Reverse Psychology Actually Works

Reverse psychology has become an enormous cliché. I think this peaked in 1995 with the release of the film Jumanji. (If you've seen it and remember it, you know what I'm talking about.) The problem is that most people look at reverse psychology in a very simple way. For example, you'd say "I don't care if you want to go risk your life jumping out of a plane" to try and convince someone not to go skydiving. This isn't reverse psychology—it's passive-aggressive. So let's leave that all behind and start from scratch.

If you're going to use logic reversals in your favour, you need to be subtle. Let's say you want your room-mate to do the dishes because it's his or her turn. There's always this approach:

"Hey, would you mind doing the dishes? It's your turn."

But in this example we're assuming your room-mate is lazy and the nice approach isn't going to get the job done. So what do you do? Something like this:

"Hey, I've decided I don't want to do the dishes any more and am just going to start buying disposable stuff. Is that cool with you? If you want to give me some money, I can pick up extras for you, too."

What this does is present the crappy alternative to not doing the dishes without placing any blame. Rather than being preoccupied with an accusation, your room-mate is left to only consider the alternative. This is how reverse psychology can be effective, so long as you say it like you mean it.