The Psychology Trick You’re Probably Already Falling For…

In this video, we explore the intriguing concept of the “ego trap”—an influence technique that leverages the idea that people are more likely to agree when it affirms their positive qualities. We examine the recent study “Egotistic Trap as a Social Influence Technique” by Dolinski, Grzyb, and Kulesza (2023), which provides a detailed analysis of this approach.

The study highlights just how powerful this technique can be: In one experiment, 52.4% of participants agreed to take part in a survey when they were told it was aimed at intelligent people—a significant increase compared to 32.7% in the control group. In another experiment, the willingness to have cars inspected at official workshops rose from 56.7% to 71.7% when participants were told, “reasonable customers have their cars officially inspected.”  There’s also an alternative version of the ego trap that might be even more effective…