psychology
This word helps you to convince other people
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It doesn’t matter whether we want to motivate ourselves or others to do something: we have the best chance when we use the magic word. Little spoiler: It’s not “Please!”
Sport, tidying up, finally saving a bit of money, responding more to others, cooking more often, snacking less in between … All things that often demand a lot of motivation from us (some more, others less). There is a very simple trick that we can use to outsmart ourselves and create anything we want. And: If we want to convince other people.
The magic word is “BECAUSE”
As early as 1977, Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer started her famous copier experimentproven that people on justifications jump like magic gates to “Open Sesame”.
Langer sent a guinea pig to ask people waiting in line at a copier to let him through. It should try three different variants:
- “Sorry, I have five pages to copy here. Can I please?” (No reason)
- “Excuse me, I have five pages to copy here. Can I please because I’m in a hurry?” (Reasonable reason)
- “Excuse me, I have five pages to copy here, can I please because I want to copy?” (nonsense justification)
The result: When the guinea pig gave no reason at all, only 60 percent of those waiting admitted it. On the other hand, 94 percent responded to the understandable reason and 93 percent to the nonsense reason.
Since then, the experiment has been repeated in different designs and scales, each time with the same result: People find it easier to do something when they have a reason to do it And it doesn’t even have to be particularly useful.
How we benefit from it
For us this means that whenever we encounter resistance, the first thing we can do is try to explain why.
- “I’m going to the gym in the morning because I feel great afterwards”
- “Today I cook myself because it’s cheaper and healthier”
- “I watch the stupid comedy because I’m doing it for his sake.”
- “Would you please bring strawberry yoghurt because we don’t have any more?!”
- “Will you please clear the table because I did it yesterday?!”
The justification does not have to be thought through to the last detail. The main thing is that it sounds a bit like sense and purpose. And if that doesn’t convince you: Just try it out – because it certainly can’t hurt.