43 Things to Confuse Your Friends

Psychology tricks to mess with people’s minds

If you’ve not been tricked for the past two months, get ready to fall for one soon, but before you fall for one, here are a few psychological tricks to mess with people’s minds.

1. Trick people into ducking

One of the best physical mind tricks for unsuspecting passers-by is to get them to duck. As humans, our body kicks into fight or flight mode the moment we sense danger. With this information, you can play many tricks on people’s instincts. Get 4 or 5 friends to help you out with this trick. Visit public places, position yourselves strategically, within feet of each other, and duck in unison. We guarantee you that other passers-by will join you to duck. Try not to laugh while playing this brain-confusing trick on people. We think that this is a good activity to do with teenage friends when bored.

2. Make your friends pronounce words wrongly

Our minds have a way of imitating sounds that rhyme just like jingles. You can play many clever mind tricks on your friends by using similar sounds and rhymes. For example, quickly spell and pronounce the first two words below and ask your friends to pronounce the rest while you spell them out quickly.

“If b.a.k.e.d is baked, r.a.k.e.d is raked, what is c.a.k.e.d?, f.a.k.e.d, and n.a.k.e.d. See if your friends would pronounce n.a.k.e.d as naked or na-ked.’

3. Trick your friends and family to believe you used their phones.

Looking for how to mess with someone’s mind over text? Here is your chance. You can ruffle some feathers with these text messages;

• Has Bec responded to my text? Please check your inbox.
• Hey mom, help me delete a conversation on your phone. It should be easy to find, I didn’t save the number. (worried face emoji)
• Dad, in case a strange number calls you, it’s my friend. I used your phone earlier to call my friend in Morocco.
• Uuh, you have a lot of creepy messages. I don’t want to ever hold your phone again. Gish!

You can get creative about creepy mind tricks via texts;

• Send a GIF of a bug creeping out of a person’s ear with the text “That’s how I crawl out every night”.  Minutes later, send “sorry, this was not meant for you” with OMG emoji.

4. Association trick for teachers

You’ve probably heard of conditioning and Pavlov’s dog experiments. If yes, then you know how conditioning works. If no, spare a few minutes to skim through Pavlov’s experiments online but here’s a cool mind trick to play with your students;

Ask 6 or 5 students to help you out with this trick. Ask three of them to clap three times before approaching your table to submit their books and they’ll get a high 5 and a smile before they leave. Ask the other three students not to clap before approaching your table and don’t give them any high 5 but frown at them.

Ask all your students to queue up before they approach your table. Make sure your models come first. Choose your models in the sequence (clap– don’t clap– don’t clap– clap– clap). You’ll be surprised that other students will follow the clap pattern before approaching your table. You can get creative with association tricks. The great thing is that the association trick can be used in any setting for all age groups, after all, we follow patterns daily.

5. Trick people into believing you have an imaginary friend that makes fun of them.

Pretend to argue with an invincible friend and if anyone stares at you, argue with your imaginary friends about the person. For example

“Ruth, I said no”

“No” (pretend to look at your imaginary friend)

“That puppy face won’t work today”

“Leave the lady out of this” (referring to any lady staring at you)

“If she is nosey, you are the one making her nosey, stop talking to me and there is nothing wrong with her green shirt”

“Nope, she doesn’t have a stain on her pants,

“I didn’t see it”

“Just leave the poor old lady alone”

6. Mind trickery for your kids

Get your child to perform tasks by making them a challenge. If you have children that barely want to do any chore in the house, get them active by making them complete any task under the guise of it being a challenge. For example, you could say,

“Josh, come help me out with this challenge. Ladies at my book club think it is impossible to mow a lawn of 10m2 in 10mins. Let’s show them that we can”

Your child does not have to finish mowing the lawn within the said time but they would do a decent job at the end of 10mins. You could also get them to eat good meals this way too, just get creative with your lies and challenge.

7. Trick your friends to believe you are a voice note.

If you hardly ever get calls, the best way to get your friend to call you quickly is by pretending that there is an emergency, urgent information to pass, an item you have for them, or gossip to share. When they eventually call you, trick them to believe that you are a voice message.

“I am probably looking for my phone right now, please leave a message and when I find it, I’ll get back to you”

8. Pretend to vomit an insect.

Pretend to have a stomach ache for a good number of hours and let your friends and family know about it. When you are ready to cough out these lifelike insects, pretend as though the ache has worsened, drink water, and start to cough hard. Spit out the insect and scream, you’ll surely creep them out. This is a fun creepy mind trick that will fool anyone.

9. Trick people into believing that you are smiling and waving at them

Has a random person ever waved or smiled while looking in your direction, and you responded to them only to realize that their gesture was for another person? It’s embarrassing and funny at the same time. You can also play this trick on people with the help of a friend. Be nice.

10. Trick people into thinking they’ve just spoken to an insane person.

Call for a person and give them lovely compliments, then scream as though someone slapped your head, pinched, or tickled you. Apologize to the person you were complimenting and walk away quickly while yelling ‘stop touching me’.

11. Negotiation trick

If you are a business person, you might already know this negotiation trick. Always ask for more than the actual worth of the item when dealing with frugal spenders so that at the end of the negotiation, the item will be bought at the actual price. You can use this negotiation strategy in many other settings.

Confusing things to say to confuse people

Saying weird things to confuse your friends is one way to engrave your name in the minds and hearts. It’s hard to forget a friend that messed with your mind.

12. I want my first child to be a male son

It would seem as though this statement makes absolutely no sense, but on second thought, if you put everything into perspective, it does.

13. My mother’s sister’s husband’s cousin will be visiting and I am wondering how unvisiting works.

Explaining family relationships can be confusing at times and this is just one example.

14. I love this stupidly brilliant idea like I love leftovers before I dump them into a trash can.

If this sentence is giving you as much headache as it gave us, then you’re fine. This is the kind of statement people make when a better idea pops up at the wrong time.

15. I got hit by a trolley and now I am confused about how not to get trolled.

Walk up to strangers at shopping malls and say this to get their reaction. Try to look confused while saying it.

16. My butt just spoke, excuse us, but I am so excited. I didn’t know we would be having a discussion again.

Try to scream this sentence out in public places to get the reaction of people. Eww!

17. My tummy turned three, I need to go and celebrate

In case this statement confused you, it means “It’s 3 o’clock, I need to go and eat”

18. You can’t find the butter because it flew, that’s why it’s called a butterfly.

You’ve probably never thought of this reply right? Well, next time the butter goes missing or you finish it without letting anyone know, make this statement.

19. I know you’re the sugar in my tea but I didn’t ask for diabetes.

This is a good sentence to confuse your partner whenever they’ve done something you love so much.

20. If you say Dee is Zee 10 times, you’ll probably get how I feel

Next time someone asks you ‘how are you?’ and you feel dizzy, this is a good response to the question.

21. I am Mac’s buddy, Cheese.

If you have a friend named Mark or Mac, this is the perfect intro for you.

22. Thanks for your help, may someone slap you back with favor

This is a good prayer with enough dose of lingual creativity. You can also add “…and may you be boxed with promotion”.

23. Your problems are like bicycle wheels

Another way of saying “your problems are out of control”

24. When someone says something you think is false or far fetched, you can say “I celebrated my 90th last week”

When a person has gone too far with their exaggeration or lies, a good way to let them know that you know that they are lying is to exaggerate or lie worse than they have.

25. You look as fresh as today’s bread. You smell as soothing as sand when it’s been kissed by new rain.

Walk up to a stranger that looks good and compliment them with this sentence.

26. If someone asks you “what’s up?”, look up and reply what you see.

How you reply to this question matters. Act puzzled, look up and back at them before responding.

Puzzling questions to ask a friend

27. Where does today go after it is gone today?

28. Are leaves leaves because they leave? Are trees lonely lovers?

29. Why is there p in pneumonia?

30. Why can’t we choose not to be born? Does Free Will exist?

31. Why do we spell why as why instead of y?

32. What was the first language ever spoken?

33. If I lose weight, do I still Matter?

34. “You spot a boat full of people but there isn’t a single person on board. How is this possible?” Because they are all married.

35. “What do you call an alligator wearing a vest?” An investigator.

36. “What if you remove the wings of a fly, would it still be called a fly or a walk?”

37. “Why are deliveries on a ship called cargo but in a car, it is called shipment?”

38. “What do you call a bear without shoes? The answer is barefoot”

39. “If one teacher can’t teach all subjects, why is one child expected to learn all subjects?

40. “If two vegans are arguing, is it still considered beef?”

41. “If Apple made cars would they still have Windows?”

42. “If life is unfair to everyone, doesn’t that actually mean that life is fair?”

43. “If you stab a cereal box, are you a cereal killer?”

FAQ

1. How can I confuse someone?

By doing or saying things people least expect.

• Respond to text messages with lyrics, movie lines, or complicated words.

For example, “how are you?”

 “outrageously discombobulated”.

• When there is an argument between people, move in between them and show a lack of concern for their argument. Do whatever you want and they’ll stare at you. For example,  Tell one of them to hold your spoon or snack. Jump three times and clap. Collect your spoon or snacks and leave.
• Ask bizarre questions during conversations and give bizarre answers when asked a question.

In summary

Confusing people can be fun but it requires courage, creativity, some acting skills, and luck. We wish you all the fun as you do and say things to confuse your friends.