If you want to improve your relations with others, there are several ways to do it. You could invite them out to get to know them better, though this might lead to a bad ending if you don't already get on. You could force yourself to like them, even though all your feelings are telling you that you don't. Or you could try the Benjamin Franklin Effect.
Benjamin Franklin was one of the founding fathers of American independence and he's also famous for many scientific achievements. A year after his death in 1793, one book about his life was published and it is there that we find an explanation to what has become known as "the Benjamin Franklin Effect".
In this book, Franklin tells a story about an assemblyman（州众议院议员） who had snubbed（冷 落）him on several occasions. Franklin asked if he might borrow a certain unusual book from the assemblyman's library. The assemblyman helped Franklin find the book. Franklin thanked him and from then on, they became best friends. Franklin learned the lesson that when you asked someone for help and they helped, they are more willing to give you a hand in future than if you had been the one helping them.
The effect has been proven in a 1969 study by Jon Jecker and David Landy who found that a speechmaker who asked students to lend him some money was more liked by these students better than by those who hadn't been asked. When we ask a person to give us a hand, we are expressing that we consider them to have something we don't, whether more intelligence, more knowledge, more skills, or whatever. This is another way of showing respect and immediately raises their opinion of us and makes them more willing to help us again both because they enjoy the admiration and have honestly started to like us.
Now work out a chance to ask for help from a person that you don't get on with and that would cost them nothing. It could be advice, practical help, or a bit of their time, whatever. Treat this person with your request in a positive and honest spirit.
【小题1】According to the Effect, if you want to get others to like you, you should________.| A．ask for help from them | B．invite them to your home |
| C．give a hand to them first | D．force yourself to like them |
| A．He's a practical assemblyman. | B．He discovered a lot in science. |
| C．The Effect was named by himself | D．He got money through the Effect. |
| A．To use Benjamin Franklin Effect. | B．To prove Benjamin Franklin Effect. |
| C．To realize Benjamin Franklin Effect. | D．To introduce Benjamin Franklin Effect. |
