Reverse Psychology- not smart at all!

Bet you won’t enjoy or relate to this! ESREVER YGOLOHCYSP.

You may have wondered about this psychological phenomenon as we often slip this terminology in our conversations. Ranging from movies to stand-up comedy to spoken word poetry and nearly all the mainstream art forms are replete with examples, anecdotes and stories that draw from this intriguing concept of reverse psychology. It has a varying impact on the people that these tricks are used, depending entirely on the personality, context and the way the message is being delivered. An important hack to remember while placing reverse psychology at one’s disposal is to use it sparingly and not go overboard with it as the chances are fair that it might conversely backfire leaving pretty much no room for repair.

Building up on sarcasm is essentially how this whole theory works but even if it is a tad bit overdone, one may come off as rude or in some cases, apathetic.

This technique involves the assertion of a belief or behavior that is opposite to the one desired.

“Don’t clean up your room, its clean anyway, isn’t it? You must be appreciated for neatly organizing your room”, says the passive aggressive mother.

Need I decode this statement? We have all been taunted by our mother at least once in our lifetime in regard to this. You may have known minimum one stubborn fellow whom cleaning up doesn’t occur to unless the mother finally resorts to using reverse psychology.

This relies on the psychological phenomenon of reactance, in which a person has a negative emotional reaction to being persuaded and thus chooses the option which is being advocated against.

Extending to the same example from our everyday life, if she says the opposite, we immediately find ourselves doing the exact opposite of what her statement literally means, in turn, complying with the subtly intended appeal.

Reverse psychology is known to work on a person resistant by nature, whereas direct requests work best for people who are compliant.

If you were inherently obedient by nature, your mother would not have had to use sarcasm to get you to clean your room in the first place.

Makes sense, right?

“Reverse psychology is a part of a phenomenon of psychology called reactance”, says Jeff Greenberg, a professor of social psychology at the University of Arizona, United States. He further elaborates his claim by stating that the idea of reactance is that people are deeply motivated to protect their freedoms.

When people feel that their freedom is threatened, for instance, they think someone is taking away their ability to make their own choices, they react against the threat. Feeling angry or defensive, they try to remove the threat.

It is a form of manipulation, as you may have deduced till now.

“Beware that such strategies can backfire. Children can sense manipulation a mile away”, warns Susan Fowler, an American writer. Children these days are thriving in a WHY generation, where every child has the nerve to question why certain things exist as they do.

Manipulation, as a form of deception, is a behavior that takes longer to execute since everything except for truth takes more time to structure. These are the cues that enable the child to see beyond what meets the eye.

However, there are a few notable stages in childhood where kids are more susceptible to reverse psychology. Numerous studies have pronounced that children between ages two and four can be more rebellious and emotional which smooths reverse psychology over them rather conveniently. Nonetheless, post the age of four, kids are a bit more socialized and contrastingly less likely to throw temper tantrums, thereby reducing their susceptibility to reverse psychology.

A convincing reason for why reverse psychology works absolutely fine with younger children is that they are less cognitively developed and therefore may not realize that their parents are tricking them into following their instructions. On the contrary, teenagers and adults are better at seeing through it.

Here is some food for thought that you must spare a moment to ponder over;

“I try to lie as I can when I’m interviewed. It’s reverse psychology. I figure if you lie, they’ll print the truth.” A little twisted, isn’t it?

We all grow up to meet a revelation about our life that adulting is equal parts responsibility (jobs) and maturity (relationships). As our neural linkages go on tightening, we grow more and more complex, where we are leveled allegations at in our rough patches yet contrarily, we also experience some of the best, glorious and memorable moments of our life. Solemnly hoping the abovementioned quote is now relevant.

Before we set sail towards adulthood let’s stop by the shore called ‘Teenage‘. Teens find strategies shaped by reverse psychology very confusing, manipulative, dishonest and hence observed to rarely work. Any rational teenager would evaluatively weigh not just the content but also the tone and the purpose of the message conveyed.   

A teenager who is fed up with a friend who is often reluctant to help, says “OK! Don’t help, see if I care.” Generally, this conceited friend would react by helping.

Another intriguing evidence suggests that men are a little more prone to reactance than women. Breaking this down, reactance is an unpleasant motivational arousal in response to offers, rules or regulations that threaten, more so eliminate specific behavioral freedoms. Please note that reactance can cause the person to adopt or strengthen a view/attitude that is contrary to what was initially intended thereby resulting in aversion to persuasion. Reverse psychology plays on reactance, attempting to influence someone to choose the opposite of what they request for. To sum up, men are found to be more resistant to persuasion than are women.

Similarly, people that are more irritable, stubborn and emotional tend to be more prone to reactance, on the other hand, more agreeable and compliant kinds of personality are comparatively less prone, as reported by Greenberg.

When reverse psychology is incorporated into psychotherapy, it takes the form of Paradoxical Intervention.

This occurs when a therapist directs the client to perform the very problem the client is seeking to eradicate.

It stands imperative for the therapist to maintain a non-judgmental attitude toward the client’s behavior because the approach held by the therapist shall determine whether or not the problem behavior becomes a beneficial resource in directing the therapeutic process to success.

An alternate concept along the lines of psychotherapy is Reframing, which implies pretending to agree with client’s thoughts and beliefs, to reaffirm them (problematic thoughts/beliefs) out loud to make the clients themselves realize their mistake.

All in all, reverse psychology is a brilliant field of research and an ever flourishing one, it’s safe to say that human mind is hardwired to respond effectively and more or less adequately to strategies of reverse psychology. This topic is particularly encompassed by social psychology for the simple reason that the application and implications of this subject matter are manifested in nearly all fabrics of social relationship existing between a minimum of two individuals. The next time you find yourself hemmed in a situation where you’re tricked, even though you may be unable to evade it altogether, you will at least know what is happening with you.

References:

https://hackspirit.com/reverse-psychology/

http://changingminds.org/techniques/general/more_methods/reverse_psychology.htm

https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/reverse-psychology.htm

https://www.livescience.com/55272-how-reverse-psychology-works.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_psychology

For photographs, Freepik.com was logged on to; https://www.freepik.com/home

Additionally, you may also head over to the website of Minds Healer to read more such gripping, enriching content-driven blogs.

A sidenote by the wordsmith:

Hello! my worthy readers, I sincerely hope that my thoughts elucidated through words could strike a chord with you. I am glad that you stuck around till the very end of this article. I have, personally, always been inquisitive about comprehending the personality of the writer I read. So, I thought, I too, must give you a little sneak-peek into my persona. I am Divya Mistry, pursuing majors in Psychology, alongside churning out content for my own blog on Wattpad (@keenscribbler). I perform spoken-word poetry curated by me premised upon diverse themes. Besides, I have a soft spot for Fitness Choreography and Mandala Art.

Thank you for choosing to read me!

Awesome Blossom!