The hidden tricks of powerful persuasion
canada goose uk black friday Are we all just puppets on a string? Most people would like to assume that they are free agents their fate lies in their own hands. But they be wrong. Often, we are as helpless as a marionette, being jerked about by someone else canada goose outlet subtle influence. Without even feeling the tug, we do their bidding while believing that it was our idea all along. canada goose uk black friday
we finding more and more in psychology is that lots of the decisions we make are influenced by things we are not aware of, says Jay Olson at McGill University in Quebec, Canada http://www.mycanadagoosejacket.org who recently created an ingenious experiment showing just how canada goose outlet reviews easily we are manipulated by the gentlest persuasion. The question is, can we learn to spot those tricks, and how can canada goose factory outlet we use them to our own advantage?
cheap Canada Goose Olson has spent a lifetime exploring the subtle ways of tricking canada goose outlet in usa people perception, and it all began with magic. started magic tricks when I was five and performing when I was seven, he says. cheap Canada Goose
Canada Goose online As an undergraduate in psychology, he found the new understanding of the mind often chimed with the skills he had learnt with his hobby. of what they said about attention and memory were just what magicians had been saying in a different way, he says. Canada Goose online
Canada Goose Outlet One card trick, in particular, captured his imagination as he set about his research. It involved flicking through a deck in front of an audience canada goose outlet nyc member, who is asked to pick a card randomly. Unknown to the volunteer, he already worked out which card they would choose, allowing him to reach into his canada goose outlet toronto factory pocket and pluck the exact card they had named much to the astonishment of the crowd. Canada Goose Outlet
canada goose clearance sale You can see a video canada goose outlet online uk of Olson blowing his volunteers minds below: canada goose clearance sale
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buy canada goose jacket The secret, apparently, is to linger on your chosen card as you riffle through the deck. (In our conversation, Olson wouldn divulge how he engineers that to happen, but others claim that folding the card very slightly seems to cause it to stick in sight.) Those few extra milliseconds mean that it sticks in canada goose outlet uk sale the mind, causing the volunteer to pick it when they are pushed for a choice. buy canada goose jacket
As a scientist, Olson first task was to formally test his success rate. He already knew he was pretty effective, but the canada goose outlet shop results were truly staggering Olson managed to direct 103 out of 105 of the participants.
Unsurprisingly, canada goose outlet online that canada goose black friday sale alone has attracted a fair amount of media attention but it was the next part of the study that was most surprising to Olson, since it shows us just how easily our mind is manipulated.
View image of Touching someone is one trick people use to manipulate (Credit: Thinkstock)
For instance, when he questioned the volunteers afterwards, he was shocked to find that 92% of the volunteers had absolutely no canada goose outlet black friday idea that they been manipulated and felt that they had been in complete control of their decisions. Even more surprisingly, a large proportion went as far as to make up imaginary reasons for their choice. person said chose the 10 of hearts because 10 official canada goose outlet is high number and canada goose outlet jackets I was thinking of hearts before the experiment started says Olson despite the fact that it was really Olson who made the decision. What more, Olson found that things like personality type didn seem to have much influence on how likely someone was to be canada goose outlet store uk influenced we all seem equally vulnerable. Nor did the specific properties of the cards goose outlet canada the colour or number seem to make success any less likely.
The implications extend far beyond the magician stage, and should cause us to reconsider our perceptions of personal will. Despite a strong sense of freedom, our ability to make deliberate decisions may often be an illusion. a free choice is just a feeling it isn linked with the decision itself, says Olson.
Subtle menu
canada goose coats Don believe him? Consider when you go to a restaurant for a meal. Olson says you are twice as likely to choose from the very top or very bottom of the menu because those areas first attract your eye. if canada goose outlet canada someone asks you why did you choose the salmon, you say you were hungry for salmon, says Olson. won say it was one of the first things I looked at on the menu. In other words, we confabulate to explain our choice, despite the fact it had already been primed by the restaurant. canada goose coats
canada goose store View image of Playing French music in a supermarket makes you canada goose jacket outlet unwittingly buy French wine (Thinkstock) (Credit: Thinkstock) canada goose store
canadian goose jacket Or how about the simple task of choosing wine at the supermarket? Jennifer McKendrick and colleagues at the University of Leicester found that simply playing French or German background music led people to buy wines from those regions. When asked, however, the subjects were completely oblivious to the fact. canadian goose jacket
Canada Goose Coats On Sale It is less clear how this might relate to other forms of priming, a subject of long controversy. In the 2000 US election, for instance, Al Gore supporters claimed the Republicans had flashed the word in an advert depicting the Democrat representative. Canada Goose Coats On Sale
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Gore supporters believed the (alleged) subliminal message about their candidate would sway voters. Replicating the ad with a made up candidate, Drew Westen at Emory University, found that the flash of the word really did damage the politician ratings, according to subjects in the lab. Whether the strategy could canada goose outlet sale have ever swayed the results of an election in the long term is debatable (similarly, the supposed success of subliminal advertising is disputed) but it seems likely that other kinds of priming do have some effect on behaviour without you realising it.
canada goose coats on sale In one striking result, simply seeing canada goose outlet a photo of an athlete winning a race significantly boosted telephone sales reps performance despite the fact that most people couldn even remember seeing the picture. And there is some evidence showing that handing someone a hot canada goose outlet parka drink can make you seem like a person, or smelling a nasty odour can make you more morally and cause you to judge people more harshly. canada goose coats on sale
How to spot manipulation
canada goose uk shop Clearly, this kind of knowledge could be used for coercion in the wrong hands, so it worth knowing how to spot others trying to bend you to their will without you realising. canada goose uk shop
canada goose Based on the scientific canada goose outlet store literature, here are canada goose outlet new york city four manipulative moves to watch out in your colleagues and friends in everyday life: canada goose
uk canada goose outlet 1) A touch can be powerful uk canada goose outlet
View image of (Credit: Thinkstock)
Canada Goose Jackets Simply tapping someone on the shoulder, and looking them in the eye, means they are far more open to suggestion. Canada Goose Jackets
uk canada goose It a technique Olson uses during his trick, but it also has been shown to work in various everyday situations such as persuading people to lend money uk canada goose.