Believing What You Write

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, has a fascinating blog post based on a book called Influence: Science and Practice by Robert B. Cialdini. He says it claims that people tend to end up believing whatever they write, even if they are asked to write what they don't at all believe in.

I've previously made the observation that I end up believing what I deny is true—largely, I think, because I end up double-checking whether it really isn't true, and there's usually some truth to most sides of most issues.

Scott Adams has further made the observation that what he writes becomes true. In one of his books, he wrote about how he used the method of Affirmations, essentially writing, instead of "I shouldn't rip the school bus seats", "I'll make a million dollars selling comics" or some-such, and, sure enough, it became true after a few years.

Fascinating stuff.

Thanks to Q for the link.