:47.480 kids it seems like they're innately um, interested in doing 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:50.760 the opposite of whatever you say. Yeah. And plus they're 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:53.880 also their little brains are developing their what you call 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:56.840 naive in a lot of ways. So it does tend 0:14:56.880 --> 0:14:59.280 to work on children. Again, like we said, you want 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:02.720 to use this worryingly if at all, UM, But there 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:04.880 have been studies, There have been real studies on this 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:07.480 kind of stuff. We finally get to the studies. So 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:12.560 the study of reverse psychology is phenomenon um of reactance 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:16.080 being primed, right. Um. Really kind of starts in the seventies. 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:19.640 But there's this very famous UM study from two that 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:23.040 was in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. I 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:30.880 think bulletin maybe in there. Anyway, this is UM. The 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:35.120 the in this study found that children who were who 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:37.400 were given free reign to play with a bunch of 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:43.000 toys except one that toy became super popular. Um. But 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:45.000 there you know, they're studying things. They had to put 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:48.600 it down on paper eventually. UM. They had another study 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:52.440 UM or a very similar one, had kids rate a 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:55.400 handful of toys that were in this room, and then 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:57.200 the researchers went back and picked the one that fell 0:15:57.280 --> 0:15:58.440 right in the middle. I think it was a toy 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:04.360 motorcycle or something UM and with a new group said 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:07.680 this is like, you can play with all these toys 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:10.720 except for the motorcycle. And then later on they formed 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:14.800 yet another new group with new UM people running the show, 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:17.400 and some of those same kids that had been told 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:20.320 no to the motorcycle were suddenly very interested in the motorcycle. 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.520 So this has been documented, this has been UM looked 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:26.680 at over and over again UM. But they don't exactly 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:29.440 know what the mechanisms are behind it, and we will 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:54.400 dive into that right after this. So before we move on, 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:57.800 I want to point out to adults out there, it's 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:00.840 very normal and even kind of cute when there's two 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:05.480 kids playing with two different things and one kid says 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:08.639 at some point, well, no, I want that one because 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:11.080 they're playing with that toy, so I want that toy. 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:14.359 It looks like way more fun. Uh, it's not cute 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:17.399 when you're an adult. No, and I see it happen 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:20.040 where you know, I want what that person has, why 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:24.120 don't why don't I have that? And people there are 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:27.840 plenty of advertisers out there that use that, that manipulate that. 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:31.880 Some of them go to um hysterical lengths, Like there's 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:35.480 a Patagonia ad that had a picture of a Patagonia 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.080 jacket and it just said, do not buy this jacket. 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:41.480 I think it was a little tongue in cheek. Well 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:44.040 you know what actually did if it was tongue in cheek. 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:48.200 I posted this article, um what was yesterday? It will 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:50.399 have been a couple of weeks ago on Facebook on 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:54.240 our Facebook page. One before you sent it as a 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:57.720 what a coincidence? All right, and I said I would 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:02.080 advise you to not read this article like ha, And uh, 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:04.800 it did pretty well. I didn't really got a lot 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:06.600 of shares, and a lot of people seem to read it, 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:10.159 and most people were like, oh, very funny. But I 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.800 don't know, did it work probably. I'm almost sorry they 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:16.520 read the article now, But but I think it's it 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:19.440 probably got a lot of reads because it is something 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:22.719 that's so ingrained in popular culture, you know, reverse psychology. 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:26.000 It's used all over the place, either expressly, like there's 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:29.920 a very famous Simpsons episode where Homer's reading a parenting 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:33.399 book and his brain says, um, don't you get it, 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:37.200 you gotta use reverse psychology. Homer's like, that sounds really hard. 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:39.400 I'm not doing that, and his brain goes, well, fine, 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:43.680 don't use reverse callogy goes okay, I will and uh. 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:47.199 I saw another example Tom and Jerry UM when Jerry 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:50.080 has a bomb and they're passing it back and forth, 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:52.479 and then all of a sudden, Jerry changes and suddenly 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:54.520 grabs the bomb back like he wants it, and that 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:57.080 makes Tom want the bomb, and Tom of course ends 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:00.600 up holding the bomb while it explodes. Reverse cycle. And 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:04.600 actually the same lady that made the terrible, terrible example 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:08.639 of UM, Julian Julians does point out that this is 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:13.080 it almost enters the realm of folklore reverse psychology does, 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:17.159 but there is something going on there. And again it 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:20.600 is based on reactants, which is somebody doing the opposite 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:23.440 of what's presented to them, breaking a rule something like that, 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:26.240 but we don't really know what's behind it right. Well, 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:29.040 one another quick example is UM. And this wasn't even 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:31.480 us trying to use reverse psychology, but during some of 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:36.560 our UM like necrotizing fasciitists or maggot therapy. When we're like, 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:40.120 don't go to Google images and look this up. Invariably 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:42.000 we have people to emails like why do you have 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:44.040 to say that? Because that's the first thing I did 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:46.800 and it was disgusting. That's why I spell it correctly 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:48.800 because I know people are not going to listen to it. 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:51.760 But it's not us saying like I really want them 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:53.159 to go look at this. We're gonna tell them not to, 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:55.520 like we really mean it. Don't go look it up. 0:19:55.600 --> 0:20:00.639 It's disgusting. Yeah, ah, you sort of do a little okay. Um, 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:05.160 so uh, there there have been there's been research into 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.240 trying to figure out what what's going on here? Why 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:13.040 do people do this? Um? And uh Esther inglish Askell, 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:17.679 who writes over I O nine great site. Um, she 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:20.960 wrote a little post on this and is talking about how, 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:24.840 um is it is it that people are rebelling against 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:28.760 authority to to establish their own autonomy again or their 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:31.840 sense of autonomy, or is it that they're trying to 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:34.600 they're curious, their curiosity is peaked. And she makes a 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:38.720 really good case for curiosity being piqued by saying, if 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:42.240 you put forbidden on the door. A lot of people 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:44.000 are going to go right through that door to see 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:46.240 what is on the other side of this forbidden door. 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:48.720 I'd be one of them. But if you put on 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:52.639 that same door a science is forbidden colon toilet overflow, 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:55.119 people are gonna be like, I'm not going in there. No, 0:20:56.800 --> 0:21:00.360 there probably donuts in there, and okay, so so you're 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:03.080 the suspicious type. But if you take it on its face, 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:05.280 she makes a good point. Yes, some people would be 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:08.200 repelled by the idea of a disgusting, overflowing toilet in there, 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:11.879 but other people might have their curiosity is squashed and 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:14.360 so they wouldn't need to transgress. So it's a lack 0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:18.800 of information in a curiosity. And apparently other studies kind 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:23.040 of bolster this idea because they show that the the 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:29.080 the reactants is more intense, the more arbitrary a rule seems, 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:31.360 so that people are saying, like, wait, why, I don't 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:34.399 understand this. It doesn't make any sense. It seems to 0:21:34.440 --> 0:21:38.879 be one component of it um and another component of it, however, 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:42.679 seems to be just disobeying. There's another study that was 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:47.479 I think in conjunction. In that study of teenagers and 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:51.360 it found that, um, these a group of teens were 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:54.440 told do not cheat on this test. It's really important 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:57.399 you don't cheat on this test, and not like all 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:00.119 the other tests. Yeah, I guess which you can cheat on. 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:03.280 And this group was induced to cheat more often more 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:06.240 frequently than the control group who weren't told not to 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:09.040 cheat on this. Yeah. What's the point of that. I 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:11.920 guess it's just I don't know, that's just finding boundaries 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:14.359 or or you could also make the case that they're 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:16.560 they're trying to see what happens if they do cheat 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:19.840 because they're curious. So the jury is definitely still out 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:24.080 on what's behind reactants. Yeah. Um. We talked a little 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:26.520 bit about how business. Um. I think they said in 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:29.400 the article that sales is a common way in business 0:22:29.400 --> 0:22:32.879 that you can use reverse psychology. Like the car salesman 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:36.560 who shows all the cars except for the most expensive one, 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:37.800 and they're like, well, why don't you show us that? 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:39.960 And he's like, well, you know, I think that's probably 0:22:39.960 --> 0:22:42.919 out of your price range. And then if you're you know, 0:22:43.200 --> 0:22:46.639 an adult living in a child's body or a child 0:22:46.640 --> 0:22:48.959 living in an adults body, like big, yeah, you go, 0:22:49.320 --> 0:22:53.040 well no, let me see that car I can afford that, Yeah, 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:55.840 what do you mean? And the goofers family who's always 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:59.360 broke drives off in their brand new car. Or the 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:03.240 lationship example they gave, like if a boyfriends like, you're 0:23:03.320 --> 0:23:07.480 becoming kind of clany to the girlfriend, and the girl 0:23:07.520 --> 0:23:11.200 immediate is like, yeah, you know, I think we should 0:23:11.240 --> 0:23:16.359 spend some time apart. Actually we should even date other people. Boom, 0:23:16.480 --> 0:23:18.639 the guy all of a sudden says, wait, wait a minute, 0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:22.439 what do you mean date other people? So some of 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:25.080