PSYCHOMANIPULATION - Tomasz Witkowski

A long time ago, Stańczyk, the famous 16 th Century Polish court jester, bandaged his
head and set out for the Krakow Market. As he soon found out, everyone he met on the way
considered themselves an expert on medical problems. In my work with people I have often
observed (without the need for bandaging my head) that almost everyone considers himself to be
an expert psychologist. In reality, however, there are very few individuals whose intuitive
knowledge of psychology is confirmed by the results of scientific research. Of course, I am
aware that, precisely because of self-serving bias, there are many people who may consider
themselves to belong to this very small minority. To check whether this really is the case, and
also to establish whether the false pre-conceptions of manipulation which I have mentioned are
shared by the reader, I have devised the following short test. Its purpose is to compare our
intuitions on the subject of influencing others with the results of research.
Test of the ability to predict people’s reactions in manipulative situations5
Read the following situations carefully and for each one, choose one answer which you
consider to be the most probable.
1. If there was an undetectable drug which could enhance athletic performance at the cost of
reduced life expectancy, how many athletes would agree if you advised them to use it?
a) none
b) up to 25%
c) 25-50%
d) over 50%
2. In their dealings with men, many women tend to:
a) show off their intellectual abilities
b) show off their artistic abilities
c) hide their intellectual abilities
d) hide their artistic abilities
5 This test is intended only for the purposes of checking knowledge, it has not undergone the required validation
procedures and must not be used for diagnostic purposes, for example as an instrument for evaluating the suitability
of a candidate for employment, etc.
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