Sunday Best is a curated list of awesome articles I’ve read over the past week or so that I find enlightening, educational or just plain interesting. This week’s focus is on manipulation. Who doesn’t want to get people to do what you want them to? But with great power comes great responsibility because… karma. So use your power wisely. Enjoy!

Psychological tricks you can use

This infographic is a lovely little visual showing 11 tricks to get people to do what you want. If you remember to use only a couple of these you’ll be ahead of the game. My personal favourites are 1) speak quickly to get agreement and 2) using nouns instead of verbs to change people’s behaviour.

Con tricks of master manipulators

You know that manipulators use “long cons” (e.g. Ponzi schemes) or “short cons” (three-card Monte) to scam their victims. The master manipulators, the really sophisticated scammers, use both. This article from Psychology Today details how the short con folded into a long con scammed the US Air Force. It’s fascinating reading.

Favours need a reason

If you want people to do you a favour, the best way is to give them a reason, and it doesn’t even have to be a good or an obvious one! Just end your request with “…because I have to…” and you are more likely to get compliance.

Politely exit a conversation

Ever been stuck in a conversation that you wished was over, like, 10 minutes ago? But you don’t want to offend the person by cutting them off or being obvious with your get-away excuse? Apparently the more specific you are with your excuse, the less likely they are to think you are blowing them off.

The best compliments ever

I don’t know about you, but if someone gives me a compliment (and it’s not the half-arsed-I-want-something-from-you-passive-aggressive kind) I generally respond favourably. After all, they aren’t everyday occurrences.  These compliments from Lifehack are outstanding. I would love someone to tell me that I was nothing less than special!

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