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So, how do you avoid this, especially if trying to influence others (in a positive way), especially kids/youth?

  1. Focus on a core fact at a time or on a single request at a time.
  2. Ask nicely.
  3. Be willing to compromise at some level.
  4. Don't make promises or offers that you can't fulfill. This kills trust in the long run.
  5. If you promise something as an incentive, be prepared to follow through with it. Unfulfilled promises are just as bad.
  6. Explain your arguments, why and how you think the way you think, don't just describe your point of view as the only correct answer.
  7. Avoid calling people wrong or mistaken. Explain yourself, don't demean others.
  8. Emphasize that everyone has a right to a mind of their own. This means that if their final decision is no, then it is no.
  9. Respect alternative explanations to what you believe that agree with the core facts or plans.
  10. Remember, other people are valuable and worthy members of society, even if they don't agree with you on the subject at hand or refuse to cooperate with you. Communicate this effectively.
  11. Be welcoming and warm when people show a will to cooperate, even if they don't fully agree with you on the topic.
  12. If they are already doing what you need them to do, or already agree with you on the important core fact. Let it go, be thankful with them, be grateful that things are the way they are, move on with your day.

tl;dr Don't be a dick about it.

Can someone show this to my managers?

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You know if you do not want to, you shouldn't do it! That's fine.

Negative.

After spending 50k p.a./head, the contigent for team building training etc. has been saturated.

What is being taught at these functions can be extracted from whatever new-wave "be a friend, not a boss" gloss tabloids are being bunkered in the desks of your management staff.

One of the best tl;dr that I've ever seen; it perfectly encapsulates so much information!

I like this. Gonna save it and work on using it as a retail manger. Im sure I break a few of these and it'll help me work with my team better. Ty!

And be prepared to be on the other side of this list and maintain the same behaviour.

/u/redditsilver

Offer alternatives you'll be happy with them choosing e.g..

Your child has to wear shoes. "Please put on your shoes" = tantrum, defiance etc. Rather... "Would you like to wear the red shoes or the green shoes?" = they choose. They feel in charge since they can choose the one they prefer.

Two options is easiest. Three is probably maximum for a young child. More than that and there will be chaos. Stick to two.

Collaborative Problem Solving is an evidenced-based approach where you, as the adult, express your concern and allow the kid to problem solve the solution (e.g., “I’m worried we are going to be late because it’s taking a long time for you to get ready, what can we do about it?”). Essentially it gives the kid ownership of the process and makes them more likely to follow through with the proposed solution.

There’s a nice TED Talk “Rethinking Challenging Kids” where the approach is explained.

Interesting. Watching now...

if they are already doing the thing you want them to do, then there is no need to push them more. Encourage them! Positive reinforcement is a POWERFUL tool with kids and youth in general.

Update: with people in general. Positive feedback is always powerful, you just usually have to be more subtle or more genuine in giving it as your recipient gets older, because people are really good at sniffing out BS. On the plus side, as people mature you can also have a larger separation between the event and the praise, like saying "hey, that thing you did last week resulted in this good thing happening later, that was really great of you to do."

For real. In work and personal life, my go to is "I appreciate you." It may seem bland and formal, but it is honest and it expresses a feeling everyone wants whether they admit it or not: appreciation. It says a lot. It covers everything from "thank you" as a co-worker, to "I've been watching and you do good work" as a supervisor.

"I appreciate you," plain and simple, and people will love you for it.

Let them talk to you about stuff you don't want them to do. If they talk you through it they might question their decision later to be involved with it.

Give a choice. For example if you were going to clean the bathroom and you wanted them to was the dishes you would say clean the bathroom and they might do it but if they say they don't want to say that if they do the dishes they don't have to clean the bathroom and you'll clean it instead. They will agree however this still doesn't mean they want to do it but they might feel like they got the better end of the deal

Rather, say to them "do you want to do the dishes or clean the bathroom?" that way they take ownership of their decision.

I agree , I have a totally different attitude when being asked to do something versus someone telling me to do something.

Not as related, but my mom would always tell me how upset she got when her parents told her to do chores (right before she started doing them on her own), which put her out of the mood completely.

With my brother and I, I believe she tried very hard to avoid this, and would end up passive aggressively mentioning how nobody was helping her with the dishes (though she's say she was almost done at that point if we offered to help).

I realize that most of the blame would've been on me, but I never actually knew when she wanted help because she would never tell us. It became a little frustrating, because I would've been happy to help if she had just let us know that she needed it.

What I'd learn from this is: definitely don't just avoid asking for help entirely.

Just want to say that if you want a good book on motivation you want Why We Do What We Do by Edward Deci

Deci is an excellent source - most of the psychology I've read for my degree is by him and Ryan.

The other commenter made good points, but I wanted to add one: give them a choice.

“Would you rather take a bath or go to bed?”

“Would you rather have Mac and cheese or chicken fingers”

It helps them feel like they’re in control of the situation while also getting them to do whatever it is that needs doing sans tantrum

For one if you see your kid moving from one part of the house to another, start off by asking "what are you up to?" instead of saying "Great, you're up, go do your chores".

Best thing to do is that get in a mind set that makes you understand that it was your primary objective to complete the act of washing dishes which originated as your idea thus you can forget about the fact that someone else told you to do the dishes because their words are irrelevant you were already going to do it . Do this couple times and you will get use to ignoring that type of sutiations.

Step 1. Dont be an ass Step 2. Dont be a flat earther

Read some books about persuasion by caldini or Scott adams. You can find caldinis principals of persuasion with a Google search.

Do you know what the equivalent of this is, but with a reward being what leads to the loss of motivation? Like when a child enjoys math but when their parents start to pay them for their good grades, they lose interest?

You might be looking for the Overjustification Effect!

The overjustification effect occurs when an expected external incentive such as money or prizes decreases a person's intrinsic motivation to perform a task. The overall effect of offering a reward for a previously unrewarded activity is a shift to extrinsic motivation and the undermining of pre-existing intrinsic motivation. Once rewards are no longer offered, interest in the activity is lost; prior intrinsic motivation does not return, and extrinsic rewards must be continuously offered as motivation to sustain the activity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overjustification_effect

Thank you! I've tried multiple times over the past few years to figure that out, I must have been using the wrong key words in my searches. Thanks stranger!

This is the one.

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Why are we LIKE this? It's so damn petty and stupid.

I've wondered that about stubbornness in general. Picking a view and sticking to it no matter what. I guess on one hand it gives you conviction to do something instead of sit and ponder. On all the other hands, it's baaad

We hate being wrong, and failure is so stigmatized in our society that we feel the need to be defensive. Even though in reality, failure creates some of the strongest foundation for success.

You're like this as a protective mechanism.

Imagine a three year old. A stranger comes up and says, "eat this candy." Reactance kicks in and the kid throws a fit instead.

Reactance happens when there is a breakdown in the relationship between the two people, or no relationship (or at some stage, it is developmentally appropriate). If you want to get past someone's reactance, you need to first make them feel like you're on their side.

I'm much more interested in getting past my own silly reactance.

Now I just need to convince myself that I'm not the bad guy...

Sometimes it is a good thing. Imagine you had no concept of your own will and choice. I could tell you to give me 100 dollars, and you'd feel obligated.

Would it help if I told you that you can't and shouldn't bother trying?

I don't mean to be ironic in saying that I don't agree with your comment. Do you have any sources for this statement? How do you know we as a species have learned resistance from moments like the one you've presented? I'm not doubting you, I'd just like more of a reliable source of explanation than one that a commenter was able to make sense of.

            Daniel Goleman's book Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception sure has some good hints.

        EDIT: Sorry, I messed up the title, it's not The tipping point nor The Blind Spot. I corrected The original title above.
        EDIT 2: Sorry, I messed up format.  :B

The Malcolm Gladwell book?

thanks for pointing to my mistake, it's actually Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception. I messed up :)

Because fuck you, that's why!

No, but seriously, that is why. The group has annoyed you, and now you're going to annoy them back. It may not be mature and it may not be helpful, but it is logical from a certain narrow perspective.

Which is why I feel when arguing with someone belligerent it's better to either continue to not attack them or not argue at all. I'd be more likely to change my thought if I knew I wouldn't be buying a ticket on that guy's train of thought.

That's actually the good attitude.

Plant the seed and then let it grow. If you keep watering it you are just going to drown it.

You should tell everyone this is the one.

Which one was it again? I'm lost

Do you (or anyone) know of a good way to try and train yourself out of this, if it affects you in an ongoing way in everyday life? I've noticed that I always feel this: I'll get annoyed/frustrated when someone tells me to do something I was just about to do, or knew I had to do but was doing something else first because I was juggling multiple tasks.

Part of it seems to be because the people telling me to do things are often the ones who taught me to do them in the first place or already know that it's part of my routine/responsibilities, so it feels as if they think I can't learn anything and still need to be taught/told the right way to do something. And part of it was (as far as I can tell from introspection) somewhat learned behaviour from when I was bullied a looooong time ago: and they would bug me and pretend they could "control" me by telling me to do things I already had to do or was going to do, and then gloating when I actually did it as if I was just following their orders. I guess it was a cheap power trip for them.

You and u/tacadodd are absolute heroes!

So if my mom has been telling me to eat less and exercise more for the past 15 years because she thinks I'm fat and I haven't done it it's because I feel like I've lost control of my own cjoices?

Hey, if you want a free advice from a stranger, just go to the gym without telling anyone, and it's fine if you miss a visit or two, hell I once paid for a month and didn't go once, the thing is that you just try again the next time, you will start to slowly feel better. And if for some reason you stop going you can always try again. i know that finding motivation is hard as fuck , but being healthy makes you feel better physically qnd mentally.

Nope, it's because exercise is hard and so is eating less. I say you shouldn't do either of those. And don't you dare try to prove me wrong!

Is there an evolutionary reason for this to happen?

Interesting question!

One of the theories that attempts to describe 'why irrational effects/biases happen' is called Error Management Theory.

The ELI5 on that one is: there are two types of mistakes a human can make, one being the false positive (evacuating for a fire that turns out to be a false alarm), and the other a false negative (not evacuating for a fire alarm when it turns out to be a real fire)

 

The theory states that most biases and effects come forth from one mistake being more severe than the other - in the fire alarm example, the false negative has much more severe consequences, so the best course of action is not to think about it and always evacuate, even if it sometimes leads to false positives.

 

Applying this to Reactance, we can identify the errors as follows:

False negative: we refuse to do or think something that is actually correct

False positive: we accept to do or think something that is actually wrong

 

Which is more severe? Perhaps because of attempts at manipulation or to keep our opinions and views stable, Reactance would say that the false positive is more dangerous. And so, without thinking, refusing to do what others tell us to do is the safer default option, even if it sometimes leads to false negatives.

Woah that’s pretty interesting and actually makes a lot of sense! Thanks for Eli5-ing it too. Took me a few reads but I think I’ve got it.

I always assumed it was more just people being frustrated that they feel the other person thinks they needed to be told to do something they were already planning on doing so it turns it from "I'm being responsible by myself" to "Now they'll think they had to tell me to do something when they didn't".

And reactance while expecting reverse psychology to eventually take shape and attack? What happens then?

I dub thee king of r/whatstheword

TIL

Wish I knew this science when I was a technical support agent. “ma’am please unplug it for 10 seconds and plug it back in.” “That’s not going to work” 🤦🏻‍♂️

Never felt this is my life. Score another one for not being nonautistic.

So when people try to ban guns, a lot of people who don’t even plan on having a gun go out and buy them