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Reverse Psychology Ploy: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
A standard sitcom plot, where one party (usually the parents) attempts to dissuade or encourage another party (usually the kids) by, naturally, encouraging or advocating doing the opposite. Often begins with one parent reading a child psychology book and going "Hmmm..."▼
Usually involves the second party figuring it out, and either doing [[Exact Words|exactly what they're told]], or pretending to "fall" for it and [[Bothering by the Book|being totally obnoxious in the other direction]] -- in other words, some flavor of [[Reverse Psychology Backfire]]. And sometimes the second party does exactly as expected... [[Gone Horribly Right|with totally unexpected consequences]].▼
▲A standard sitcom plot, where one party (usually the parents) attempts to dissuade or encourage another party (usually the kids) by, naturally, doing the opposite. Often begins with one parent reading a child psychology book and going "Hmmm..."
Contrast [[Briar Patching]], which is the (usually) successful use of [[Reverse Psychology]] against an opponent or other unfriendly person, and [[Fence Painting]], where one person convinces another to do a task he finds onerous by depicting it as more fun than humans should be allowed to have.
▲Usually involves second party figuring it out, and either doing [[Exact Words|exactly what they're told]], or pretending to "fall" for it and [[Bothering by the Book|being totally obnoxious in the other direction]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki]]'' begins this way. Tenchi has repeatedly been warned by his grandfather that he must never, ever, under any circumstances enter the cave behind their ancestral shrine where a demon was supposedly imprisoned centuries before. Go on, guess how the first episode played out... Of course, it's later revealed that this was a case of his grandfather being a [[Genre Savvy]] [[Trickster Mentor]], since he knew full well what Tenchi would do and what the likely result would be.
** He pretty openly goads Tenchi into opening the cave, as he tells him that he can have the key [[When You Snatch the Pebble|as soon as he's able to take it from him through combat or trickery]], and eventually Tenchi succeeds.
* In an episode of ''[[Adventures of Mini-Goddess]]'', Skuld has a [[Big Red Button]] with a "Do Not Touch" label. Urd and Gan-chan fight over it until she changes the sign to say "Please Touch", at which point they stop. And then Belldandy presses it herself.
* In an early episode of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal]]'', Astral tries to give Yuma advice to help him win a duel, but [[Stop Helping Me!|Yuma gets upset from Astral's nagging]] and decides to be [[Commander Contrarian]] and says that he'll do the opposite of what Astral tells him. This gives Astral the idea to get Yuma to make certain plays by telling him to not make them. Yuma doesn't catch on until near the end of the duel.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* In the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' "Legends of the Dead Earth" annual, Wildfire is trying to recreate both the Legion and the UP spirit of inter-species cooperation. He doesn't expect his current group of trainees to do it, instead pinning his hopes on their descendants, who will be ''raised'' with Legion values. To ensure there ''are'' descendants, he tells them they're forbidden to "fraternise".
== [[Film]] ==
* In ''[[Attack of the Clones|Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones]]'' Count Dooku uses reverse psychology on the Jedi by telling them in a [[Sarcastic Confession]] exactly what's going on with the Sith conspiracy. It backfires: they take the wise course of action and decide not to flat out believe it, but keep their eyes peeled.
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** ''[[
** In ''[[
* ''[[Frindle]]'' follows a group of children who coin the titular word as a synonym for "pen" and try to promote it despite general mocking. Towards the end, {{spoiler|the teacher who banned the use of the word turned out to be using this to promote the word, out of sympathy for the youthful rebels.}}
* Played somewhat more seriously in ''[[Ender's Game]]''. The bans on playing computer games for longer than a few hours are never enforced—they're just a way of making the games seem like [[Forbidden Fruit]]. Each game is actually used by the staff to evaluate the thought processes of its players.
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== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* Used several times in ''[[Frasier]]'', most notably when Frasier persuades Niles to do his show by saying it requires skills Niles doesn't possess. Being a psychiatrist, Niles recognizes what Frasier's doing, but it works anyway.
* ''[[The Colbert Report]]'':
** "I am ''not'' telling you to paste this page [with the word '[[
* ''[[Open All Hours]]'': Arkwright's trying to shift some Jamaica ginger cake off his shop's shelves, so as soon as a customer comes through the door he immediately says "I'm sorry, but I can only let you have one!" before implying it's an aphrodisiac, in one of the most bizarre cases of [[Sex for Product]] ever.
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'': "John, don't go to Za'ha'dum."
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'''Leonard:''' No, no, no, I can do it. ''(gets up)''
'''Mrs. Cooper:''' Well, isn't that sweet. }}
* Played with in a ''[[Fresh Prince of Bel Air]]'' episode where Will's little cousin Nicky wants to run away from home, so Will sides with him, giving him all sorts of advice on how to survive in the streets. [[Overly Long Gag|After this goes on for a while]], Nicky announces he's not leaving anymore, "but not because of that reverse psychology stuff you were doing." "Oh? Why then?" "I'm five years old, you moron!"
* In ''[[The Neverending Story]]'', shopkeeper [[Magic Librarian| Mr. Coreander]] asks Bastion some poignant questions about his love of books, then warns him that the one he's reading is "not for you", because it is unlike the "safe," normal books that Bastian is familiar with. Unlike in the original novel, this version of Coreander seems to have done this for the express purpose of getting Bastian interested enough in the book to steal it while Coreander's back is turned.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
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== [[Theatre]] ==
* Basically the plot of ''[[The Fantasticks]]'', where two fathers who live next to each other try to arrange for their son and daughter to fall in love by staging a feud and building a wall between their houses -- and forbidding them from even ''speaking'' to each other. The fathers even get a duet about how they're successfully manipulating their children:
{{quote|''Your daughter brings a young man in,
''Says "Do you like him, Paw?"
''Just say that he's a fool and then:
''You've got a son-in-law!
''You've got a son-in-law!}}
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20201205145853/http://www.bash.org/?16682 This bash quote].{{context}}
* One person pointed out how some widely hated stuff like ''[[Ctrl+Alt+Del]]'', ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'', [[Justin Bieber]], and [[It's Popular, Now It Sucks|anything else popular]] became so popular despite such a huge [[Hatedom]] because it was [[Streisand Effect|unintentionally invoked]] ''by the [[Hatedom]] itself''. The quote "The more you hate it, the stronger it gets" refers to this action in practice where someone hears about a work from the [[Hatedom]] or [[Hate Dumb]], then decides to [[Bile Fascination|try it out]], only to experience [[Critical Backlash]] or find it's just as bad as they say. The publisher still wins in the end because they either earned a new customer or still got someone to buy something when they didn't even fall into the target demographic.
* When the [[Hatedom]] is even louder than the fandom, it can actually be the ''cause'' of its popularity. For example, if it weren't for all the parodies mocking "Friday", no one would have ever heard of [[Rebecca Black]].
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]▼
[[Category:Social Engineering]]
[[Category:Psychology Tropes]]
[[Category:The Plan]]
[[Category:
▲[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
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