My accidental experiment on seller psychology | Hacker News Reader

My accidental experiment on seller psychology

anirudhtom.com

58 pointsanirudhtom15 comments

I've been socialized to think that cutting lines of any sort (especially of the kind mentioned in the article) is rude, both to the other customers in line and to the shopkeeper. If I try, someone will usually speak up and try to enforce the "order" of the line. Is this different in other cultures?

It's extremely different in other cultures.

Take China and Hong Kong, parts of the same country. In mainland China, queueing isn't a well respected practice. If you're at a counter, people will just come next to you and start talking to the clerk as if you didn't exist.

Try that in Hong Kong and you're going to get an earful at best and will probably get refused service.

Mainlanders visiting Hong Kong who don't realise these subtle differences in social norms end-up facing angry crowds and, sometimes, the altercations end-up on youtube, fuelling the rather prevalent local sentiment that people from China have no manners.

When you've been educated to respect queueing, visits to countries that have no concept for it can lead to unnerving experiences.

In many African and Asian cultures, the culture is to swarm around the vendor and let them process requests in the order and manner they decide. In a couple countries I've seen, the order of the line only holds when there are physical line barriers and "no bargaining" signs in place.

Well back here in India, you can get a little pushy and people won't say anything. Another thing is "There are absolutely no Queues here". In my whole life so far, I have never been to a Grocery shop where people were standing in a queue, it is always a swarm of people around the counter. Isn't the same in supermarkets though. Shouldn't write more, other Indian folks here will reprimand me for giving a negative image ;)

It works here in US too. Wave a few $ bills at a packed bar, you'll get to order your drinks quickly. (usually those dollar $ bills go as tip).

In India its almost always like this at most of the local grocery shops, vegetable vendors and bakeries. Often the customer holding up is oblivious of others waiting, and the shopkeeper cannot just cut a conversation to serve the new customer in line (unless he'd risk being considered rude).

When people get confused their brains tend to lock up and all their attention gets absorbed trying to figure out what's happening. Any ambiguous statement works. It's especially effective if it's the first thing you say. Now not only do they have to evaluate what you said, but who you are, what your intent is, etc. It's a much higher cognitive burden.

It's a trick that hypnotists use frequently. I think that's what is going on here.

Also interesting is that people will typically draw a conclusion about what you meant, and then become strangely certain that must reflect reality. Despite their confusion just a second ago, they're remarkably confident they've interpreted things accurately and won't even realize that alternate interpretations might exist. It's bizarre and a lot of fun to spot this constantly happening in the wild.

I discovered this on my own. English is my 3rd language so while walking in a bad part of town and teenagers looking for trouble started to get interested me. I got nervous and responded with nonsense, by accident. They all froze, as if their brains glitched for a couple of seconds. That gave me enough time to walk away far enough for them to not bother with me.

Since then I used it multiple times. Accidentally bumped in a drunk person's girlfriend at a festival. I apologized but he was getting aggressive so I said "Alright, I'll talk to you later at 4" and walked away. He drunk brain was presumably trying to make sense of my gibberish.

With pan-handlers (which I admit is rude) when they ask for money I just say "No thanks, I'm good". As if they were offering me something.

You can go for plain "No thanks" as a slightly less variant. Still works, but does not emphasize your "superior" status and can be passed on really friendly, as when "thanking them for an opportunity to help them" (which you don't need to use).

Derren Brown (a hypnotist / mentalist) explains this phenomenon very well: http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/derren-browns-guide-t...

Was going to say in Eastern Europe you could get your ass kicked for cutting in line like that.

Some babushkas are very good at doing that though. They usually use "I am just going to ask a question, show a note" trick.

Revisiting USA I was pleasantly surprised how well the lines at major theme parks were organized. Though mostly composed of foreigners no one tried to cut in line.

A good (popular science) read I can recommend is "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion", which explains some of these behaviours.

This is not a trick, you're just being rude.

TLDR: Literally saying "take this money" to someone will grab their attention and let you cut lines.

Except in this scenario described, there are no lines.

    *We don't have the concept of queues back here*

Yes, but recall the second case in TFA: "take this money" didn't work, "take this exact change" did.

He had to understand the seller's PITA factor and perspective to gain his attention.

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