[sph]

Dissonance between what you instinctively believe and what you think the other person wants you to say.

Easy to replicate by asking someone something obvious, like the weather, and when they reply ask “are you sure?” - they won’t be so sure any more (believing it’s a trick question)

If I ask my mother if I’m real, she’ll have a pause because she has never had to entertain such a question, or the possibility her son over the phone is an impostor. Good way to push someone towards paranoia and psychosis.

[Kye]

This is the basis of the virtual kidnapping scam/grandparent scam, or panic manipulation more generally. The manufactured urgency keeps them from doubting: the voice on the phone being off is just fear, or a bad connection, for example.

I have personally intervened in one of those when I heard someone reading off a 6 digit number.

[pixl97]

Exactly, to perform the scam it works best if you get people to switch to their animal brain. "The snake is going to bite right now so I have to so something!".

That said, hog butchering scams have gotten popular so manufactured urgency isn't the only way.

[catlifeonmars]

> Good way to push someone towards paranoia and psychosis.

Interestingly, these are both phenomena where we start to _lose_ the ability to question our thoughts or introspect. These are phenomena of self-confidence rather than of self-doubt.