Rejection therapy seems to be designed for training the neuroticism reaction. I haven’t used it myself, so I might be getting some specifics wrong (including about the efficacy of it) but one of the methods I’ve seen is a box of cards with instructions on them. “Before purchasing something, ask for a discount.” In my part of the US, at least, haggling is more or less not done. Following the instruction will break the standard social mold, and I’d expect in most cases, you won’t get the discount. You would, however, be taking a risk, having it not pay off, and having the end result be underwhelming compared to the social cost anticipated by your neuroticism circuits. I’d imagine having an instruction on a card would apply pressure to conform to it, as well, a la Milgram. If nothing else, in the long term I’d expect it to give you a lot more evidence to draw from when anticipating the social cost of any given action.
Sounds like something that could be useful for rationality boot camp.
I’d love to do some rejection therapy. There might need to be some caution in applying it in a group setting though. I know for me it would be much easier (and hence much less useful) to do things like asking for a discount if there is a social group behind me to back me up (even if they are out of sight).
Anecdotally, I’ve found that having a social group behind you is actually really helpful.
My church actually had us go to a sex shop and purchase safe sex supplies, so that we’d learn to overcome our social anxiety around it. Given I was asexual and probably around 14, it was a pretty embarrassing thing to do. Knowing that all of my youth group peers would make fun of me for failing outweighed that social anxiety, though.
Going through that really did seem to help disarm a lot of the anxiety, if only by having an actual positive interaction I could point to and say “See? Nothing bad happened!”
Rejection therapy seems to be designed for training the neuroticism reaction. I haven’t used it myself, so I might be getting some specifics wrong (including about the efficacy of it) but one of the methods I’ve seen is a box of cards with instructions on them. “Before purchasing something, ask for a discount.” In my part of the US, at least, haggling is more or less not done. Following the instruction will break the standard social mold, and I’d expect in most cases, you won’t get the discount. You would, however, be taking a risk, having it not pay off, and having the end result be underwhelming compared to the social cost anticipated by your neuroticism circuits. I’d imagine having an instruction on a card would apply pressure to conform to it, as well, a la Milgram. If nothing else, in the long term I’d expect it to give you a lot more evidence to draw from when anticipating the social cost of any given action.
Sounds like something that could be useful for rationality boot camp.
I’d love to do some rejection therapy. There might need to be some caution in applying it in a group setting though. I know for me it would be much easier (and hence much less useful) to do things like asking for a discount if there is a social group behind me to back me up (even if they are out of sight).
Anecdotally, I’ve found that having a social group behind you is actually really helpful.
My church actually had us go to a sex shop and purchase safe sex supplies, so that we’d learn to overcome our social anxiety around it. Given I was asexual and probably around 14, it was a pretty embarrassing thing to do. Knowing that all of my youth group peers would make fun of me for failing outweighed that social anxiety, though.
Going through that really did seem to help disarm a lot of the anxiety, if only by having an actual positive interaction I could point to and say “See? Nothing bad happened!”