History Main / ReversePsychology

* In Literature/TheBible, {{God}} finds out that the Israelites have started worshiping the Golden Calf and tells Moses "Now leave Me alone, and My anger will be kindled against them so that I will annihilate them" (Ex. 32:10). Rabbinic commentary notes that Moses hadn't had a chance to object yet, so God has no reason to say "leave Me alone" -- except to inform Moses that He ''wouldn't'' destroy them if he ''did'' object.

* In the ''ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}'' "Legends of the Dead Earth" annual, Wildfire is trying to recreate both the Legion and the UP spirit of inter-species cooperation. He doesn't expect his current group of trainees to do it, instead pinning his hopes on their descendants, who will be ''raised'' with Legion values. To ensure there ''are'' descendants, he tells them they're forbidden to "fraternise".

** In ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', [[BigBad Palpatine]] is a master at making the Jedi do what he wants them to do. When he makes Anakin his representative on the Council, they grudgingly allow it but refuse to promote him to the rank of Master, thus getting him pissed off at them and making him easier to corrupt. Later, when Palpatine directs the Jedi to send Anakin to kill General Grievous, they send Obi-Wan instead, meaning that he's not on Coruscant to stop Anakin from falling to TheDarkSide.

* In ''WebVideo/HellsingUltimateAbridged'', Walter and Integra need Alucard to investigate something in Brazil, but he's not exactly very good at following orders. So instead, Walter informs Alucard that he's allowed to go on a vacation and go anywhere he likes... ''except'' Brazil. Alucard goes there anyways to spite them, unaware that was what they wanted him to do all along.

** In "Sweets and Sour Marge", Homer tries to use reverse psychology on a toucan. It doesn't work, [[RealityEnsues for precisely the same reasons that it wouldn't work on the toucans in the real world]].

* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'': When Jon tells Garfield to go away, Garfield dares Jon to make him do it. Jon then tells Garfield to stay and Garfield leaves.

** In another episode, Baart will be sent to a summer camp, but doesn't want to go, so he figures if he pretends to be interested but ask that [[LazyBum Homer]] be the one to sent him, Homer will find an excuse not to, while Homer, not wanting to drive him there, figures he can feign interest in it and Bart will find a reason not to go. The end result is that ''both'' accept to go to that camp.

* One person pointed out how some widely hated stuff like ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'', ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', Music/JustinBieber, and [[ItsPopularNowItSucks anything popular]] became so popular despite such a huge Hatedom because it was unintentionally invoked ''by the Hatedom itself''. The quote "The more you hate it, the stronger it gets" refers to this action in practice where someone hears about a work from the {{Hatedom}} or HateDumb, then decides to [[BileFascination try it out]], only to experience CriticalBacklash or find it's just as bad as they say. The publisher still wins in the end because they either earned a new customer or still got someone to buy something when they didn't even fall into the target demographic.
* When the {{Hatedom}} is even louder than the fandom, it can actually be the ''cause'' of its popularity. For example, if it weren't for all the parodies mocking "Friday," no one would have ever heard of Music/RebeccaBlack.

** In another episode, Baart will be sent to a summer camp, but doesn't want to go, so he figures if he pretends to be interested but ask that [[lazyBum Homer]] be the one to sent him, homer will find an excuse not to, while Homer, not wantign to drive him there, figures he can feign interest in it and bart will find a reason not to go. The end result is that ''both'' accept to go to that camp.

* Played somewhat more seriously in ''Literature/EndersGame''. The bans on playing computer games for longer than a few hours are never enforced -- they're just a way of making the games seem like ForbiddenFruit. Each game is used to evaluate the thought processes of its players.
** Which foreshadows a later and even more serious example when [[spoiler:Ender's handlers sternly warn him of the consequences of using the Little Doctor on a planet.]] Which is exactly what they hope he does.

* In ''Film/TheCatInTheHat'', the Cat puts a lock on the crate/dimensional portal that Thing 1 and Thing 2 came from, and sternly tells Conrad ''not'' to unlock it and open it. Conrad, being a compulsive rule-breaker, proceeds to do just that. At the end of the film, the Cat reveals that he planned the whole day's events, up to and including Conrad opening the crate after being told not to.

-->'''Homer:''' ''[reading]'' Cosby's First Law of Inter-generational Perversity: No matter what you tell your child to do, he will always do the opposite. Huh?\\

* On the parody website Website/BabylonBee, Donald Trump is portrayed as regularly engaging in this to absurd levels: [[https://babylonbee.com/news/genius-trump-criticizes-war-causing-millions-of-liberals-to-sign-up-for-military criticizing war so liberals will sign up for the army in defiance]], [[https://babylonbee.com/news/genius-trump-nominates-joe-biden-to-supreme-court nominating Joe Biden for SCOTUS so the left will accuse him of sexual misconduct]], and even [[https://babylonbee.com/news/in-genius-move-trump-supports-impeachment-forcing-democrats-to-oppose-it supporting his own impeachment so the Democrats will do a 180 to oppose him]].

When this doesn't work out, that's ReversePsychologyBackfire.

'''Bart:''' ''[to himself]'' Blast that infernal card! ''[to Homer]'' Hey, Dad. '''Don't''' give me that card.\\