I’m a natural introvert, and sometimes I panic when I’m in social settings. Therefore, I found this Quora thread of cool psychological facts really interesting and insightful. Read on to learn little tips for how people shut down haters, maintain eye contact, and influence other people’s decisions.
1.
“If you think that someone is going to talk badly about you in a professional setting, sit next to that person. It is much harder to speak poorly of someone who’s in close proximity to you, so they’ll probably take it easy.”
— Ayesha K
2.
“If you are too angry and want to control your anger, go and stand in front of a mirror. Works like magic!”
3.
“If you can’t sustain eye contact, try staring at the space between the eyebrows of that person. They won’t be able to tell where you are looking at, thinking you are still holding their gaze.”
5.
“If you announce your goals or tell someone else about them, you are less likely to accomplish them because of the lack of motivation and interest that now result from someone else being aware of your goals.”
6.
“If someone keeps talking and you can’t get in the conversation, you drop something on the ground (key, pen, etc.), you bend down to pick it up and start talking. In this way, you can interrupt the other party without being noticed.”
7.
“If someone is trying to make you decide in a hurry, they are probably giving you a bad deal. Walk away.”
8.
“If you want to build people’s trust more quickly, mirroring can be very effective. When you’re striking up a conversation, subtly mirror their body language. Subtly mirroring people’s body language subconsciously makes them think you’re in sync, which works very well for building trust.”
9.
“If you whisper to someone, they’ll whisper back, even if there’s no reason to keep your voice down.”
10.
“Whenever you need a favor, open with ‘I need your help.’ Admit it. We all love to get others to do stuff for us. Either because we are lazy or because we really need some help to complete a task. Social dynamics show that when it comes to platonic relationships, nobody really likes an asshole. So whenever you need a favor, start your sentence with ‘I need your help.’ In most cases, people will accept your request and help you out. This occurs because we don’t really like the guilt of not helping someone out, and we like to be the ones who are capable of helping.”
11.
“If you want someone to keep talking, remain silent, but keep eye contact. They will feel an implicit pressure to elaborate or keep talking. People tend to feel subtly pressured and will generally want to decrease the social awkwardness by talking.”
12.
“If a song is stuck in your head and you want to forget it, try thinking about the end of the song. Our brain tends to remember things we left unfinished. So, if you can get to the end of the annoying song, you’ll be able to get it out of your head.”
— Hamza AM
13.
“If you want someone to choose a specific option, give them a list of three choices and put the one you want them to pick last. They’ll be more likely to choose that one since it’s freshest in their mind.”
14.
“You know how a joke ceases to be funny when you have to repeat it? Well, use that to your benefit; if that asshole in the group is making jokes at your expense, act like you can’t hear them and ask them to repeat it, like, three times. By the time they say it a third or fourth time, no one’s laughing.”
15.
“If you are always worried whether you locked the door or not or if your iron is off, just say some absolutely absurd phrase when doing these things (the phrase should be different every day). For example, you say ‘green rabbit’ and turn the iron off, or ‘oppressive crab’ and lock the door. The next time you think about your open/closed door, you will remember that you said this weird phrase and will calm down.”
16.
“Did something wrong? Say ‘thank you’ instead of ‘sorry.’ We tend to apologize for petty things, thinking that is what people like to hear. But that is not the case. Instead of unnecessary apologies, people often like to hear words of gratitude and appreciation.”
17.
Finally, I’ll give one of my own. Any time I loan someone a pen, I keep the cap. Then, when they’re done writing with it and go to put the cap back on, they realize they don’t have it and remember to give it back to me.
Do you have any Jedi mind tricks? Tell us in the comments below!
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