What's the reason that would convince you to do anything? Let's say I wanted to convince you to quit smoking or lose weight, what would be a great reason for me to convince you to do that? Could I say do it for my sake? Your sake? God's sake? For the love of the country? Your family?
We know that there's a reason for everything. An apple falls, and we learned about gravity. If you're sneezing, then you have the flu or allergy. If your rival team wins, then they played.
It may not really matter how logical the reason is as long as it exists.
The apple fell down before gravity was discovered and the answer was flat earth. Sneezing at some point meant that you're cursed. And your rival team won because the referee was bribed.
Reasons Don't Matter That Much
Not as much as you think they do. Soviet-Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov trained his dog by ringing a bell every time before he served food. The dog eventually had a correlation between the bell ringing and lunchtime. So, whenever Pavlov rang the bell, the dog got excited because it figured it is about to eat food.
It's More Complicated In Humans
It goes without saying that humans are smarter than dogs although you might be surprised by how similarly we fall into that same conditioning. But, we still take deeper looks at the logic ahead and figure we either accept it or we don't.
Do We Really Though?
American professor of psychology at Harvard University, Ellen Langer conducted an experiment by going to a printing house that had a long line. She aimed to get ahead in line with a simple question "Can I get ahead of you?"
60% of the people she asked agreed.
So, she went on another day and did the same thing. Except, this time, she said "Can I get ahead of you? Because I am in a hurry"
94% of the people she asked agreed.
An increase of 34% just because she provided a reason. The reason that she is in a hurry is a good, convincing logical reason of course so that would explain the increase, right? Well, not really.
Ellen Langer decided to go one more time with the goal of getting ahead of the line. This time, she only attempted to do so by saying "Can I get ahead of you? I need to print these papers"
93% of the people she asked agreed.
1% difference. Did people even pay attention to what she said? She said, "Because I need to print these papers" as if the rest were there to purchase a video game. It's a printing shop. Printing papers is all it does.
In Conclusion
Once Ellen Langer said "Because" it almost didn't matter what she would say afterward. It could be that she was in a hurry or she simply she needed to print the paper and the difference was merely 1%.
This is, in a way, the very definition of "Just because". As long as you're not giving some outrageous reasons or using the wrong tone, your reasons are valid.
This leads us to realize the importance of rational thinking and how it doesn't come by instinct. We need to be more aware of what we hear/read and consciously apply logic instead of being convinced with it "Just because"
Nice content
I will start using this logic more and see how well it works.
Truly, I feel like humans can be conditioned, it just takes more time and effort.
Great content. I agree to a point. But there are many questions that we just don't know. This is probably the hardest for people to grasp and the answers offered up by the mainstream media are just absurd.
Marketers use these psychological tactics all the time. That's why my wife stopped studying marketing, lol. She didn't like the way it manipulates people. Thanks for the post and info.
!CTP
If you were talking to my wife you can just tell her not to do whatever it is you want her to do and let her resistance to authority do the rest.
Interesting. I agree that this works to an extent. By the way, can I get $500 from you? I'm in dire need :)
I honestly would have expected the number to go down not up when she gave the reason. Saying that she was in a hurry implies to me that I am not in a hurry or that the stuff she has to do is more important than the things I have to get done. I think the ambiguity of just "can I get ahead", is more appealing.
Useful information. This is definitely information I can use. Thanks for sharing.