Imagine this scenario—you are at a carnival and stumble into a dark tent. You see a large crystal ball illuminated by candles encircling it. From behind the shadows comes out a wrinkly face. That face stares into your eyes for four seconds and mumbles, “You are scared to be here.” You are in fact scared to be here after being freaked out by the environment.
The psychic then proceeds to tell your life story just by sitting you down and looking at you.
Some may say this is an unrealistic scenario, but I find it perfectly plausible. The truth is that the person that is supposedly “psychic” is not in fact psychic; he in fact is a master of cold reading. A cold read is an educated statement based on qualities that can be perceived with a sense.
Right now I live in a house with about six other guys. Whenever someone comes in and the kitchen smells like fish, that person will typically say "Olin's been cooking fish." That exactly is the basis of cold reading--the person smelled the sense of fish, has seen me cooking fish before, and can conclude that I have cooked fish.
The reason cold reading helps out in pickup is that it establishes rapport without trying for it. Rapport is any commonality between people; it is an important factor to pickup since it establishes comfort between two people. Normally, rapport is accomplished by finding commonalities between two people. By cold reading a person successfully, you give the impression that you've met the person before on a nonverbal level.
There are many ways to cold read a person. Today I will be covering cold reading through voice. While what a person says is important for understanding that person, it only plays a small part. The more important part is the manner in which the statements are said. Here are some things to pay attention to when actively listening to a person:
Pitch: The deepness or shallowness of the voice. A high pitch can represent excitement, while a low pitch can signify disinterest or boredom.
Rate: The speed at which words are spoken. A high rate shows excitement or nervousness, while a low rate exhibits confidence and meticulosity.
Stress: Any verbal or nonverbal emphasis upon a word or words. Stressed words hold meaning to the speaker. Depending on the context in which the words are used, these words can be used to maintain the conversation.
Body Language: This is an entirely another topic to cover--a simple example would be fidgeting during a statement. That could mean nervousness and possibly lying.
Voice stress analysis is even beginning to be used in addition to polygraphs to detect lying. Here's a video of that:
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ5Sz0O9g4M
One last thing: the more signs a person has, the more successful a cold reading can occur. An assumption based on one sign is very unlikely, so go for around three or four for a more successful cold read.
Until we meet again,
Olin Gallet
New Orleans Pick-Up Artist Examiner
odgallet@Uno.edu
www.twitter.com/olintheexaminer
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