Ever thought about using psychology to your advantage in everyday interactions with others? You may not have a degree in psychology, nor do you possess any mind-reading abilities, but it is possible to manipulate social situations to your advantage. Manipulation can be used for good, such as convincing someone to take a vacation or doing everything possible to get that promotion at work. Your ability to transform your interactions stems from your awareness of the psychology behind your communication. Below are several ways in which an understanding of the psychology influencing our everyday interactions can help you benefit more than you ever realized.

1. Use Body Language to Your Advantage

The way our brain stimulates physical movements and reactions during day-to-day interactions is almost uncontrollable. This type of movement can signal a lot to those around us. Learning to accurately read body language is essential, just as crucial as properly conveying it. Ninety-three percent of communication is non-verbal. Therefore, a lot can be lost in our interactions just because we asked for that promotion with our arms crossed while looking at the floor.

Picking up on the body language of others persistently will help in gaining an understanding of opportunities and dead ends for every interaction. Mimicking postures, gestures, and movements helps get individuals to agree with you, or like you. Nodding your head “yes” when you mean “no” can incriminate you, as interrogators rely on body language to determine culpability. Humans are animals and behave as such when stripped away from more sophisticated forms of communication. The trick is to use the subconscious interaction to your advantage.

2. Change the Perspective

Cloak the reality of those whom you attempt to manipulate with a reality that you’ve weaved. Go matrix on their minds. Tact, cunning ability, and most importantly, rhetoric, play a crucial role in influencing individuals. Rhetoric encompasses aspects beyond just what was said and how it was said – it relies on tone, content, and appeals to reason, character, and emotion. Use rhetoric to be as persuasive as possible, exaggerate when practical, and shift focus when necessary.

Put thought into how your arguments are structured and delivered, whether they appeal to someone’s emotion or logic. Thinking outside the box and reframing a perspective on any given situation can highly benefit how you see things, and build on the efficacy of the argument presented.

3. Leverage Your Knowledge of Others

Rely on people’s psychological needs and use them as a pressure point. This might be a need to conform, be accepted or included, or the urge to stand out and be different. Are they confident, and might this level of confidence lead to a potentially risky decision? Are they prone to overconfidence to the point where it can cause them to stumble? Or, are they insecure about something that could help you make a convincing point? Understanding someone’s psychological tendencies, modes of thought, and characteristics will aid in gaining an advantage over their thoughts and contribute to the influence held over those thoughts.

3. Be Aware of Proper Timing and Opportunity

The jaguar is an effective and calculated hunter; ancestral legacies of success and failure have given it the biological ability of excellent timing. It knows when to pounce, when to strike hardest, and when to abort its chase. Knowing when to make your moves is something we learn from a young age. The trick is to actively maintain an awareness and have your eyes constantly scanning for an opportunity. Opportunities shouldn’t be forced; instead, welcome them and keep your eyes open. If you’ve been waiting to pitch an idea to your boss, don’t force the conversation. This may require waiting for weeks before you get a good chance, but once you do, don’t blow it.

The wonders of psychology are endless, and the field is worth exploring. The above-mentioned ways to exploit psychology barely scratch the surface and require little more than mere awareness to employ. Kinesics, the study of body language, can turn you into a walking lie detector if you care. If you don’t care to pick up on the impulses or tendencies of others, don’t care to expose situations to your benefit, don’t become aware of body language – then psychology may not do much for you.

In conclusion, psychology is a useful field to explore, but it’s only useful after making an effort to learn and implement. The above-mentioned factors are immensely valuable in and of themselves. Becoming aware of the opportunities available to you during communication, understanding the psychological tendencies of individuals, and mastering body language are several ways you can use psychology effectively to your advantage.