The psychology behind boomerang effect
Parent Post
Just don’t make things
Just don’t make things worse.
Have you ever thought that to yourself before a crucial meeting, conversation, or presentation?
You can set the bar low for yourself and ensure your success if your only goal is just not to make things worse. But with the boomerang effect, your well-intentioned efforts to persuade your listener(s) actually backfire on you.
Soften your delivery when
Soften your delivery when the content is tough.
If your content is already tough, the delivery needs to be softer. Think about situations like a breakup, a company merger, or a lack of a yearly raise. If both the content and the delivery of these kinds of messages are aggressive or lack warmth, the audience might shut down or boomerang.
Your audience likely feels that they have lost some autonomy or control. They’ll be looking to your body language and facial expressions and tone of voice to confirm or deny that.
We can all be
We can all be better communicators and presenters and humans when we remember:
- We don’t like messages that remind us we aren’t in control.
- We don’t like to feel pressure to conform.
- We need tough messages to be delivered calmly.
- We like to have choices.
- We don’t want to be bombarded with communication.
Strive beyond just maintaining
Strive beyond just maintaining the status quo to actually use your communication tools and your presentations to make things better. It’s a worthwhile pursuit.
One that can make a world of difference.
Being persuaded to buy
Being persuaded to buy a specific product in the grocery store, being forced to pay tuition fees, and being instructed to perform work for the boss are examples of threats to the freedom to act as desired, and this is where reactance comes into play.
Reactance is an unpleasant motivational arousal that emerges when people experience a threat to or loss of their free behaviors. It serves as a motivator to restore one’s freedom.
What is the boomerang
What is the boomerang effect?
It is a persuasive form of communication sent to a receiver, yet returned back with the opposite reaction. The consequential result is not the original, intended message.
When you deliver a message hoping to produce a certain response or reaction, the reaction turns out to be the opposite of what you had hoped it would.
How to avoid the
How to avoid the Boomerang Effect?
Understand what you are asking.
Understand what your message asks of your listeners. This relates to audience analysis. It is understanding our message from the perspective of the audience. And then, it’s creating a targeted and effective message based on that understanding.
Don’t oversell or over
Don’t oversell or over communicate
Studies show that overcommunication does not persuade the audience.
In a study about how climate change affected participants, researchers found evidence of the boomerang effect. Some participants already held strong opinions that climate change was not a risk.
When they were exposed to scientific evidence contrary to their opinions, it didn’t change their minds. It only served to solidify their stances.
Those of us who
Those of us who tend to be a bit rebellious or mischievous understand the boomerang effect quite naturally.
Have you ever been shushed, and it made you want to increase your volume rather than decrease it? This reverse effect is the work of the boomerang principle.
Some of it stems
Some of it stems from a natural desire not to conform.
For those who have a stronger natural inclination to assert their autonomy and independence, doing the opposite of what you are asked or told is a way to communicate that you are in control.
The boomerang effect is also sometimes called the psychological reactance theory.