Reverse psychology

Reverse psychology is a technique involving the advocacy of a belief or behavior that is opposite to the one desired, with the expectation that this approach will encourage the subject of the persuasion to do what actually is desired: the opposite of what is suggested. This technique relies on the psychological phenomenon of reactance, in which a person has a negative emotional reaction to being persuaded, and thus chooses the option which is being advocated against. The one being manipulated is usually unaware of what is really going on.

Reverse psychology is often used on children due to their high tendency to respond with reactance, a desire to restore threatened freedom of action. Some parents feel that the best strategy is sometimes "reverse psychology": telling children to stay in the house when you really want them to choose to go outside and play. Another example is saying "I bet you can't catch me" which results in being pursued by the cunning child; a game many have played as a child.

Questions have however been raised about such an approach when it is more than merely instrumental, in the sense that "reverse psychology implies a clever manipulation of the misbehaving child" and nothing more. With respect to "emotional intelligence... [and] successful fathering", the advice has been given: "don't try to use reverse psychology...such strategies are confusing, manipulative, dishonest, and they rarely work". In addition, consistently allowing a child to do the opposite of what he/she is being advised, undermines the authority of the parent.

Closely associated with reverse psychology in psychotherapy is the technique of 'the Paradoxical intervention....This technique has also been called "prescribing the symptom" and "antisuggestion"'. Here the technique employed is to frame the therapist's message so that resistance to it promotes change (i.e. paradoxical prescriptions, reverse psychology)'.

Such interventions 'can have a similar impact as humor in helping clients cast their problems in a new light....By going with, not against, the client's resistance, the therapist makes the behavior less attractive'.

"In a world where it is expected that all things should be available ... less availability" has emerged as a new selling point: "by engaging in such a restricted anti-marketing ploy the brand has won kudos" – reverse psychology. The result can be "what the Japanese call a secret brand ... no regular retail outlets, no catalog, no web presence apart from a few cryptic mentions ... people like it because it's almost impossible to find".

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