Shabbar Suterwala
Business Coach,
Psychological Counsellor, NLP Practitioner
Perfection is hard to achieve in any
walk of life and persuasion is no different. It relies on many things going
just right at the crucial moment; the perfect synchronisation of source,
message and audience. But even if perfection is unlikely, we all need to know
what to aim for.
To bring you the current series on the
psychology of persuasion I've been reading lots of research, much more than is
covered in recent posts. As I read, I noticed the same themes cropping up over
and over again.
Here are the most important points for
crafting the perfect persuasive message, all of which have scientific evidence
to back them up.
1. Multiple, strong arguments: the more
arguments, the more persuasive, but overall persuasive messages should be
balanced, as two-sided arguments fare better than their one-sided equivalents
(as long as counter-arguments are shot down).
2. Relevance: persuasive messages should be
personally relevant to the audience. If not, they will switch off and fail to
process it.
3. Universal goals: In creating your message,
understand the three universal goals for which everyone is aiming: affiliation,
accuracy and positive self-concept.
4. Likeability: ingratiating yourself with the
audience is no bad thing—most successful performers, actors, lawyers and
politicians do it. Likeability can be boosted by praising the audience and by
perceived similarity. Even the most fleeting similarities can be persuasive.
5. Authority: people tend to defer to experts
because it saves us trying to work out the pros and cons ourselves (read the
classic experiment on obedience to authority).
6. Attractiveness: the physical attractiveness of
the source is only important if it is relevant (e.g. when selling beauty
products).
7. Match message and medium: One useful
rule of thumb is: if the message is difficult to understand, write it; if it's
easy, put it in a video.
8. Avoid forewarning: don't open up
saying "I will try and persuade you that..." If you do, people start
generating counter-arguments and are less likely to be persuaded.
9. Go slow: If the audience is already
sympathetic, then present the arguments slowly and carefully (as long as they
are relevant and strong). If the audience is against you then fast talkers can
be more persuasive.
10. Repetition: whether or not a statement is true,
repeating it a few times gives the all-important illusion of truth. The
illusion of truth leads to the reality of persuasion.
11. Social proof: you've heard it before and
you'll hear it again—despite all their protestations of individuality, people
love conformity. So tell them which way the flock is going because people want
to be in the majority.
12. Attention: if the audience isn't paying
attention, they can't think about your arguments, so attitudes can't change.
That's why anything that sharpens attention, like caffeine, makes people easier
to persuade. And speaking of attention...
13. Minimise distraction: if you've got
a strong message then audiences are more swayed if they pay attention. If the
arguments are weak then it's better if they're distracted.
14. Positively framed: messages with
a positive frame can be more persuasive.
15. Disguise: messages are more persuasive if they
don't appear to be intended to persuade or influence as they can sidestep
psychological reactance (hence the power of overheard arguments to change
minds).
16. Psychologically tailored: messages
should match the psychological preferences of the audience. E.g. some people
prefer thinking-framed arguments and others prefer feel-framed arguments (see:
battle between thought and emotion in persuasion). Also, some people prefer to
think harder than others.
17. Go with the flow: persuasion is
strongest when the message and audience are heading in the same direction.
Thoughts which come into the audience's mind more readily are likely to be more
persuasive.
18. Confidence: not only your confidence, but theirs.
The audience should feel confident about attitude change. Audience confidence
in their own thoughts is boosted by a credible source and when they feel happy
(clue: happy audiences are laughing).
19. Be powerful: a powerful orator influences
the audience, but making the audience themselves feel powerful increases their
confidence in attitude change. An audience has to feel powerful enough to
change.
20. Avoid targeting strong beliefs: strong
attitudes and beliefs are very difficult to change. Do not directly approach
long-standing ideas to which people are committed, they will resist and reject.
Strong beliefs must be approached indirectly.
How
to Change Minds
You should be aware that many of these
factors interact with each other. For example when the message is strong but
the source is dodgy, the sleeper effect can arise.
Argument strength is also critical.
The basic principle is that when arguments are strong, you need to do
everything to make people concentrate on them. When they're weak, it's all
about distracting the audience from the content and using peripheral routes to
persuade, such as how confidently or quickly you talk.
Weaving all these together is no mean
feat, but look at most professionally produced persuasive messages and you'll
see many of these principles on show. Incorporate as many as you can for
maximum effect.
No comments:
Post a Comment