But a couple.. not quite so much, either because they’re very dependent on your own status and social abilities, or because they’re potentially more onerous than what you’re trying to avoid.

For example, “if somebody asks you to see your phone, start singing”.  Yeah, if I had the confidence to just start singing in public, I’d probably have the confidence to just put my phone somewhere inaccessible and tell him no.

Or “if you don’t want somebody to sit next to you on the bus, pat the seat and smile invitingly.”

That would probably work for me.  If, that is, I wanted to avoid the oh-so-onerous horror of somebody sitting next to me on the bus more than I wanted to avoid looking like a creepy loon.  Which I almost always don’t.  But if I did, it would probably work for me.

I don’t know that it would work for everybody.  I know if a strange woman patted the seat next to her and smiled invitingly, I’d… well, to be honest, I’d assume she was looking at and inviting somebody she knows and walk on past.  But some guys would take that as a come-on.  That could get dicey.

Watch them work, the amount in question will usually never change even if they get handed a dollar.

I commented once about this as a guy worked a bus stop, someone handed him some change but his story never varied and when I pointed this out to the others, he cursed me out and stormed off to the bar across the street. which had obviously been his goal the whole time.

Her would-be rapist or mugger was so startled by the sight of his intended victim having a loud, friendly conversation with a trash can that he turned around and walked away.

So I’d avoid experimental engineering of such situations.

or when you see a panhandler sizing you up, pre-emptively ask him for a quarter.  you feel bad when they actually give it to you, though.