brotherted
TMF Master
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2002
- Messages
- 737
- Points
- 18
Maybe you misunderstood my post. Obviously humans can be conditioned, but when its your girlfriend who knows you very well she can clearly see what you're doing its not going to work like a new puppy. And you dont see whats wrong in referring someone to a dog training website for a relationship issue? Thats what my issue is here. Since this isnt a dog you dont have to creepily go behind her back and try to manipulate her mental state, believe it or not you can just tell her you want to link pleasure with tickling and that would be much more effective and honest. How happy do you think she would be if she knew you were trying to train her literally like a dog, from a dog training website?
It's incorrect to assume that because someone "can clearly see what you're doing," then therefore "it's not going to work." The subconscious mind works very differently than the conscious mind.
Countless studies have shown that even when someone's conscious mind is well aware of attempted conditioning, or that they've "seen through" to the underlying logic of what's happening, the suggestion to the subconscious is still happening anyway, very unrelated to how conscious reason works:
https://www.wired.com/story/can-placebos-work-even-when-patients-know-theyre-fake/
The placebo example is a lot like hypnosis, where the hypnotic suggestions can be completely effective, even for the subjects who remember 100% of their session and "can clearly see what you're doing."
Also, the dog reference isn't pejorative -- it's simply the Pavlov reference with which people are already familiar. All people, including you and me (and all dogs, for that matter) develop conditioned responses all the time, and yes, usually without us being aware it's happening. But again, even when we are aware of it, it generally happens anyway.
Here's an over-simplified example: If someone said to you, "I want you to develop a conditioned response. From now on, whenever I blow this air horn, I'm them going to smack you in the face." (Let's imagine you couldn't get away, etc.) Even though you were quite aware that the person was intending you to develop a conditioned response -- it wouldn't matter -- each time they blew the air horn, your heart would start racing anyway.