Everyone makes a suggestion or makes a suggestion at some point. This is often unconscious and happens without explanation. A question or a sentence can be suggestive. What is special is that previous experiences in a situation have a suggestive effect. What is a suggestion and how often does it occur in daily life?
What is suggestion?
People often ask: ,Can I make you a suggestion?, What we actually mean by this is that we have an idea for something but don’t want to express it directly. For example, when someone cannot choose between red and brown boots. Then it can be said: ,May I make a suggestion, the brown boots match your eyes well,. Actually, we just have the idea that the brown boots suit the person much better, but we don’t say this directly. In short, a suggestion is an idea that is presented in a roundabout way.
A suggestion is an idea that we impose on the other person without being critical. This way we prevent the other person from feeling hurt. In general, the conversation partner who receives the suggestion will not feel attacked or want to resist it. Intuitively, the suggestion received does not feel threatening.
Wanting to persuade the other person
By making a suggestion or expressing a suggestion, we want to socially influence the other person. This influence is done through spoken language, but can also be done through a gesture or an attitude. For example, when the person tries on the red boots, we look away. When the person tries on the brown boots, we look excited.
A suggestion is generally made without explanation. Often both people are not immediately aware of the suggestion. Because no response is made to emotional life or no criticism is expressed, a suggestion generally feels familiar.
We often make a suggestion ourselves. Someone who drives a big car suggests that he or she makes a lot of money. Someone who does everything by bike (shopping, etc.) suggests that he or she cannot afford a car. While the reality is often very different: someone who cycles a lot may also consciously choose to do so because he or she likes to exercise.
Suggestive
A question can be suggestive. This means that a question is asked that already contains the answer, or at least suggests that the correct answer is contained in the question. A common example is when red boots are stolen from a store. Someone can then ask: ,Those red boots that were stolen yesterday, are they the same boots that Marietje bought yesterday?, This does not accuse Marietje of theft, but it does give the impression that Marietje could have stolen them.
A sentence can also be suggestive: ,Since Balkenende became Prime Minister, bread has become twice as expensive., This does not directly blame Balkenende for the price increases of bread, because it must be a coincidence. But this comment does make the other person think, giving them the idea that Balkenende has made bread more expensive.
Suggestion in psychology
There are psychological experiments that show that the current situation can be influenced suggestively based on previous experiences. Someone who is given a number of tasks and performs them all in a certain way will automatically perform the next task in this way, even if the task will lead to failure. We again take the red boots, into which we pour a liquid. We give the person a newspaper, with which he can absorb the liquid from the boot. We then fill the boot with oil, then milk, then honey, etc. The person is continuously given newspaper to absorb the liquid, which works every time. Finally, sand is sprinkled into the boot. The person will then automatically place newspaper in the boot to suck up the sand. And yet the only correct method here is to shake the boot.
When a first action is performed often enough, it suggests that this is the only correct method. This will cause the person to respond on autopilot, even though he or she knows that it is not always the right thing to do.
Autosuggestie
The term autosuggestion describes the fact that a person can be so impressed by something that is going to happen to him or her that he or she actually starts to believe that the opportunity will actually occur. When someone tells the other several times, as a joke, that he is going to cut the red boot into pieces and feed it to the person, the latter may at a certain point actually start to believe that this is going to happen to him. This autosuggestion is generated by someone else.
However, autosuggestion can also arise on its own. An example of this is when someone has an injury to their arm and thinks that a muscle group has failed, when this is not the case. Ultimately, the person can go so far in his thoughts that he shows symptoms of paralysis. A very common example is when someone suffers from hyperventilation. Hyperventilation in itself is easy to breathe away, but someone who is not familiar with it may think that he or she is in respiratory distress. Eventually a serious breathing problem will occur. Many people with an attack of hyperventilation therefore appear in the emergency room. news highlighted