‘A woman is like your shadow: run after her, she runs away from you; run away from her, she runs after you.’ –Alfred de Musset
Is there a point at which your efforts become counter-productive? According to a new study, the answer is yes.
In general, humans don’t like to have their behavior controlled by others, and the result is that we have an aversion to being persuaded. This is one reason why advice about persuasion often involves the idea of leading somebody to a conclusion, but making them think they got there on their own. Feiler and his colleagues wanted to know if providing additional reasons to do something could increase awareness that a persuasion attempt was occurring, and thus make somebody less likely to do it.
image { Winnie Truong }
