Reverse Psychology

We’ve all been both a victim and a perpetrator of this. Parents use reverse psychology to get their kids to eat their veggies. Kids would use it to get out of being yelled at for that one bad test grade. The slogan behind Lay’s chips is based on this idea. Why does it work so well, even when we know what’s happening?

The idea behind reverse psychology lies in the concept known as Reactance Bias. If a parent tells their child to eat their veggies, and the child doesn’t enjoy eating veggies, that child is going to resist doing so, at least initially. To the child, it seems like the freedom to not eat those veggies is being taken away from them by their parents since they no longer have a choice. Here, the parents’ stance is that eating veggies is essential, whereas the child’s stance is that eating veggies is the worst thing in the world. When it comes down to it, when someone feels pressured to do something they don’t want to do, it can cause them to become more firm in their stance – hence why the child resists eating those veggies.

This is why reverse psychology exists. Rather than restricting a person’s freedom to do something or not, you enable them to choose the option you want them to in order to get what you want. This can often be performed without either party realizing it.

This can be seen in the startup world as well. When a venture-backed founder meets with their board, everyone is sure to agree on some things, but there may be certain items on the agenda where disagreements are sure to arise. This is especially true on items that require a vote, such as issuing new shares, bringing in a new board member, or discussing a potential exit. If the founder sees things one way, and the board another, how do they all come to a conclusion? Of course talking it out and compromising may happen, but if one party is firm in their stance, what do you do?

The worst thing a founder or board member can do is to take the opposite stance just for the fun of it. It’s important when it comes to big decisions not to lose objectivity when someone is forcing you to do something. If you don’t like someone, don’t take the opposite view of them just to spite them. You may end up only hurting yourself or worse, the company. Like with all other cognitive biases, keeping your head clear of emotion or irrational behaviors is the key to preventing Reactance Bias from occurring.