"People often make a mistake when it comes to gaining others' trust." Nick raises a finger and says, "Newbies always like to add, thinking that the more they explain, the more trust they can gain."
"But in reality, there are not many people in the world who are empathetic. It is neither possible nor beneficial for everyone to spend energy understanding the situation of others. Usually, people have the strongest empathy when they first meet a stranger."
"Due to a sense of alertness and curiosity towards unfamiliar people, the instinct of gregarious animals will make them try to understand who the other person is and decide how to interact with them. However, this instinct won't be activated again once they become slightly familiar."
"Therefore, in the agent industry, there's a term called 'the golden thirty seconds', which means if you don't gain someone's trust within the first thirty seconds, it will be difficult to completely gain their trust later."
"Coulson does this particularly well." Natasha starts, "Despite being less combatant, he managed to become a high-rank agent in the S.H.I.E.L.D because of his special talent. He's an agent who doesn't look like one."
"He could be anyone, a neighbor taking out the garbage, a police officer giving tickets, a social worker trimming hedges, or just a random person walking a dog. When he says hello to strangers, almost nobody suspects him. But I can't do that."
Natasha shrugs, "The more adept an agent is at combating, the more intense tension they emanate. Like a mongoose in a troop who is assigned to keep watch, we are too sensitive to the slightest movement and find it hard to relax like normal people. But Coulson can always stay relaxed."
"To get back to the point, ma'am." Nick pulls the slightly off-topic conversation back, then continues, "In my opinion, Erik made this mistake. He didn't lay a good foundation when he first met Tony Stark."
"But it seems that initially, the me from another universe had a lot of trust in him." Stark replies.
"Yes, but that trust was built on the fact that Erik saved Tony's life. In other words, despite saving his life, he couldn't gain deep trust, a complete failure during the golden thirty seconds. And he did not realize it."
Nick takes a sip of the drink, grimaces from the spiciness, and looks back at T'Challa. T'Challa smiles at him, "How do you like Wakanda's specialties?"
Nick smiles too, "It's potent, buddy, I just hope it doesn't scramble my brain. Let me continue."
"Let's use Shiller's performance when he first met Tony in this universe as a comparison." Nick continues with his analysis, "What did Shiller do within the first thirty seconds of him meeting Tony?"
"They spoke a few words." Stark recalls, "I guess they introduced themselves?"
Nick shakes his head, pointing out, "Shiller helped Tony take off his hood. The first thing he did was to make physical contact."
"Most of the time, gentle physical contact aids in gaining trust, a pat on the shoulder, or the arm, or a touch on the elbow. Especially when the other person is feeling anxious, it works well to soothe their emotions."
"Then Shiller called Stark's name. This was telling Stark that he knew him and valued his reputation; essentially, it's a form of acceptance."
"The people who kidnapped Tony didn't even see him as a person; they were too brutal and estranged from civilized society. But Shiller's behavior of recognizing Stark drew him back to a civilized mode of communication, one that Tony is accustomed to and fond of. This further pacified him."
"Shiller then flashes the most distinctive feature of his looks to Stark - obviously his grey eyes, to help Tony form an image of him."
"The fastest way to be remembered by others is to symbolize oneself: Red hair, a red nose, big feet are all distinctive features. This is the foundation of establishing a three-dimensional image."
"And the smartest part is coming." Nick takes another sip of the drink and speaks with an elevated tone, "Tony starts to question him instinctively, suspecting that Shiller is a spy sent by the kidnappers. But what did Shiller do?"
"He didn't express his goodwill but instead explicitly stated that he was in a kind of collaborative relationship with the kidnappers."
"What's going on here?" Eddie asks, frowning, "Wouldn't this make Tony more alert?"
Nick shakes his head, "Again, the most solid relationship between people is mutual benefits. What Shiller did was to stress to Tony that 'we are in this together'."
"He said he was a doctor here to treat Tony. If Tony gets better, so does he. If Tony dies, he might also be in trouble. This immediately put them on the same side."
"You can't expect someone to resonate with you emotionally upon the first sight, shared interests are often necessary for establishing initial relationships. Only when interests are aligned can the possibility of deeper understanding arise."
"Of course, Erik did manage to do this." Nick shrugs lightly, "After he saved Stark, he drove him away. At that time, their lives were tied together. Either they escaped together, or they got blown up together. It was a good start, but he made a mistake."
"What is that?" Thor asked with a bit of curiosity.
"He actually let Tony call Pepper." Nick spread his hands, speaking as if helplessly: "This is what I mean by him being a complete layman, relying only on talent and instinct, while never having studied theoretical knowledge."
"When you and someone begin to have a conflict of interest, wanting to work harmoniously with them in the long term, the initial period is very crucial, and the first thing to do is to try and create a closed environment."
"It's not about creating a space where only the two of you exist, but as much as possible, getting the other party to focus more on you, continuously involving their energy, making them curious or unintentionally getting to know more about you."
"It sounds a bit like bird courtship." Eddie rested his elbow on the arm of the sofa and said: "Spread out your colorful feathers, attract the other's attention, make them unable to shift their gaze, and then they can see more of your advantages."
"I insist that humans are still part of the animal kingdom, there are connections between human and animal psychology." Nick nodded in agreement.
"Erik allowed Stark to pour his emotions into Pepper on the other end of the phone, he thought he could express his understanding of people, perhaps he also considered that the affection between Stark and Pepper was love, unrelated to the friendship he wanted to establish."
"But in fact, human emotions are always exclusive, the amount of emotion that can be projected onto others within a certain time is limited, if he uses others as an emotional outlet, no matter what, you can only get less."
"So what Erik should have done is, at the very first opportunity of establishing mutual interests, getting the person to project all their emotions onto him. Because only in this way can he make the other more willing to understand him deeper, leaving a more profound and three-dimensional impression in their hearts. Otherwise, it would only be a chance encounter, a passing guest, what's the difference between him and a fair-weather friend?"
Stark thought that seemed reasonable, so he nodded, but then he quickly reacted: "Wait, Shiller wasn't handling us like this the whole time, was he?"
"In theory, it's like this." Nick shrugged: "But like the difference between an apprentice and a master, Shiller isn't very deliberate, so it's not easy to spot."
Stark furrowed his brows deeply, reminiscing about Shiller's every move in the cave, but he failed to capture the key point. Then, Natasha spoke up: "That naturalness comes from him making you feel like you're generating the curiosity to inquire about his past."
The female agent swept her hair behind her ear, saying: "Firstly, using an irrational fact to pique someone's interest, such as Shiller initially telling the universe's Tony 'I'm not running away because I came here to escape.' Humans are interested in all sorts of irrational facts, whether they hide danger behind them or not."
"Then follow it up with a shocking fact, such as Shiller telling Tony, he has a surgical license, which is not irrational, only startling in this environment."
"This entirely sparked Tony's curiosity." Natasha stretched out five fingers and opened them, then clenched them again and said: "After the shock of these two facts, anyone will start thinking about why an American doctor with a legal surgical license needed to escape to a cave in Afghanistan."
"So, Tony asked, and then Shiller throws out his next trap." After Nick lightly laughed, he said: "Shiller tells Tony a secret."
"Sharing secrets is a necessary step in establishing a solid relationship, the more important the secret, the more it will make one feel the confidant trusts you. And the secret Shiller told Tony about his origins is obviously an quite important one, after all, it involves the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, the military, and a string of big figures."
Natasha pursed her lips and said: "And by that point, it's too late if you don't want to listen. You're the one who asked, he's already told you half of it - even if this could potentially bring risky troubles for you, if you interrupt him now, won't you be taking on the risk without hearing the secret? Wouldn't that be a complete loss?"
Nick chuckled deeply, apparently remembering something, but after receiving a glare from Natasha he quickly suppressed his laughter and said: "Of course, there's something even easier to earn trust than sharing secrets - revealing your own small faults, or presenting faults as virtues."
"For instance, you can tell others that you're a bit careless, which is actually saying that you're magnanimous; you can tell others that you're sometimes too quiet, which is actually saying that you're a good listener; you can say that you're pedantic, which is actually saying that you're literary."
"Distinct ways to express it can be: first, stating your fault, but saying it's someone else's influence, then start praising that person's virtues."
"For instance, 'I'm a little careless, probably inherited from my parents, as you guys know, my dad is a quite open Texan and since I was young, he taught me to not be too calculating, and to be generous with friends'."
"Secondly, saying this is a review from someone else, but presenting the advantageous direction in your conversations."
"For instance, 'My friends always say I'm sometimes too quiet, in fact, I'm fascinated by their conversations, they are all quite amazing people, and I still remember the things they've told me before…'."
"Thirdly, saying this is a residual habit from a noble or highly professional job."
"For example, 'I'm sorry, I was a bit picky with your word choice just now…I care about grammatical preciseness, this is a habit I picked up while I was working at a newspaper doing text proofreading, my apologies'."
"Of course, these are all beginner-level techniques." Nick revealed a mysterious smile after saying: "The best ace card to play is of course the one Shiller used."