How to Persuade and Influence People: Powerful techniques to get your own way more often

Chapter 21. SPECIAL DEAL

When I was at university Professor Hammerton asked us to perform an experiment. He had three buckets of water. One contained extremely hot water, uncomfortably hot, one was at room temperature and the third was extremely cold, as it contained ice. The buckets were lined up together on a table with the lukewarm water bucket in the middle of the three. He had each of us put one hand in the hot water and one in the cold water and hold it there for a few seconds. Then he asked us to put both hands quickly in the lukewarm water. We then had to concentrate on what each hand felt like and describe it. Clearly, the warm water felt cold to the hand that had been in the hot water, and felt warm to the hand that had been in the ice-cold ...