A friend was joking around about a psychological ploy but didn't know the name of it. Say you lived with someone, and they always kept their keys on the key rack. Then one day you moved their keys to the kitchen table. They ask you if you've seen their keys and you tell them where they are. Then let's say you did this for other things as well. At some point they would become psychologically dependent on you.

I'm not suggesting this is a good idea, only that it made sense to me. Does anyone know what this is called? And is there any way to apply it to your live poker game?

Conditioning?
Just buy your opponent a beer whenever you stack them, and maybe they will call you down even lighter the next time, so that they can have another free beer.

Some people might ask why you keep moving their ****. And to stop.

This really. It doesn't make them dependant on you if they can just get rid of you to solve the problem.

There being said there is a common emotional manipulation tactic that I learned from a professor and I've seen Daniel Negreanu use countless times to get information. Be nice to people. Tell jokes. Get them to like you. They'll give you more information and there is a well established subconscious bias that makes them want to reciprocate. I've literally had people stack off to me and tell me to "use the chips well, gg" and **** like that as though they were almost happy to give me the chips instead of someone else. It's like my mom says, "Flattery will get you everywhere."

This is so >>>>> the EV that you get in your local $1-2 or 2-5 game by holing up in your hoodie, sunglasses, and headphones so you don't give off tells. Engage with other people, allow them to have fun win or lose, and they'll want to keep playing in such a way that you have an edge.