#204: Ovsiankina Effect, Handshake Interrupt & the Unfinished Masterpiece
3 Ideas in 2 Minutes on Unfinished
I. Ovsiankina Effect
The psychology of unfinished tasks is a fascinating one. Take the Ovsiankina Effect and imagine reading a book but having to abandon it halfway through. Or washing your car at home until you’re called away for something else.
When we begin a task but don’t complete it, it tends to make us feel uncomfortable. There’s this gnawing feeling that compels us to return to that task later. Even if it doesn’t provide an immediate reward or benefit.
You can use this phenomenon to your advantage by deliberately invoking this sensation of incompleteness. Let’s say you’re writing a book (as one does). Instead of finishing a chapter or paragraph before calling it a day, stop mid-sen
The effect is named after the Russian psychologist Maria Ovsiankina, who first described the phenomenon in the 1920s. She’s in good company with Bluma Zeigarnik. You may remember her from the very similar Zeigarnik Effect.
II. Handshake Interrupt
Handshake Interrupt is a technique used in hypnosis. The idea is to disrupt someone’s typical patterns of behaviour or thought. This creates a moment of confusion and heightened suggestibility. It works because a handshake is very much a habitual, socially ingrained, automatic behaviour.
Say, a hypnotist is starting to shake your hand. But then stops midway and holds it in an unusual way. All of a sudden, the rules of handshakes are violated. The flow is disturbed. Confusion is created. Your critical faculties are bypassed. Your conscious processing is interrupted. It’s as if someone slapped you in the face and then acted as if nothing happened.
It is in this moment of bewilderment that your mind is more attentive and open to new information, such as hypnotic suggestions. The perfect moment for someone to politely ask for your watch, wallet, phone and house keys.
III. Unfinished Masterpiece
Existence is a series of footnotes to a vast, obscure, unfinished masterpiece.
—Vladimir Nabokov
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Have a great week,
Chris
themindcollection.com