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Psychological Tricks To Get Whatever You Want
Hey Persuaders! Let's understand how the human brain works so that you can get what you want.
Liam Gill
June 12, 2023
Psychological Tricks
Barnum Effect
What is it: People want to feel included so they believe that general advice or statements apply specifically to them. This is why horoscopes work or why 99% of people can be motivated by the same genetic speech
How to take advantage: Create stories that are general enough to apply to all investors and consumers. Don’t over-specify and lose out on potential investors or customers.
Zeigarnik Effect
What is it: People tend to have a stronger emotional connection to incomplete tasks than to complete tasks. This is why the pain of losing is greater than the joy of winning.
How to take advantage: Highlight failures in marketing and storytelling, not successes. If you sell a computer to professional designers, don’t say, “Are you a professional designer, then you should buy”, say “ Do you want to be the best professional designer, then you should buy”. Both appeal to all professional designers, one is more emotionally powerful.
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Subadditivity Effect
What is it: People tend to understand the chances of a series of events happening as significantly lower than the chance of a single event happening. For one second, ignore the maths and follow your gut. If I had 4 Aces and I asked you how you felt about my chances of flipping one card and it being the Ace of Hearts, you’d probably be someone confident that it could happen. Not likely but not surprising. Now imagine if I asked how you felt about my chances of flipping a coin twice and getting heads both times. Suddenly that feels like long odds, very unlikely. In reality, getting the Ace of Hearts and flipping heads twice have the exact same mathematical odds. Our brain is just bad an emotionally understanding how odds add up.
How to take advantage: Stop saying that to be successful you need to do x,y,z or that your product has x,y,z features. Instead, focus on one major feature or one big step. This makes it significantly more approachable.
I’ll be sharing 7 more psychological tricks on Twitter today, to make sure you don’t miss them make sure to follow me.
How should I share this information with you?I've made a list of over 35 psychological tricks that factor into how I pitch. |
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