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Games are played on more then one level.

I love the psychology in gaming, it gives you a glimpse in to the mind of your opponent and how they approach life.

"If you are not prepared to lose every friend you have over a board game, you are not playing hard enough."

Saw this in a meme's like picture somewhere on the net.

It sometimes happens that the local necron player "misread" some of his own rules. I then pulled out the "shield drones get the same type of its controlling character" and thus had a happy few weeks of challenges issued by my shield drones.
We all knew it was wrong, even if it could be argued that this was their supposed duty, but the first faq was poorly written lol.

Anyway, "psychology" has a lot to do with many players, some are just immune to this kind of "tricks".
After I said for two weeks I wanted to buy a squad of FW Shadow Spectres but wanted to try them with proxies for few games, I kept saying they were a bit meh but the model looked cool, a friend just thought they were way overpowered and devoted two turns of fire to wipe them from the table. Then realized the "trick" once I charged in with the Avatar and two Wraithlords.
Putting some emphasis on a specific unit can trick your opponent into devoting too much firepower where it shouldnt be.
It doesn't always work, but that's part of the strategy.

I don't think it is worth it to do such things in tournaments though.

I can testify to the effects of psychological gaming. It has helped my Tyranids be largely successful despite having a rather poor list. Target saturation by providing too many different unit types has caused my opponents to over emphasize certain units like 30 base hormies then forget about the tyranid warriors coming at them, then over focus the lictors while the MCs are crawling around their back lines. Things like that I have found are rather reliable even against experience opponents as it can goad mistakes through imperfect analysis.

I have even turned the tables on psychological gaming. A recent Warmahordes game brought my Skorne against Cygnar. I was running Rasheth with the battle engine, 3 titans and beast handlers. Big stuff, scary to look at. He had a Gunline with Siege. I determine I have 1 course of action, get in his face and smash! (duh) I move into range and he says something to the effect of, "If you move up, I'ma gunline you." I tell him, a) I don't have a choice and b) you'll just make my babies mad. My battle engine gets the first shot off and through sheer luck, it takes off his hunter's gun arm. His forward jack now crippled he goes into panic mode. He pops his feat and lays into my battle engine spending most of his shooting to kill it. His entire advantage was gone at this point. He was in a poor position and he no longer had the threat of his feat. I lost two things that game: my unit of beast handlers and my battle engine. The rest of his army was wrecked over the next few turns.

I find that Wood Elves are the ultimate army to use Psychological Warfare with. My opponents always underestimate the real dangerous units (Dryads, Treekin) and irrationally fear units like Wardancers, Waywatchers and Wild Riders. The one that they generally have a healthy fear of is the Treeman.
Another great tactic I've used is with Daemons. I use a Forgeworld Bloodthirster, which focuses my opponent's entire concentration on that rather than the block of 30 Bloodletters or the Bloodcrushers with Skulltaker in it. I've had them turn a whole flank just to face the Bloodthirster, when my other lesser Daemons just roll right down their line.
A final word is with Dwarfs. They're almost always underestimated just because they're so small and unassuming. Using the older models helps here too, because they're more characterful, less metal, and less intimidating. A block of 30 Hammerers gets overlooked in favor of those cray looking Slayers.