This article reveals a powerful law in the realm of persuasion and influence: the law of expectation.
When you expect someone to do what you want and that person treats you with respect or admires / admires you, you have already increased your chances of success. The magic word here is “wait”. You expect your son to get high marks in school and he will get high marks. You tell your child that you are a brilliant student, that you really hope that will happen, and your child will meet or exceed your expectations.
Why is this principle of persuasion and influence so effective?
Our goal is to meet, if not exceed, the expectations that others have of us, especially if we can reap benefits such as earning rewards, earning trust, or being highly regarded.
There have been cases where the law of expectation has produced miraculous results. Take the case of some cancer patients who received placebo pills. These are just simple pills that have no healing capabilities. So how did they recover?
They were told that these pills contain huge amounts of anticancer ingredients that can effectively cure their disease quickly. They believed and “hoped” to be cured, and that is what happened. The power of the subconscious mind is truly extraordinary. They say that people act or behave according to how you treat them. When we assign certain positive qualities or attributes to a person, that person will allow us to believe that what we said is true.
So if you treat, say, an average student like a genius, and tell him that his performance exhibits that of a highly intellectual person, he will allow us to believe it and indeed we will become a very intelligent person. Try it; you will be tremendously surprised.
If you are a parent, assign positive qualities to your children, even if they don’t have them yet. Tell them they are smart and they will indeed get smart. That is the power of persuasion and influence.
We can use this to our advantage by adding certain words like “You probably already know” or “You probably know” in our statements. This is powerful because you are assuming but unconsciously suggesting at the same time.
Example:
“You probably already know that this is the best deal you can find.”
Some people assume that they are perceived in a particular way and will act on their own perceptions.
An employee, who assumes that his co-workers perceive him as incompetent, will probably not be able to do his job well. On the contrary, if that employee thinks that others are praising him for his good work, he will probably get good results with his work.
This phenomenon of persuasion and influence has a lot to do with their beliefs. What you think will happen can actually manifest.