Silence is gold

Psychological Behaviour

Posted by 

Ayaz Ali

 

Sat

How we can use psychology to manipulate people?

Silence.

Silence is weird. No actions, no words - just nothing. And it is more effective than most of the tricks people have up their sleeve.

We, as humans, tend to be social. On some subconscious level, we crave acceptance. And part of that is communication.

You can make people guilty, anxious, defensive, aggressive, voluble simply by refusing to communicate. Stay silent. How many of your girlfriends/boyfriends have simply refused to answer your calls after an argument? It is usually effective. Not healthy, but effective.

Silence can be used in a host of ways and you can generally achieve anything from your desired outcome to complete chaos. (not recommended)

1. If you feel unsatisfied by the answer given to your question, stay silent. Research shows that nearly 85% of the people continue to elaborate their answer in this situation.
2. All of us have used “giving the silent treatment” sometime or the other. This is one of the most basic and obvious ways to manipulate people into cooperating with you.
3. Silence can hurt even worse than revenge. If you want to really hurt someone - ignore them. Your silence comes across as indifference - you are sending a message that the person opposite has no place in your life. They are not worthy of your time.
4. It has been found out through research that people take the opinion of a person who speaks less much more seriously than that of a person who talks a lot. By staying silent, you can add more weight to your opinions and make them matter more.
5. Observe a skilled public speaker. Observe the way they draw the audience in. The effectiveness of a public speaker, his ability to enthrall you does not depend upon his words, as much as it does upon his ability to pause. A rightly timed pause speaks a thousand words and by staying silent at the right time, skilled orators can move hundreds of thousands of people, they can create a sense of anticipation, longing, excitement.

The list goes on. The moral is that silence is golden. But silence is also a weapon. And the people who know how to use it effectively will always hold the strings in any situation.