Workplace Applications of “Trick or Treat!” Psychology and the Scary Encyclopedia Salesman
In fact, the kids are employing a common sales technique that can be applied with great effectiveness. For example, consider an encyclopedia salesmen who says to skeptical, resistant parents, “Well, you can let your child fall behind his classmates and risk his entire future, or you could provide him with the Encyclopedia Gigantica.”
This is a close analogue of the “trick or treat!” reversal: feared punishment first, desired behavior (and implied reward of punishment avoidance) second. Here, the salesmen is operating as though a “stick-and-carrot” presentation will be more effective than a “carrot-and-stick” sequence.
Assuming that, in this instance, the attention span of the parents is longer than that of a trick-or-treating kid, the recency effect is unlikely to explain the effectiveness of the sequencing. Instead, the salesman’s technique seems to rely more on the psychology of horror and disaster movies: Frighten your audience first, to get and rivet their attention, before providing them with relief, e.g., of escape or overcoming the threat.
This “fear-relief” sequence of presentation may be justifiable in evolutionary terms, to the extent that in prehistoric jungles, among our ancestors who survived to breed us, fear, danger and the prospect of pain almost certainly trumped desire and the prospect of pleasure in situations that presented both, e.g., stumbling into a lover’s hideaway that turned out to be the cave of a gigantic saber-tooth tiger.
In its clearest technical formulation, the principle is this: “Utilize negative reinforcement to motivate compliance.” Contrary to the common misconception, this does not mean “utilize punishment”; rather, it means “remove (the threat of) punishment”, as a means of reinforcing desired behavior, e.g., giving a treat.
This is perhaps the fundamental principle, technique and motivation underlying the “innocent” “trick or treat!” reverse presentation favored by kids—which has its counterparts and place in business and workplace behavioral management, in addition to its role in sales.
For example, the floor manager of a struggling start-up, under the gun because of unmet deadlines, lagging production lines and unfilled customer orders, has to motivate his crew with a “pepper” talk (the opposite of a “pep” talk, in turning up the heat and pressure on them). So, given the choice between saying, “Pick up the pace, or pack up your stuff!”—which is scary enough, or saying, “Pack up your stuff, or pick up the pace!” (which is even more of a scary shock), a manager operating like a treat-or-tricking kid will choose the latter and the negative reinforcement approach that basically amounts to “relief as pleasure”.
The “treat or trick”, “carrot-and-stick”, “good news-bad news” approach can also work, but on different assumptions: Unlike “trick or treat”, which presents information and options as “problem, solution” or “problem, prevention” sequence, “Pick up the pace, or pack up your stuff”, structures the presentation as “solution, problem” or “prevention, problem”. What are the underlying assumptions that legitimize it, given that the rationale is not the phenomenon of negative reinforcement?
1. The audience (crew) mindset is seen to be more of a natural “cause-effect” (not “effect-cause”) than negative reinforcement “fear-relief” orientation and sensitivity.
2. It is assumed that stressing the fear factor by stating it first would probably backfire as a primacy or hot-button effect and induce panic, resentment and/or paralysis.
Because the themes of Halloween are always heavily saturated with the scent of fear, e.g., spooky and ghoulish costumes and other ghastly supernatural associations, fear will permeate all of its interactions, thereby nudging adults into awareness of fear and setting them up—priming them—for the negative reinforcement, fear- relieving behavioral manipulation by kids.
When to Exploit the Fear
This suggests that a manager in a position to exploit fear can use the “trick or treat” model and principle of negative reinforcement with a likelihood of success, much as an encyclopedia salesman who can smell the fear of failure-phobic parents can. (“Give me death, or give me liberty!” could have worked the same way, if American colonists were more fearful of death than hopeful about liberty.)
As for the technical behavioral management principle underlying “treat or trick!”, i.e., “treat, or trick”, it is tempting to think it is somehow the “opposite” of negative reinforcement and “problem, solution” or “problem, prevention” sequence built into “trick or treat!”
The closest thing to an opposite in this connection is the idea of threat prevention (preventing a trick by having treats in hand when you open your door) vs. threat relief (fetching treats from your cupboard under threat of a trick)—both being forms of negative reinforcement. Both capitalize on fear, but through prevention of vs. relief from its bite, respectively.
Reducible to an analysis of the impact of “order of presentation”, these observations serve as a warning or inspiration to managers everywhere…
…When you are forced to utter threats, treating your employees as though they are targets of trick-or-treating or treat-or-tricking should do the trick.
Youtube: 同樣被殖民 日本對台灣更差 ！【為何台灣親日、韓國仇日？】背後的根本原因
關鍵差在記憶~
This strategy taps into fundamental human desires – the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain – to drive action. 好吃懶做
一個人打你一拳跟一個人給你一頓飯吃, 你會比較記得誰~
打你一拳再給你飯吃... - Stockholm syndrome
字詞:作死,注音:ㄗㄨㄛㄙˇ,釋義:自找死路。《水滸傳》第二七回：「這賊配軍卻不是作死，倒來戲弄老娘！」《西遊記》第一七回：「你個作死的孽畜！甚麼個去處，敢稱仙洞！」
從 Paris Oda(46, 2024) 在 Manao Murder
 |
| Paris, Naoko, Sakurako, Orion, Nana 自尊... 有時候只是面子的面子... 為了保護面子而產生的一個名詞. 自己不尊重自己, 一定要別人給面子, 就會變成這樣~ 謝X瑋為了自己的面子, 也寧願把自己和她三個小孩(郭均, 郭宏, 郭亭)社會性殺死, 因為, 活著也沒有什麼意義了. 基本上她(謝X瑋) 已經是社會性死亡了~ 不過社會性死亡... 總比真的生物性死亡, 來得沒有那麼極端, 不過這只是因為用謊言來騙自己而已, 事實上已經是一具行屍走肉, 因為連自己都沒有辦法面對自己的時候, 那時候呼吸也只不過是一種現象而沒有任何實質上的意義了~ 社會性死亡的人, 跟行屍走肉一樣, 沒有什麼叫道德, 什麼事都做得出來的~ 只是看當時的環境而已 |
八大恶性犯罪指的是故意杀人、故意伤害致人重伤或者死亡、强奸、抢劫、贩卖毒品、放火、爆炸、投毒罪。
故意杀人的，处死刑、无期徒刑或者十年以上有期徒刑;情节较轻的，处三年以上十年以下有期徒刑。
《中华人民共和国刑法》第二百三十四条
其實惡性犯罪很簡單, 故意要讓別人陷入不好的情境, 就是惡性犯罪~
英文翻做 vicious, violent, heinous, serious, grave, 我覺得 malignant 比較適合
惡性犯罪, 是不分年齡段的:
一個懷著孕還能販毒的姑娘, 她卸了貨就能洗心革面? 不, 她只會更加業務熟練
一個七八十歳的老太太, 還敢攔路搶劫, 你覺得她出來, 會洗心革面? 要是她有悔意, 她壓根不會走到那一步.
五六歳就會打人搶東西的小孩, 每一次你輕輕放過她, 將來她就更無法無天
最諷刺的地方是....
民間團體就是煽動情緒, 挑動矛盾
人性:
好吃懶做, 趨吉避凶, 例如, 可以領薪水就不要工作最好了~ 其實找不到自己的價值, 或是, 也不想找吧?
人性... 和獸性其實差不多, 只是人會用工具罷了~
劣幣驅逐良幣
原則上我們在管理上要慢慢進步, 因為公司的離職和不爽"可能"都跟.... 一句話有關, 就是要吃無討.. 也就是說, 大家要一起爛... 所以.... 我們一起慢慢來... 但... 一步一步來... (heart eyes Moon)(heart eyes Moon)(heart eyes Moon) 公司是沒差... 但... 不能讓劣幣驅逐良幣~
「劣幣驅逐良幣」是經濟學上的「格雷欣法則(Gresham's Law)」，指的是當兩種名目價值相同但實際價值不同的貨幣同時流通時，價值較高的「良幣」會被收藏或流出市場，而價值較低的「劣幣」則會充斥市場。 這種現象也常被引申到其他領域，用來比喻條件較差的事物取代條件較優良的事物。
