Reverse Psychology

To All Presenters:

Frederick the Great of Prussia had a thing for . . . potatoes.

He saw the subterranean veggies' potential to help feed his nation and diversify crops, thus mitigating the risk of famine and lowering the price of bread. A good plan, but one which faced many challenges in overcoming his people's prejudice against the plant. When he issued a 1774 order for his subjects to grow potatoes for all the aforementioned reasons, one town replied: "The things have neither smell nor taste, not even the dogs will eat them, so what use are they to us?" Others lamented that if God had intended us to eat potatoes, he would not have buried them in the ground.

Presuming a less direct approach may have better results, Frederick used a bit of reverse psychology. He declared potatoes a "royal vegetable" and had them planted in his royal fields which were then surrounded by royal guards with orders to do their job as poorly as possible. Prussians weren't stupid and quickly determined anything worth guarding was clearly worth stealing and so they soon snuck into the field, snatched the plants, and within months there was a sizeable underground market for potatoes (pun!). Which was, of course, Frederick's plan from the beginning.

So why does this work, why are we motivated by doing that which we are told not to do? Why is the forbidden fruit (or veggie) so tempting?

In a cursory review of dating advice sites and book jackets, playing hard to get remains a well-endorsed and apparently very successful means of getting the guy or gal of your choice to notice you.

I also found a number of parenting books which cited reverse psychology an a key means of convincing kids to follow the rules . . . or rather not follow the rules, reverse psychology can be confusing.

So if reverse psychology works well for kings of Prussia, and people looking for a date, parents trying to control kids and very likely kids trying to control their parents I must wonder . . . when will we see advertisements which state in the clearest possible terms, "Do NOT buy this product!"
Would that work?

THE POINT: Same seller, same product, same target audience . . . different message, better result.