What Do People Remember Best?

I wonder what part of a conversation is remembered best. Do people remember how you begin a conversation or how you end it? Or does it not work like that? Perhaps they remember the good part better than the bad part. Or is it the other way around?

Let’s assume that you need to reprimand somebody for some minor offense. Maybe it is your child, a student, or a junior at work. Do you first pay him a compliment to get him in a better receptive mood and then chew his balls? Or do you first cut him down to size and then pay him a compliment to insure that the meeting ends on a positive note? Of course, this is providing that the person took in what you said. Some people don’t listen to what you say.

And what if you cannot think of something good to say? It is easy to find a stick if you want to beat a dog but to find a brush for his coat is somewhat harder. I suppose one could make fun of it. I mean, if the person is sulking after you told him that he’s not using his head, you can always comfort him with a corny crack like telling him that for a dumb a**, he’s not really that dumb at all. It should cheer him up a bit.

I suppose one could argue that it may be best to start with something positive, do the unpleasant part, and then to pay another compliment but then the purpose of the meeting may be buried so deep between all the lip service that it may be missed altogether.

I notice this phenomenon on the blogs as well. A large proportion of the comments deal only with the heading (often misconstrued), the first paragraph, or the last paragraph, while the body of the blog, that contains the juicy morsels, often gets very little or no attention.


May you enjoy this day wherever you are.