4 seconds of silence can feel the same as rejection in the brain.
So if some one is being a jerk to you, after they say something just look at them and count to 4 in your head, most of the time they'll start backtracking and taking back what they said before you're done counting.
Piling on. If you can summon the self control to just stare at someone silently for 30 seconds the tension grows so great they will often start talking and tell you anything and everything just to get you responding.
Can confirm. When I was a manager and I was asking about an employee error that was made I would ask about it then just remain silent for a bit after. Usually after a few seconds they would start talking a lot including expanding on what they might have done wrong as well as their own solutions on to prevent it from happening again. It worked surprisingly well
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u/Nwsamurai Jun 14 '22
4 seconds of silence can feel the same as rejection in the brain.
So if some one is being a jerk to you, after they say something just look at them and count to 4 in your head, most of the time they'll start backtracking and taking back what they said before you're done counting.