Female undergrads were asked to rate the taste of three Argentinean desserts. In the course of many tasting sessions, half the girls were allowed to choose from the three, while the other girls were assigned to taste only the dessert that the other group had given the highest rating.
Then all girls were assigned pie. How do you think the two groups rated the pie?
The group assigned desserts throughout liked the pie just fine, while the group who’d been choosing, like, totally dissed the assigned dessert (as if!).
While illogical to most, this will come as no surprise to parents of teenage girls: Taking away freedom provokes backlash. Forbidding dessert choice in girls who were used to choosing desserts for themselves meant that anything put in front of them—no matter how scrumptious—was doomed to disgust. (Talk to the hand, pie!)
Medical patients do the same thing. When freedoms are restricted, they may disobey treatment recommendations. Both parents of teenage girls and doctors of uncooperative patients can increase compliance by increasing daughter/patient control over the situation and by increasing their own credibility.
Eye Hack: Penrose Stairs
Your likelihood of walking to the top of these stairs equals your chance of pacifying the average teenage girl. The Penrose stairs work by distorting perspective, especially in the back-left slope, in which stairs rise but the overall slope must lower. Check online for an audio clip called a Shepherd Tone, which seems to continually lower without ever actually going anywhere.
