Psychological Mind Reading Experiment: Manipulation Revealed (Reactance Theory, Psychology)

[Music] hello and welcome to the world of [Music] manipulation psychologists not only try to explain to describe and to change human behavior we also want to predict human behavior and now you might say I'm a much too complicated person I'm not predictable I have so many facets in my personality you can't tell what I'm going to do next well let's see let's have a little experiment in front of you you see five cards all you have to do is to think of one of these cards but don't let me influence you for example you might think I placed the ace of diamonds right in the middle because I want you to pick it um or maybe the seven of clubs is in this group of cards because it's the only black card so don't be influenced make it a random choice if you already chose one you may even change your mind but now you should make your definite decision you got one okay so now I will try to say which card you chose okay I guess you chose the four of Hearts maybe you've been thinking about the nine of diamonds as well and some of you might have chosen it but I suppose more than likely most of you have chosen the four of hearts and the psychological mechanism that is involved in here is reactants quite arrogantly I told you that you are predictable and quite naturally your reaction probably was forget it I'm not predictable I will prove this guy that I'm not predictable and ironically by doing so you became more predictable so you probably didn't go for the ace of diamonds because it's right in the middle and really suspicious and furthermore I also mentioned the seven of clubs which made it suspicious as well and the King of Hearts is really suspicious because it's the only picture card and so only the four of hearts and the nine of diamonds remain but the nine of diamonds is on the right end so it's a little bit more suspicious than the four of hearts and this is the reason why I suppose most of you decided to choose the four of Hearts so the reactant Theory which was developed half a century ago by Jack bream seems to be quite helpful to predict human behavior and the reason for this probably is that we don't want our freedom to be threatened we don't want to be told how we are you are predictable we don't want to be told what to do tidy up your room do this or that we don't want that because we want a maximum of opportunities and if an authority tells us what we have to do we can become quite rebellious for example in the study by pen Baker and Sanders American graphity effects of authority and reactance arousal published in the Personality and Social Psychology bulletin pluard notices discouraging graphity were hang up in 17 toilet stalls in male restrooms at an University but half of the placards were written with authority don't write on these walls under any circumstances whereas in the other condition the text was more friendly please don't write on these walls and according to the prediction of the reactants Theory the more authorative request was less effective students had written on these walls more frequently another really nice examp example of reactant was observed in the study territorial defense in parking lots retaliation against waiting drivers in this study 240 participants in fact they didn't know that they were participating in the study were observed when leaving their parking lot and while doing so another car of course driven by a Confederate of the experimental was already waiting and in some cases The Waiting driver was quite impatient and used his honk and when he did so on average the leaving drivers needed much more time to leave the parking lot probably because they were a little bit pissed off and told themselves huh he can wait you can honk as much as you want so again an example of rebellious Behavior by the way another interesting result of the study if the waiting driver had a cheap car for example a dhatu kuora or something like that male drivers decided to let him wait significantly longer but when he was driving an expensive car he didn't have to wait that long but this is just a fun side [Music] note [Music] last but not least we will cover the question how can we prevent reactants how can we prevent reactant Behavior because in many cases it's especially in education it's helpful if the child won't become rebellious for example if it's time to go to bed or to stop playing video games and the answer lies at the heart of the reactants Theory because as we heard it's all about personal freedom we want to have choices so what do you tell a kid that doesn't want to go to bed well you don't say go to bed now no it's probably better to offer opportunities hey it's already late um you want to go to bed right now or you want to play play five more minutes and then go to bed more than likely the child will say no I want five more minutes okay but then you go to bed without discussion all right yeah okay some parents think it's an offer of opportunities when they say you go to bed now or I will kick your ass well you didn't get the point but now you might say does this really work well there are study results telling us it really works and it works surprisingly well even with adults so for example in the study evocation of freedom and compliance the but you are free of technique published in current research in Social psychology 80 participants again not knowing that they were participating in an experiment were asked to give a little bit money for the bus so the experimenters usually psychology students either asked sorry madam or sorry sir would you have some coins to take the bus please the other half of participants were asked sorry madam would you have some coins to take the bus please but you are free to accept or to refuse so there was no difference in the two conditions but this different kind of phrasing which really had a surprisingly huge effect if the phrase but you are free to accept or to refuse was added participants gave twice as much as in the other condition similar effects could be observed by the same authors five years later in their study improving the response rate to a street survey an evaluation of the but you are free to accept or to refuse technique in this study 162 participants were asked whether they were willing to to participate in a short Street survey and you needn't be a psychologist to know that this sometimes can be difficult recruiting participants is not always easy because quite often people have to do other stuff they are quite busy so even when asking for a participation in a short survey people show reactance but again again in this study could be shown when using this magic phrase this but you are free to accept or to refuse phrase response rates were significantly higher so if you are in doubt whether someone will show reactants you should always think about offering choices that's it for today I hope you like the episode this listen to the other episodes but you free to do [Music] [Music] so [Music]