Introduction
We all know the feeling. You’re in your room, undressed, minding your own business when you hear something creeping up the stairs. It’s probably nothing, but that nagging suspicion in the back of your head won’t let you rest easy. What could it be?
In this article, we’re going to explore one of the most effective creepy psychological tricks – the suspenseful build-up. By carefully crafting a story with suspenseful beats and ensuring that readers are kept on their toes, you can effectively drive home a point and create a lasting impression. So next time you need to make a point or get your audience worked up, give this psychological tactic a try.
The basic concept of psychological games
One of the most popular and widely used psychological games is called “The Prisoner’s Dilemma.” The goal of the game is for two players to come to a mutually beneficial agreement, but they can’t do so if one player knows what the other player is thinking. The game is played as follows: One player is thecaptain of a ship, and the other player is an pirate who has captured the captain. The pirate wants to release the captain, but only if he can get a higher ransom from him than from any other potential buyer. The captain doesn’t want to give away any information to the pirate, but he also doesn’t want to be held captive forever. In order to figure out a solution, the two players play multiple rounds of the game, each time exchanging information and trying to find an equilibrium where both players are satisfied.
One key part of this game is that both players have different information at any given time. For instance, in one round, the captain might know that the pirate has two ships nearby but not which ones they are. In another round, the pirate might know that there are only three ships nearby but not which ones they are. This creates a dilemma for both players because it’s impossible for them to come to an agreement if they don’t know each other’s cards.
The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a classic example of a psychological game because it involves two players who are trying to figure out a way to cooperate but are constrained by information that each has at any given time.
What are some common psychological tricks?
Some common psychological tricks include:
- The Pygmalion Effect: When someone is treated favorably, they will often behave in a way that confirms the expectation.
- The bandwagon effect: When a group of people or an idea is seen as popular, it is more likely to be accepted.
- The self-fulfilling prophecy: When people expect negative outcomes, those outcomes will often happen.
- The power of suggestion: When we hear or see something often, it becomes associated with those thoughts and feelings.
- The placebo effect: When someone receives treatment based on belief rather than reality, they may experience relief from symptoms even if the treatment does not have any real medical effects.
- The sunk cost fallacy: When we invest money in something, we are more likely to keep investing even if it is no longer worth it because we have already invested so much.
- The Niagara effect: When we are overwhelmed by a problem, we tend to forget about the progress we have made.
- The Dunning-Kruger effect: People who are incompetent tend to overestimate their own abilities and underestimate the abilities of others.
- The primacy effect: When people are given a task that is more important than other tasks, they will tend to focus on that task to the exclusion of other tasks.
- The cognitive dissonance effect: When people hold two opposing beliefs at the same time, they will often feel uncomfortable.
- The bandwagon effect: When a group of people or an idea is seen as popular, it is more likely to be accepted.
How do psychological games work?
One of the oldest and most common forms of psychological torture is called “The Game.” The Game is a series of questions designed to get someone to reveal something about themselves. The questions can be innocent, but they can also be designed to get the person to reveal embarrassing or personal information. There are many variations of The Game, but some of the most popular include the “ Twenty Questions Game,” the “Torch Game,” and the “Cooper-Hewitt Crime Scene Investigation Game.”
The purpose of these games is to get information from the person playing them. The questions are usually designed to elicit a response that will give away something about the player. Some common methods used in these games are stress induction and cognitive load. Stress induction is when the pressure put on the player is increased gradually over time, while cognitive load is when there are too many things going on at once and the player has to focus on all of them in order to answer the question correctly. These games can be very effective at extracting information from people, especially if they are not used to feeling pressure or being in an uncomfortable situation.
These psychological games rely on a fewkey principles. The first is that people are more likely to reveal information when they are under pressure. The second is that people are more likely to make mistakes when they are under pressure. The third is that people are more likely to give away information that is embarrassing or personal. These games use these principles to their advantage by gradually increasing the pressure on the player, making them make mistakes, and asking questions that are designed to get them to reveal something about themselves.
Conclusion
Yes, I can tell you a creepy psychological trick. It’s called the Pygmalion Effect and it refers to how we often overestimate our own abilities and underestimate those of others. The Pygmalion Effect is often used in advertising, where we see people who are portrayed as unattainable (e.g., models) suddenly become attainable when placed under the same circumstances as the average person. We take this to mean that anyone can achieve success if they put their mind to it, which is actually not true at all.
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