EverydaySpy Podcast - The Ultimate Brain Hack

Episode Date: January 11, 2022

Your brain does things without your permission. It is doing things right now that you did not choose; it's making choices you don't agree with... and it does it all without you even realizing it. In this episode, Andrew explains how your brain (and everyone else's brain) is a tool you can use to get an unfair advantage in your career, business, and social status. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My name is Andrew Bustamante, and this is everyday espionage. I am super excited because we are wrapping up our last week in Portugal. And it's just been awesome. If you didn't know, I took my family to Europe for Christmas and for the New Year. We were just itching to travel around the world again. And everybody's been locked down for so long with COVID, that it was a perfect opportunity for us to jump on a plane and get to Europe and set up shop for six weeks of the winter, even though. So whatever the current variants or Omnacron was going on, we decided we were going to jump right

into the fray and start traveling around the world again. And it was totally worth it because the last six weeks, we've been exploring Porto, Portugal, which is the oldest city in Portugal, one of the oldest cities in all of Europe. And it's just been beautiful with history and these small cobblestone streets and these ancient buildings and World War II didn't touch Portugal because Portugal was neutral during World War II. where some parts of Europe have had to rebuild, a lot of the foundation of this place is still what it's always been. And exploring with my kids and exploring with my wife

all around to different cafes and different restaurants, different streetside food vendors, they even have streetside wine vendors. It's been awesome, but it's been super interesting because this one specific thing has been happening and I wanted to tell you about it. So what I've seen is that every time we come up to a restaurant, to a cafe, to a diner, to whatever it might be, I'm noticing that there's always a list

of things that they offer. There's always snacks or drinks or whatever it might be meals. And the kids and my wife and I, of course, we always have to choose. And almost like clockwork, I'm noticing that my kids, especially, and to a lesser extent, gee he and my wife, they pick either the last thing they hear about or they pick the first thing they hear about, but they almost never pick something in the middle. So if there's five menu items on a kids menu, either pick the first thing or the last thing, but they don't usually pick something in the middle. And the same thing with Ji. When she sees a list of wine, she'll pick the first thing on the list or she'll pick the last thing on the list, but she doesn't always pick anything in the middle.

It's very rare that something in the middle gets picked. And the reason this is happening to my family, and the same reason it happens to you, whether you know it or not, is because of a cognitive effect known as the recency effect. Well, the recency effect is the first part of the equation, and the second part of the equation is something known as the primacy effect. So when you hear a list, whether it's a list of options for a restaurant or a list of options for the movie theater or a list of options for where you're going to take your girlfriend or boyfriend to eat dinner, whatever it might be, the first thing on the list engages your short-term memory with something called the primacy effect. It's the first piece of information and your brain retains that first piece of information in its short-term active memory very easily. But even stronger, even more important, is the last thing on the list. because the last thing on the list engages your short-term memory, your active memory,

in what's known as recency effect, the most recent thing, the last piece of information in a list. So whether it's a list of colors or whether it's a list of numbers, whatever it might be. It's the reason that you can almost always remember the last two digits of someone's phone number, but you can never remember like the middle three or four digits of somebody's phone number. It's why you can remember someone's last name, but not always someone's first name. or it's why you can remember the last story someone told you or you can remember that you met someone as you were leaving a party, but you don't really remember almost anybody that you met during the party. It all has to do with this recency and primacy effect.

So when you look at how this effect plays out in your everyday life, it's important to understand that recency and primacy are cognitive. They're not based on education. They're not based on culture. They're not based on anything other than the fact that you're a human being. and you see this happen throughout the entire human experience, right? Just consider how do you look at a new book? When you pick up a new book at a bookstore or at an airport, what do you do?

You look at the front cover and then you flip the book over and you look at the back cover. And that's it. You might open up one of the covers to look at one of the inside flaps. You might flip through the middle of a book, but the front cover and the back cover are the first two things you look at. And then you usually make a decision, right? That's your front cover, your primacy effect. Your back cover is your recency effect. And then if you read the back cover of a book, how do you read it?

You read it from top to bottom. And then what you inevitably remember? What is it that makes you decide whether or not you're going to buy the book? It's what you see in the last few sentences on the back cover. Does it compel you enough to buy it? The bookseller knows that. The book publisher knows that. Even the people writing the book know that.

That's why most books start. The first chapter starts with this highly exciting high drama moment before it gets boring and then it ends with high drama. It's it's something that the human mind is wired to do and professionals understand that. Consider how you look at a menu in a restaurant. You look at a menu the same way that my kids and my wife and I look at a menu. If it's a one page menu, you look at the front and then you flip it over and you look at the back, right? You look at appetizers and then you look at dessert or you look at the main course and then you flip it over and you look at the drinks. It's natural instinct for all people everywhere and you kind of ignore

everything in the middle. I mean, just think about how many people you've seen go to maybe the same restaurant or a different restaurant, but they always order the same thing, right? It's like people who go to a Thai restaurant and they only ever order pad tie. Why? Why do they always order the same thing? Because it was the last thing they ate from a restaurant like this. You see, it is the recency effect. It was the last thing they ate. The last thing they chose to look at in a menu, in a list on a menu was the thing they ordered, and then when they go back to the same restaurant, what is it they want to eat?

Even if they look at the menu, even if they spend 10 minutes telling themselves, telling you having a conversation that they're going to try something new, they don't. They eat the same thing, because it was the last thing that they ate. That's how strong the recency effect can be. It's the same way you read an email.

You read the subject line of an email. You read the PS line of an email. You skim the middle. unless there's something important in the middle that keys in your attention from the first or the last lines in the email. It's the same way you look in an advertisement. You look at the front. You look at the back. You look at the top.

You look at the bottom. And then you look in the middle. It's the way you look at job listings. Everything. It's all the same. It's even present when you look at someone that you're going to ask on a date. Right? You look at their face.

And then you look at their bottom half, their rear end. And then you look at everything in the middle. I know it doesn't. It sounds crass. It sounds shallow to say it, but if you really consider it, you know that it's true. You look at their face, maybe you look at their hair, and then you look at their backside, or maybe you look at their legs, and then you look at the stuff in the middle. Unless you're one of those few people who really puts a heavy emphasis on fashion sense or cleavage

or whatever else, it's human nature to size up a potential partner by looking at the top and then the bottom, and then lastly, considering the stuff in the middle. I remember as a kid, and if you're as old as I am, you probably remember this too. Every day, your parents would come home from work. You'd already be back from school. And then they would go through the junk mail. And there was always tons of junk mail when I was a kid and I was growing up. And for me, it was my stepdad.

He was the one that was always in charge of junk mail. And the way it would work inevitably is he'd come home. He'd take off his button-down shirt and he'd be walking around in his dress slacks and his white undershirt. In his hand, he'd have a stack of all the mail that was in the mailbox. and 90% of it was junk mail. And he would take this pile of mail over to the kitchen counter and he'd open the trash can

right next to the kitchen counter and one by one he'd pick up every envelope. He'd look at the front of the envelope. Primacy effect. He'd flip it over. He'd look at the back of the envelope. Recency effect. And then he would do one of two things.

He would either throw the entire unopened envelope in the garbage or he would open it. He made his entire decision on what to do with that piece. of mail by looking at the front, looking at the back, and then making a decision. That is primacy effect and recency effect in action. It's how you read a menu. It's how you look at a future dating partner. It's how you read, it's decide whether or not you're going to buy a new book. It's what human beings do. Just knowing that recency and primacy effect are in effect,

just knowing about them and knowing that they have an impact on you, that's great, right? But I'm not here talking to you just to tell you interesting little tidbits about the brain. That's not the point. It's useful, but knowing about it is not operational. And I'm here to talk about operational applications of how the human brain works. I want you to know how to use these two effects as tools operationally. I want you to know how to use recency effect and primacy effect offensively so you can get what you want. so you can do the things you want to do so that you can get people to do what you want other people to do for you.

So consider this. The way your brain works, the way your brain encounters primacy and recency effect, is true for everybody's brain. Your brain and the brain of every human being around you, whether that's your kids or your spouse or your parents, your employees, a business partner, your customers, everyone. Everyone you encounter will remember the first thing you say and the last thing you say. They will all essentially ignore everything in the middle. And even more important, the last thing you say is the thing they will remember first. The first thing you say is the thing they will remember second. And even still, everything in the middle is lost.

That's the power of recency effect and primacy effect. So you've got to use that. to your advantage. Now, how do you do that? If you are a salesman or a business owner, or maybe you're someone who's trying to find an investor or trying to find a business partner or trying to find an advertising partner, if you're selling something, you want to offer the sexiest, most important, most expensive option last. You don't want to lead with it. You want to say it last. Why do you want to say it last? Because treat your entire conversation with that prospect, your entire conversation with that investment.

that entire conversation with a customer, a potential customer, treat that whole thing like it's a list. What are they going to remember the strongest? They're going to remember the last thing you say. That's recency effect. What's the thing they're going to remember the second most? The second most likely thing they're going to remember is the first thing that you say. So when you're selling, you want to offer your most expensive option last. And you want to start the list or start the conversation.

by offering the second most expensive option first, right? It doesn't matter whether you're selling fruits or swimsuits or sunglasses or homes. You want to offer the most expensive option last, the second most expensive option first, and bury all the cheap options somewhere in the middle because human nature is going to make your customer. They're going to make your client consider the last thing you say first. That's the thing they're going to remember.

When they go home, when they take their shower, when they eat their dinner, when they're watching their movie on Netflix that night, the thing that's going to be playing around in their head, the decision they're going to think about making is engaging with you on your most expensive option because that's the one that they remember first, even though it's the one that you shared, the one that you presented to them, last, right? That's how you use it and selling. Maybe you don't sell. Maybe you're a teacher and you lecture from the stage or maybe you're a professional speaker and you want to communicate hard-hitting information.

Whatever it is that you're trying to do, when you're giving a talk, when you're giving a presentation to the board of directors, or whenever you're trying to pitch one of your ideas, you want to make sure that you put your most important idea, your most important fact, your most important proposal at the end of your presentation. And you want to kick off your presentation with the second most important fact, the second most important thing you want them to remember. Because remember that nobody will remember the middle, recent, and primacy dictate that the short-term memory of your audience is going to prioritize the last

thing they hear first, the first thing they hear second, and everything in the middle is going to get lost. It's going to get lost in the wash unless for some odd reason it just spikes in their attention, right? Because their interest, personal interests, or values, something unpredictable. But nobody will remember the middle of your conversation. And if you think I'm wrong, let me challenge you with this, right? think back on the last TED talk you listened to.

Maybe it was 10 minutes ago, maybe it was two weeks ago, maybe you haven't discovered TED talks. But if you think back to your last TED talk, what do you remember about that talk? Just answer it right now. What is the thing that you remember? Can you even remember your most recent TED talk? If you've watched TED talks for ages, maybe you've watched them for years, I'll bet you can only remember the last two or three. The vast majority of the TED talks you've listened to, you can't even recall. Now, if you do remember the last TED Talk, I dare you to go back and watch it again when

you're done with this podcast. Watch it, listen to it, whatever you want, because I will bet you easy money that the reason you remember that TED Talk is because of something you heard in that TED Talk in the last three minutes. Most TED Talks last somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes or more. And for some reason, because of human nature, I promise you you will remember the something you heard about that talk because it was stated in the last three minutes. The last 10% of the entire conversation is why it sticks in your memory and everything else is essentially lost or

forgotten. All the details, all the metrics, all the science, all the studies that they present in that TED talk, you've glossed over and you just remember what you heard at the end. That's the power of recency effect. So whether it's date night with an overstressed spouse, or whether you're debating what movie you want to go see with your best friend. The trick here, the operational application of recency and primacy, is that you want to give them three options. Give your wife or give your husband three options on date night. That's it, just three.

Give your roommates or your best friend or your friend with benefits. Give them three options for what movie you're going to watch. And then put your favorite option last, your second favorite option first, and sit back and watch them do the work for you. Watch them pick your favorite item first because it's the last thing they heard. And if they don't pick that, watch them pick your second favorite item because it's the first thing you said. And essentially, everybody that is around you will forget whatever you said in the middle.

You'll never have to go see a movie that you don't want to watch ever again. You'll never have to go to a restaurant that you don't want to go to ever again. if you just bury the things you don't want to do in the middle of the list, human nature will do the rest. Spies know that human beings are wired to remember using their short-term memory. Short-term memory is inherently going to remember according to recency and primacy. The most recent thing that the brain hears is what it remembers first. The first thing that a brain hears is what it remembers second.

recency and primacy. The last thing they hear, the last thing, the last bits of information the brain comes in contact with is the first thing it can recall. And the first bits of information that the human brain comes in contact with is the second thing it can recall. Just like you cannot remember more than two of the five examples I gave you today to explain recency and primacy, you can count on the fact that these same tools will work to help you shape the way your customers, your friends, even your family engage with information that you give them. So use these tools. Use them to boost your sales. Use them to win more arguments. Use them to convince stubborn spouses and stubborn children and stubborn employees to do the thing you want them to do.

Recency and primacy effect are happening. They're happening all around you even now as I speak. The only difference is that now you can see them and other people don't know they even exist. You can make that work for you. And that is everyday espionage. Everyday espionage is dedicated to one thing, educating everyday people. I know that not everyone will listen, but those who listen will learn. If you learned something new today, click subscribe, review, and share the podcast. with a friend. Find me on social media at EverydaySpy or on my website, everydayspy.com.

If you are up for a special challenge, visit Everydayspy.com forward slash operations and join me for an authentic spy training mission. And above all else, remember that knowledge is freedom.