Weird little tips

[Beerina]

Ok, a few years ago there were sites that promoted trivia and curiosities, while jamming popup ads when you clicked on the links. The links worked -- you just got ads with them. Fair enough.

They did things like, "ten errors in movies", "Do you know the female body?", and "top six things a woman should know about a man". Basically they were cool factoid and list aggregators.

I'm sure they did data mining -- which links worked best? -- and then started top-loading their lists with the most popular type.

A few years of evolution go by, and it's now all "This one wierd trick..." and "Did Hermione let something slip she shouldn't have?"

Places like CNN,which allow paid pseudo-article links, are just inheriting the descendants of this.

The one exception is "(some state) Mom discovers easy trick to ...", which seemed to originate in sidebar ads with some teeth whitening trick, which may have been legit, but now suggests local moms are like Indiana Jones, discovering reams of useful, ancient knowledge.

 

[DallasDad]

I can't be the only one to be disconcerted by seeing this topic immediately after reading one of the circumcision topics....

 

[Careyp74]

I can't be the only one to be disconcerted by seeing this topic immediately after reading one of the circumcision topics....

I didn't think of that, but did wonder before clicking the thread what problem he was having with his nipples.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

I didn't think of that, but did wonder before clicking the thread what problem he was having with his nipples.

But it did get you to look at the thread!

________

Just got a weird little spam e-mail: "3 sneaky hormones that are destroying your metabolism!"

 

[Careyp74]

But it did get you to look at the thread!

________

Just got a weird little spam e-mail: "3 sneaky hormones that are destroying your metabolism!"

Yes, if nothing else, but to fell better about my own weird little tips.

 

[Milbrandt]

The idea, I think, is to make it sound like "we're not sure why this works, and it's a surprise even to us that it does, but it does!" I assume this somehow makes the come-on sound more credible. (I suspect many of these things are only selling clicks to other advertisers anyway.)

Anyone else noticed this? Any ideas on what exactly the psychology is that makes something like that more enticing?

I think it's based on the same idea as having a supposed "skeptic" give positive testimony. It's as if they have no interest in the claim working, but it does anyway. Wow--if they can convince someone like that, then it *must* be true?

I think you're right, but I also think it's more than that.
By claiming that it's a "secret" or "little known" fact/tip, people might get the idea that they have a chance to get some esoteric knowledge. It will make them one of the few people with that special bit of information.
The fact that lots of other people get the same ad, doesn't make that big of difference here I think. It's about giving people the feeling they're special (or could be special if they just click the link), not about the actual number of people who know it.

What I've also noticed is that it's often a tip to do something with much less effort than usually;
"Get skinny in a week"
"10 tips to play guitar like Jimi Hendrix in a month"
"3 Things you should say to a woman to make her want you"

You see, you just have to walk up to a woman, say the 3-line incantation and she's yours.
To think I spent all that time going out to dinner with her, giving her compliments and buying her presents. I could've saved a lot of time and money on that girl! Why didn't anybody tell me this before?

O yeah, and I'll also stop working out and practicing playing the guitar. I'm just gonna give my money to the nice Internet-people who want to teach me the secrets of the universe and don't hold back any information from me.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

I think you're right, but I also think it's more than that.
By claiming that it's a "secret" or "little known" fact/tip, people might get the idea that they have a chance to get some esoteric knowledge. It will make them one of the few people with that special bit of information.

Good point.

Of course the best example of this has to be Rhonda Byrne's film and book called "The Secret".

No need for hard work or action--just want something hard enough and your desire will resonate with the universe and fame, fortune, romance will be yours. (Or send out bad vibes and you'll be punished, because we all know victims all deserve what they get. They secretly asked for it.)

I guess it'd never have sold if she called it, "Bald-faced Lie" or anything more honest than "The Secret".

The Simpsons lampooned it as "The Answer" in one episode.

ETA: Your point reminded me of something else: people like to feel special or unique no matter what. Quacks of different stripes (especially, for example, chiropractors) will frequently tell people they have something quirky or different about them: their legs are two different lengths (and easy thing to "show" by a subtle shift of the pelvis), for example. Or they have special allergies that only their quack method can detect. The most attractive psychic reading is to tell a mark that they too have some degree of psychic powers.