Social Engineering - Christopher Hadnagy [61]
Sight, or a visual thinker
Hearing, or an auditory thinker
Feeling, or a kinesthetic thinker
Each sense has a range within which it works, or a sub-modality. Is something too loud or too soft? Too bright or too dark? Too hot or too cold? Examples of these are as follows: staring at the sun is too bright, jet engines are too loud, and –30 degrees Fahrenheit is too cold. Ivan Pavlov ran an experiment where he rang a bell every time he fed a dog. In the end the dog would hear the sound of the bell, then salivate. What most people don’t know is that he was more interested in the physical and emotional aspects of sub-modalities. The interesting point is that the louder the bell rang the more the dog salivated. The range change of the sub-modality produced a direct physical change. Pavlov’s research and all of his lectures are discussed in much detail at www.ivanpavlov.com.
Even though people are very different from dogs, Pavlov’s research is very important in understanding how a person thinks. Many of us can think in all three modes, but we dominate in one—one “rings” the loudest. Even within our dominant mode, we might have varying degrees of depth for that dominant sense.
Following I will discuss some of the details of each of these modes in more depth.
Visual
The majority of people are usually visual thinkers, in that they usually remember what something looked like. They remember the scene clearly—the colors, the textures, the brightness or darkness. They can clearly picture a past event and even build a picture for a future event. When they are presented with material to decide upon they often need something to see because visual input is directly linked to decision making. Many times a visual thinker will make a decision based on what is visually appealing to him regardless of what is really “better” for him.
Although men tend to be visual, this does not mean that all men are always visual. That visual marketing or visual aspects normally appeal to men is true, but do not assume all men are visual.
A visual person often uses certain words in his speech, such as:
“I see what you mean.”
“That looks good to me.”
“I get the picture now.”
And the range that the dominant sense works in for a visual thinker can have certain characteristics, or sub-modalities, such as:
Light (bright or dim)
Size (large or small)
Color (black and white or color)
Movement (fast or slow)
Focus (clear or hazy)
Trying to debate, sell, negotiate, manipulate, or influence a visual thinker with no visual input is very difficult if not impossible. Visual thinkers need visual input to make decisions.
Auditory
Auditory thinkers remember the sounds of an event. They remember that the alarm was too loud or the woman whispered too low. They recall the sweetness of the child’s voice or the scary bark of the dog. Auditory people learn better from what they hear and can retain far more from being told things than being shown things.
Because an auditory thinker remembers the way something sounded, or because the sounds themselves help recall memories, he may use phrases such as:
“Loud and clear…”
“Something tells me…”
“That sounds okay to me.”
And the range of this dominant sense can be within these sub-modalities:
Volume (loud or soft)
Tone (base or treble)
Pitch (high or low)
Tempo (fast or slow)
Distance (near or far)
It is imperative to choose your words carefully with auditory thinkers. The words they hear will make or break the deal. I have seen whole encounters go from great to a disaster with one wrong word spoken to an auditory thinker.
Kinesthetic
Kinesthetic thinkers are concerned with feelings. They remember how an event made them feel—the warmth of the room, the beautiful breeze on their skin, how the movie made them jump out of their seat with fear. Often kinesthetic thinkers feel things with their hands to get the sense of the objects. Merely telling them something is soft isn’t as real as letting them touch it. But