1. When a group of people laugh, people will instinctively look at the person they feel closest to in that group.
2. If you ask someone a question and they only partially answer, just wait. If you stay silent and keep eye contact they will usually continue talking.
3. If you get yourself to be really happy and excited to see other people, they will react the same to you. It doesn’t always happen the first time, but it will definitely happen next time.
4. The moment your alarm wakes you up, immediately react by sitting up, pump your fists and shout “YEAH!”
5. I currently work for the Federal government, and used to work in a high profile office, which reported directly to parliament. After years surrounded by important people, Media coverage and generally feeling way over my head, here are a few things I learned along the way; · Fake it till you make it; confidence is more important than knowledge.
· Don’t be intimidated by anyone, everyone is playing a role and wearing a mask.
· Don’t be afraid to ask questions; it makes you look interested, and you will learn something. Anything can be learnt if you put the effort in. Everything anyone knows, they learned along the way. Everyone, even the president. Ask open ended questions to move conversations along. Learn the difference between open and closed questions.
· Along the same line, learn to argue for and against a variety of topics. If you can do this, you can take any position on any matter. Being able to argue a point is the basis of persuasion and learning.
· When you are having a conversation, use open body posture. Learn the difference between open and closed body language. When you feel uncomfortable, mirror the other person’s body language.
· Learn how to paraphrase and summarize, to ensure understanding and avoid mis-communications. Along the same line, if you are going to use a telephone, record yourself talking. Are you difficult to understand? Do you talk fast? Etc. Put yourself in the shoes of the other person.
· Knowledge is power. Don’t just learn how to do your job, learn why it has to be done a certain way. Improve on it if you can. Demonstrate your knowledge to your bosses, it will get you noticed.
· Go to your managers with solutions, instead of problems. Make their job easier, learn how they work, and then ride their coattails up the ladder.
· Your attitude is everything. Learn how to deal with stress without changing your behavior. Doing a high stress job is one thing, doing it while making it seem seemless is another. This is also why knowledge is important – the more you know, the more confident you become, and the better you look.
· Learn Etiquette. It might seem stupid, but it is the basis of common business courtesy, and it DOES make a difference.
6. Chew gum when you’re approaching a situation that would make you nervous like public speaking or bungee jumping. Apparently if we are ‘eating’ something our brains trip and it reasons ‘I would not be eating if I were danger. So I’m not in danger.’ Has helped calm me a few times.
7. I learned this on here a few years ago. For anyone in customer service (or works for many different situations, but CS is a big one) put a mirror behind you at the counter. This way angry customers who approach you will have to see themselves in the mirror behind you and the chances of them behaving irrationally lowers significantly. No one wants to see themselves act like a dickhead.
8. Pay attention to people’s feet. If you approach two people in the middle of a conversation, and they only turn their torsos and not their feet, they don’t want you to join in the conversation. Similarly if you are in a conversation with a coworker who you think is paying attention to you and their torso is turned towards you but their feet are facing in another direction, they want the conversation to end.
9. Foot-in-the-door phenomenon. People are more likely to agree to do a task for you if you ask them to do something simpler first.
10. When you first meet people try to notice their eye colour while also smiling at them. It might be because you look for a second or two longer, but all I can tell you is that people really respond to it.
11. When people are angry at me; if I stay calm it’ll get them even angrier, and be ashamed about it after.
12. For interviews I recommend altering your psychological state beforehand. Tell yourself “I’ve known these people all my life. We’re old friends catching up. I can’t wait to see them.” Visualize the experience, shaking hands, making eye contact, having conversation. What things can you not to wait to tell them? Hold an open pose…stand with your legs apart, hands on your hips, and shoulders back while doing this and SMILE. This may sound cliche but you are in charge of your own psychological state and the power of suggestion is strong.
13. False attribution of arousal. When you take somebody out on a first date, take them somewhere exciting that will get their heart beating. e.g. roller coaster or horror film. This gets their adrenaline up. It makes them think they enjoy spending time with you rather than the activity.
14. People will remember not what you said but how you made them feel. Also most people like talking about themselves so ask lots of questions about them.
15. Always be honest so when you have to lie, people will believe you.
16. If you make the biggest smile you can, you will automatically feel happier
17. If you’re in a group meeting and you suspect that someone in there might come after you about something, sit right next to them. They were hoping that the group would provide some sort of herd defense, but if you’re right next to them it can’t be anything other than personal. This tends to make them back off, or at least substantially temper what they say. “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
18. Refer to people you’ve just met by their name. People loving being referred to by their name, and it will establish a sense of trust and friendship right away. Say your friend introduced you to Peter. After 5 minutes he decides to leave. Don’t just say, “bye”, but instead say “Bye Peter!”
19. The key to confidence is walking into a room, and assuming everyone already likes you.
20. A Navy lifer i worked with taught me the “See one, do one, teach one” method. The last step is the most vital step for your comprehension. If you are taught a new task at work, most people learn to do the task and then perform the task. If you find another employee to teach what you just learned, you will comprehend the concept better, and retain the info for much longer. Whenever I train a new associate at work, I ask them to go show another coworker how to do the task they just learned.
21. Wearing red. For women, the color red makes them exponentially more attractive. Research has shown that men will go to great lengths to do things for a woman in red that they would not do otherwise like give her money or even carry her across the street.
22. While debating, don’t give your stance first. Give your argument. In some self-interest research that I did myself in my undergrad, I found that your persuasiveness is fragile and dependent on your social identity. For example, if you came out and say “I’m an atheist and this is what I believe,” you are already seen as less persuasive and more biased because people already know why you are arguing what you’re arguing; you have something to gain by convincing people You’re an atheist. What you should do is not say you’re an atheist at all. Say “this is what I believe…” Because people don’t have an assumption already in their mind, they will be more likely to view you as less biased. Bonus points if you’re on the opposite side.
23. Always give your kid a choice that makes them think they are in control. For instance when I want him to put his shoes on I will say, “do you want to put your star wars shoes on or your shark shoes on?”
24. You know how a joke ceases to be funny when you have to repeat it? Well use that to your benefit; if that ******* in the group is making jokes at your expense, act like you can’t hear him and ask him to repeat it like 3 times. By the time he says it a 3rd or 4th time, no ones laughing.
25. If you are angry at the person in front of you driving like a grandmother, pretend it is your grandmother, it will significantly reduce your road rage.
- If you’re A) White B) Male C) Above 20 then you can basically get anywhere you want no questions asked. The key is to look like you know what you’re doing and to always speak down to people. Most people always assume that other people know what they’re doing/telling the truth if they have no reason not to believe it.
- There’s something in sales called the Sullivan Nod. Basically when you’re asking someone something, nod up and down while you’re asking. Their mirror neurons start firing and they begin nodding and agreeing with you subconsciously. 60% of the time it works every time.
- If you’re looking for something, skim right to left instead of left to right, your eyes are trained to move from left to right, so you are more likely to skip over things.
- In sports, if someone is really on their game and you want to mess them up, ask them “Wow, you are really good at blah what are you doing to affect it?” or something to that point. They will from then on overthink and most of the time, start to fail more often.
- Just like posture is part of how other people perceive you, how you dress plays a large part in how you perceive yourself. Self-confidence is obviously a huge factor in how you carry yourself, how you interact with other people, and how other people see you on a social ladder. Clothing is one of the few really flexible variables with self-confidence, and how you look (Or better, feel you look) changes how you act.
- If somebody’s trying to count something and you want to mess them up because you’re an as***le, don’t say random numbers, say numbers in an order because the brain latches onto patterns.
- I figured out how to get contraband past security guards using a couple of psychological tricks. This was back when I was bringing in recording equipment into concerts and I needed to get a microphone through that was not tiny. When you remove your items from your pockets and they pat you down they almost never look at what is in your hands. For some reason they almost always expect that any contraband is hidden on your person. Slight modification of the first approach, if you have a lot of things in your pockets, clumsily hold all if it in both hands in a way that looks like you might drop everything. When you do this you get rushed through security.
- Kind of a cruel one here: bet a friend/family member that they can’t taste the difference between whole/2%/1%/skim milk, or some combination thereof. Blindfold them and have them begin tasting the milks. Now, replace the last milk with orange juice. The brain prepares the body for milk, and the unexpected acidity usually causes a gag reflex, and sometimes vomiting. Keep a bucket handy.
- If you want to get rid of an object, for example while walking with a friend after you bought a 2l coke bottle and want him to carry it, just keep talking to him while handing him the bottle, most of the times people will just take the object automatically without thinking.
- If you’re lying, always include some detail that is embarrassing to you. It makes your story far more believable.
- If I need to remember to do anything at all the next day I will put something in my room out of place. This works every time. Say for example I really want to remember to email my professor before leaving for class I will put a movie on the floor. I will initially think “Why is that-oh right email Ernie”. Though this doesn’t work if there’s already a bunch of s**t on your floor.
- If you want people to like you more, ask them to do favors for you. People think that doing nice things for others will make them like them more, but actually, when you ask someone to do a favor for you, their subconscious thinks “I’m doing something for this person, so I must like and care about them.” It works.
- Make someone feel insecure by looking at their hairline while they speak.
- This is entirely anecdotal, but it’s worked for me for years: while walking through bad neighborhoods, people seem less likely to bother you if you’re eating something. I think a lot of it has to do with appearing calm, but I’ve never had anyone give me a hard time while I’m munching on an apple or banana our whatever. Much safer than fiddling with one’s smartphone, anyway. Would love an explanation for this, even if it’s just something I’ve constructed in my own mind.
- If you think someone is watching you, look at your watch or where your watch would be. If they are watching you they will usually look at their wrist/watch.
- It is kind of a mixture of psychology and physiology. It is proof of a body and mind connection. You can do this one of two ways. If you have a jug of milk in your fridge that is almost empty, put cement or plaster in the jug to the level the milk was. If you use cement, swish some white paint in the jug first. If the jug is full, empty out the milk and swish white paint around the inside of the jug to the level the milk used to be. When someone picks up the jug, their brain prepares the muscles in their arm for the amount of force it perceives is needed for the arm to lift the milk. If the brain prepares for more weight than is needed, the person’s arm lifts to hard and it swings the milk jug up. If the person’s brain prepares for less, they almost drop the milk jug on the floor. This shows that every time we lift something, our brain subconsciously tells our body how much force to use. We are not even aware we do it.
I've heard several of these numerous times without a credited source. Most of them make intuitive sense, but that doesn't make them true, and I wonder if we accept them out of sheer repetition. Some likely ARE true, but we have no way of verifying it.
Gender: Unspecified Location: With Cinderella and the 9 Dwarves
This is really impressive work, you put a lot of thought into this, I can see. Good stuff, so much better than all the copy-paste jobs we get in the GDF usually.
I would think if I did #4 it would automatically make me a douchebag.
__________________ Chicken Boo, what's the matter with you? You don't act like the other chickens do. You wear a disguise to look like human guys, but you're not a man you're a Chicken Boo.
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Oct 12th, 2015 01:46 AM
