3 Ideas in 2 Minutes on Unfinished Business
3 Ideas in 2 Minutes on Unfinished Business
The Zeigarnik Effect, Human Addiction to Correct & Sharing Information Properly
I. The Zeigarnik Effect
Imagine you’re a waiter in Berlin, Germany in the 1920s. Then imagine you’re trying to remember the orders of your customers. Now imagine you’re being observed by a Soviet psychologist named Bluma Zeigarnik who notices that you can better recall those orders which are still being prepared.
Congrats, you have just inspired her to run a series of experiments that establish the Zeigarnik Effect, the notion of interrupted activities being more easily recalled than finished ones.
Even if you haven’t heard of Frau Zeigarnik, you’ve probably seen the effect in action. Whenever a TV show leaves you in anticipation of what comes next, they’re probably banking on the Zeigarnik Effect and your need for closure. We should note, though, that the Zeigarnik Effect has not always been successfully replicated. To what extent it’s a real phenomenon is yet to be fully determined…
II. Human Addiction to Correct
Negotiation expert Brandon Voss on a communication hack we can use to gather information:
Another thing you can do is mislabel. Label something that’s probably not there. What that does is it opens the door for correction. And that is a strong human nature reaction. People love to correct, they love to justify, they love to explain their point of view. By using a mislabel you can open that door. Go ahead and label something specific you think that you want to expand on. Especially if you think it might not actually be true.
—Brandon Voss, Mislabelling
For example, if you want to find out someone’s taste in music, but they’re not very talkative, just hazard a guess: “It feels like you listen to a lot of heavy metal.” It can trigger a natural reaction by telling you all about their actual music interests.
III. Sharing Information Properly
Regardless of our desire for completion, some things should be kept to ourselves:
There are two rules in life:
1) Never give out all the information.
2)
Unknown, Source: Prof. Feynman
🐘
Have a great week,
Chris
themindcollection.com