The Benjamin Franklin Effect.

[Kai]

This is absolutely fascinating.

As clerk, he could step into a waterfall of data coming out of the nascent government. He would record and print public records, bills, vote totals and other official documents. He would also make a fortune literally printing the state's paper money. He won the race, but the next election wasn't going to be as easy. Franklin's autobiography never mentions this guy's name, but according to the book when Franklin ran for his second term as clerk, one of his colleagues delivered a long speech to the legislature lambasting Franklin. Franklin still won his second term, but this guy truly pissed him off. In addition, this man was "a gentleman of fortune and education" who Franklin believed would one day become a person of great influence in the government. So, Franklin knew he had to be dealt with, and thus he launched his human behavior stealth bomber.

Franklin set out to turn his hater into a fan, but he wanted to do it without "paying any servile respect to him." Franklin's reputation as a book collector and library founder gave him a reputation as a man of discerning literary tastes, so Franklin sent a letter to the hater asking if he could borrow a selection from the his library, one which was a "very scarce and curious book." The rival, flattered, sent it right away. Franklin sent it back a week later with a thank you note. Mission accomplished.

The next time the legislature met, the man approached Franklin and spoke to him in person for the first time. Franklin said the hater "ever after manifested a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so that we became great friends, and our friendship continued to his death."

Students at Stanford University signed up for a two-hour experiment called "Measures of Performance" as a requirement to pass a class. Researchers divided them into two groups. One was told they would receive $1, or about $8 in today's money. The other group was told they would receive $20, or about $150 in today's money. The scientists then explained the students would be helping improve the research department by evaluating a new experiment. They were then led into a room where they had to use one hand to place wooden spools into a tray and remove them over and over again. A half-hour later, the task changed to turning square pegs clockwise on a flat board one-quarter spin at a time for half an hour. All the while, an experimenter watched and scribbled. It was one hour of torturous tedium with a guy watching and taking notes. After the hour was up, the researcher asked the student if he could do the school a favor on their way out by telling the next student scheduled to perform the tasks who was waiting outside that the experiment was fun and interesting. Finally, after lying, people in both groups – one with $1 in their pocket and one with $20 –  filled out a survey in which they were asked their true feelings about the study. What do you think they said? Here's a hint – one group not only lied to the person waiting outside but went on to report they loved repeatedly turning little wooden knobs. Which one do you think internalized the lie? On average, the people paid $1 reported the study was stimulating. The people paid $20 reported what they just went thorough was some astoundly boring-ass shit. Why the difference?

According to Festinger, both groups lied about the hour, but only one felt cognitive dissonance. It was as if the group paid $20 thought, "Well, that was awful, and I just lied about it, but they paid me a lot of money, so...no worries." Their mental discomfort was quickly and easily dealt with by a nice external justification. The group paid $1 had no outside justification, so they turned inward. They altered their beliefs to salve their cerebral sunburn. This is why volunteering feels good and unpaid interns work so hard. Without an obvious outside reward you create an internal one.

That's the cycle of cognitive dissonance, a painful confusion about who you are gets resolved by seeing the world in a more satisfying way. As Festinger said, you make "your view of the world fit with how you feel or what you've done." When you feel anxiety over your actions, you will seek to lower the anxiety by creating a fantasy world in which your anxiety can't exist, and then you come to believe the fantasy is reality just as Benjamin Franklin's rival did. He couldn't possibly have lent a rare book to a guy he didn't like, so he must actually like him. Problem solved.

And,

Pay attention to when the cart is getting before the horse. Notice when a painful initiation leads to irrational devotion, or when unsatisfying jobs start to seem worthwhile. Remind yourself pledges and promises have power, as do uniforms and parades. Remember in the absence of extrinsic rewards you will seek out or create intrinsic ones. Take into account the higher the price you pay for your decisions the more you value them. See that ambivalence becomes certainty with time. Realize lukewarm feelings become stronger once you commit to a group, club or product. Be wary of the roles you play and the acts you put on, because you tend to fulfill the labels you accept. Above all, remember the more harm you cause, the more hate you feel, and the more kindness you deal into the world the more you come to love the people you help.

[Doktor Howl]

This is very interesting, and it is utterly in character with Franklin's other behavior.

And something to think about.

Thanks, Kai.

[Cain]

I've read about a variation on this theme, used by intelligence services before.

Basically, it says to get in bad with a mark or asset, before getting in good with them.  The idea is that the switch from dislike to like makes the emotional bond between the intel officer and the asset stronger, and so more likely to work in the extreme stress that such people work under.

[Cramulus]

great find, Kai. Definitely another bar of the Black Iron Prison.

[LMNO]

This also can tie into the "poor but happy" threads we've been discussing.  Maybe a person adjusts their inner narrative to justify a crappy paycheck?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

That was fascinating, and I may be a bad man because my first thought was "Ooooh, how can I use this to my advantage?"

[Jenne]

Very cool, and I've often thought in this vein with so much of my time taken up with volunteerism--that there's some internal feedback loop feeding the need to keep it up.  Even as I want to ramp it down, the ante is upped and I slip back into contented overcommitment to something that actually creates more strife in my life than it helps.

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

Thanks for finding that, Kai. I'm glad I clicked the link and read the whole thing.

Now I wonder, do I consider myself a Discordian because I'm trying to free my mind and think for myself, or am I trying to free my mind and think for myself because I consider myself a Discordian?



@Nigel, I thought the exact same thing.

[Kai]

This also can tie into the "poor but happy" threads we've been discussing.  Maybe a person adjusts their inner narrative to justify a crappy paycheck?

It seems that way. But what was really interesting is that people who work for nearly nothing or volunteer end up constructing an inner narrative about the worth of their work rather than using exterior goals. In other words, they value the payless job over the paying job more over time. I've /felt/ this happen in my own life, and what's really difficult for me to wrap my head around is that I feel like it's totally okay and right and decent that I should. But something in me conflicts with that. It's like the many weeks I spent working at museums pro bono publico; I feel like I value that more than my paying assistantship. But the work really wasn't any different. I was doing the same things. It's not as if I'm not benefiting in some way from the volunteer work, I'm gaining experience, contacts and skills which will ultimately benefit me and immediately go in my CV, but that still doesn't seem to be a good reason for valuing it over the paid work I've done.

My only conclusion is that I've rationalized the pro bono work as an internal reward and therefore, as is generally true for humans, value it more than the same work with monetary external rewards.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I am guessing that this also ties into why so many people seem to value challenging relationships with extremely difficult people more highly than relationships with very easygoing people.

[Dalek]

I had noticed that effect a while ago. A lot of people who everyone seems to like start by outright criticizing and being rude to people that want to like them. Then the people who the person is being rude to try to make him like them. Well maybe they don't do it consciously, but I've definitely seen a lot of people doing it. I've found plenty of uses to that and when you take things like that into account it's easier not to get manipulated and to see through such people.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I had noticed that effect a while ago. A lot of people who everyone seems to like start by outright criticizing and being rude to people that want to like them. Then the people who the person is being rude to try to make him like them. Well maybe they don't do it consciously, but I've definitely seen a lot of people doing it. I've found plenty of uses to that and when you take things like that into account it's easier not to get manipulated and to see through such people.

A friend and I met a guy at a bar who was doing that, and people were eating out of his hand. It was retarded. They were fetching him drinks and pandering to this asshole who was acting like some kind of guru. At one point I turned to my friend and said "You have to watch this, man. This guy is fascinating." Then we openly mocked him until he left our table.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

It didn't get him to like me, though.

[PopeTom]

I had noticed that effect a while ago. A lot of people who everyone seems to like start by outright criticizing and being rude to people that want to like them. Then the people who the person is being rude to try to make him like them. Well maybe they don't do it consciously, but I've definitely seen a lot of people doing it. I've found plenty of uses to that and when you take things like that into account it's easier not to get manipulated and to see through such people.

Isn't this the pick up artist's purpose behind 'negging'?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I had noticed that effect a while ago. A lot of people who everyone seems to like start by outright criticizing and being rude to people that want to like them. Then the people who the person is being rude to try to make him like them. Well maybe they don't do it consciously, but I've definitely seen a lot of people doing it. I've found plenty of uses to that and when you take things like that into account it's easier not to get manipulated and to see through such people.

Isn't this the pick up artist's purpose behind 'negging'?

Yes, exactly.

Maybe I need to read some pick-up artisan books. I don't know how to play the game right I don't think. They "neg" you, and then you're supposed to "neg" them back, right? It's not working for me. No matter how interested I am in a guy, once this process starts they always end up turning all purple in the face and leaving.