The Reverse Psychology Toolkit

Photo By: Moonpiece Publication

There are lots of smart people that are so skilled in manipulating the average or less smart to get what they want. These set of people most times have Reverse Psychology in their social toolkit. This article seeks to expose and enlighten readers on what the term reverse psychology is and how it is used in certain situations.

Reverse Psychology means getting an individual to do or say something by telling them the exact opposite of what is desired. It’s some sort of social manipulation that has an unprecedented amount of success. Most times this social technique is used in interrogations or to get the truth or out of someone.

I had a former colleague in the past that used reverse psychology often. If he sees you wearing maybe, an expensive wristwatch, for example, he would ask “How much did you buy that?” the person being questioned would normally brag about the price and brand, but my colleague stone-faced colleague would say “That’s a big lie, this is so cheap, I can get that just around the corner at a very low price”.

If your friend want’s to know the height of your mother, she might say “Katherine you act so funny because your mum is short” and you will reply “No Stella, you wrong, my mum is average height”.

Stella in this example just wanted to know the height of Katherine’s mother, so she employed the use of reverse psychology to get it. If Stella wants to be double sure, she might pretend to hold a light argument in other for Katherine to confirm or validate that statement.

The person would become exasperated and do everything in his power to prove the authenticity of the watch and may even go as far as getting the receipt. Believe me, that’s what my colleague wanted all along. I noticed he repeated this tactic in many different situations and he successfully got what he wanted.

There are people reverse psychology doesn’t work on, but they’re quite few or rare. It works on the majority of people depending on how it used or what context or situation. Reverse Psychology may be deployed in detective work, during investigations to get the truth out of someone by saying the opposite.

You must perceive and know who reverse psychology works on because some people don’t respond to it. People who respond to reverse psychology are mostly individuals with ego problems that cloud their judgment are susceptible, and rebellious people who hate being told what to do.

People do give in to reverse psychology when they are worked up. This is a clue the social manipulator gets in other to strike hard. This is because the reverse psychology is easily used when the victim gets emotional. The more the manipulator argues back and forth, the more of a power struggle it becomes and the more the victim will want to win!