A blog called Smart Graduate School Applications has an article on a phenomenon: If you deliberately showing a weakness trait, it helps to increase your credibility. In the article, he mentions number of examples. Here is one: A waiter who negatively comments about the restaurant’s dishes and tries to gain credibility. And with that, he could gain customer trust and leverage to recommend other expensive dishes: Do you think it is working that well? Do you think it is a dirty trick? “…isn’t that good tonight, may I suggest the (cheaper dish)?” This immediately gives the customer reason to believe that the waiter is on their side, since he is willing to comment negatively about the restaurant’s dishes and point to a better dish that is cheaper (which would actually have the effect of decreasing his tip). In the customers’ eyes the waiters credibility has increased considerably because of this show of objectivity. Of course, the waiter then goes on to leverage this increase in credibility by recommending more expensive wines, appetizers, and deserts – thereby increasing his tip considerably. Credibility – [Smart Graduate School Applications]
