The Art of Persuasion_Ooi

THE ART OF PERSUASIONPrepared By Jason Ooi

http://www.spring.org.uk/2011/01/the-psychology-of-persuasion.php

Definition of PersuasionPersuasion is an activity or process in which a communicator attempts to induce a change in the belief, attitude, or behavior of another person or group of persons through the transmission of a message in a context in which the persuadee has some degree of free choice. --Richard M. Perloff

Daily Acts of PersuasionEvery day, we are subjected to innumerable persuasion attempts from corporations, interest groups, political parties and other organisations. Each one is trying to persuade us that their product, idea or innovation is what we should buy, believe in or vote for.

Our Attempts in PersuasionIn our personal lives, the same struggle is played out for the supremacy of viewpoints, ideals and actions. Whether it is friends and family, work colleagues, potential employers or strangers, each one of us have to work out how to bring others around to our own point of view. We all play the influence game, to greater or lesser degrees.

Psychology of PersuasionDo we want to be an agent of change? Psychological research reveals how to tip the balance in our favour.Psychologists have been studying how we try to influence each other for many years. The highlights of some of the psychological research on the art of persuasion are presented in the following slides.

1. The 3 Universal Goals to Influence People The 6 techniques of Influence (Cialdini, 2001):Liking: It's much easier to influence someone who likes you. Successful influencers try to flatter and uncover similarities in order to build attraction. Social proof. People like to follow one another, so influencers imply the herd is moving the same way.Consistency. Most people prefer to keep their word. If people make a commitment, particularly if it's out loud or in writing, they are much more likely to keep it. Influencers should try to gain verbal or written commitments.

Cont..4. Scarcity. Even when companies have warehouses full of a product, they still advertise using time-limited offers that emphasise scarcity. People want what they can't have, or at least what might be running short.5. Authority. People are strongly influenced by experts. Successful influencers flaunt their knowledge to establish their expertise.

Cont..6. Reciprocity. Give something to get something. When people feel indebted to you they are more likely to agree to what you want. This feeling could arise from something as simple as a compliment.These six techniques are often quoted in business circles. They tap into three basic human goals which are the key to understanding how to influence and persuade people (Cialdini and Goldstein, 2004).

Cont..The 3 Universal Goals to influence & persuade people are: Goal of affiliation We want to be liked & so we conform with what others in our community do, think and believeGoal of accuracy - We need to be right & so we rely on experts or people in authority for 'correct' view or way Goal of maintaining positive self-image - We agree to a small request and then to a next bigger request to project our self-consistency

2. Using the Persuasive Power of SwearingWhen we show feeling in our presentation, the audience notices it, credits us with sincerity and takes our message to heartSwearing (e.g. the damn weather) shows our passion and people have one more emotional reason to come around to our point of viewHowever persistent swearing could adversely affect our credibility

3. Loudest Voice = Majority OpinionIf only one group member repeats his opinion, others are likely to be see his opinion as representative of the whole groupStudies by Kimberlee Weaver showed that one person in a group repeating the same opinion three times has 90% of the effect of three different people in that group expressing the same opinion. (Weaver et al., 2007).

4. Don't Take No For An AnswerWe ask someone for a favour and they say no. Where do we go from there?Persistence when dealing with objections can be a powerful tool (Boster et al., 2009). Door-in-the-face (DITF): first make a very large request and then a much smaller oneFoot-in-the-door (FITD): first ask for something small, then crank it up. Placebo information (PI): this is when we give someone a reason, but not a very good one.

5. Influence of Fleeting AttractionFriendship is a fantastic lever for persuasion and influenceMere Similarity Effect We tend to like others more because of some slight similarity, such as names starting with same letter.Jerry Burger found that people who thought they are dissimilar complied with a request 43% of the time. This went up to 60% in the neutral condition & to 77% in the slight similarity condition (Burger et al., 2001).

6. Caffeine Helps Us to PersuadeStudies show caffeine enhances our attention, vigilance & cognition, and thus make us more susceptible to persuasion (Martin et al., 2005)The reason that a lot of persuasive messages pass us by is simply that we are not paying much attention to them because we prefer not to think too hard unless it is unavoidable.Caffeine increases our arousal and makes us process incoming messages more thoroughly

7. Speak Into The Right Ear If you want someone to comply with a random request for a cigarette, you should speak into their right ear, according to a study in Italy (Marzoli & Tommasi (2009)The explanation is language is preferentially processed by the left side of the brain, and it receives its input from the right ear.Studies show mobile phone users prefer to hold their phone to their right ear (Sanchez et al., 2002).

8. Using Balanced ArgumentsDaniel O'Keefe found that 2-sided arguments are more persuasive than their one-sided equivalents (O'Keefe, 1999, Communication Yearbook, 22, pp. 209-249). The Exceptions are: People with lower educational levels are more persuaded by a one-sided message. It doesn't matter to them whether advertisers bring up the counter-arguments or not

9. Thoughts Vs EmotionsPeople use 'I think & 'I feel' interchangeablyA study reported in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, finds this tiny difference can influence the power of a persuasive message (Mayer & Tormala, 2010).Thinking people were more persuaded when the message was framed in terms of 'thinking; while the group that used emotional words was more persuaded when 'feel' was used.

10. Our Secret Attitude Changes People are unaware when they have changed their attitudes. (Goethals & Reckman, 1973). The explanation was the participants did not expect a change in their attitude. As a result, they cannot recall their attitudes before the discussion and so they assumed no change.The experiment demonstrates how easy it is for our attitudes to be changed without us knowing why, or even that it has happened.

11. Are Fast Talkers Persuasive?When the message was counter-attitudinal, fast talking was more persuasive and slow talking was the less persuasive.The reason is when an audience hears a slow message it doesn't like (e.g. no beer for you), it has time to come up with counter-arguments, and so less persuasion occurs (Smith & Shaffer, 1991). When preaching to the converted, it was slow speech that emerged as the most persuasive.

12. The Sleeper EffectAttitudes can change many months after a persuasive message was delivered.According to Kumkale & Albarracin, (2004), it appears under two circumstances:Big initial impact: sleeper effect exists if the persuasive message has a major initial impact. Message discounting: the source of message cannot be trusted & we discredit it. Over time, we FORGET we have discounted the messageSleeper effect is created when we receive a persuasive message & not know the source

13. Email or Face-to-Face?Men are more responsive to email which bypasses their competitive tendencies (Guadagno & Cialdini, 2002). In a cooperative relationship, face-to-face communication is usually most persuasive. In a competitive relationship, email is betterHowever, not all women are relationship-focussed and not all men are task-focussed & competitive

14.Influence of Positive Framing Emphasising the positive can be more persuasive than pointing out the negative, e.g. telling people about the positive side of becoming a non-smoker (e.g.whiter teeth etc)Loss-framed appeals were found to turn out to be no more effective, and in some cases worse, than gain-framed appeals (O'Keefe and Jensen, 2013). The reason is we prefer to think of nice things

15. Illusion of TruthRepetition is used everywhere to persuade - advertising, politics & media. Repetition is effective when people are paying little attention (Moons et al., 2008).Illusion of truth arises because familiarity breeds liking. Easy to understand = true.Statements were rated as truer even when the person saying them has been repeatedly lying (Begg et al., 1992).

16. Propaganda Techniques in 2004 Film - Fahrenheit 9/11Omissions - Half-truths are powerful because the audience is unaware of what facts are missing. And the people are allowed to jump to conclusions based on the evidences presented Contextualisation - Emotion from one scene (grief) is used to colour how you interpret the content of the next scene (smiling Bush).Ingroup/outgroup manipulations - We prefer people like us' over 'people NOT like us'. It is manipulated by repeated association

ContCynicism - People tend to attribute selfish motivations to other people, and altruistic motivations to their own behaviourModelling the convert communicator - People copy each other all the time, it's human nature. Pacing and distraction - Distraction keeps us from thinking. So when presenting the strong points or arguments, no blaring music or fast cuts to cause distraction.

Cont..Associations - Pavlov's dog associated the bell with being fed. The Taliban were shown visiting Texas and the automatic assumption is that he was invited by Bush.Numeric deceptions - People are happy to believe the statistics given and do not bother checking them. Sounds perfect for the propagandist doesn't it?

17. Third-Person EffectPeople tend to say that persuasion attempts have effect on others but NOT on them. Perloff (1993) and Paul et al. (2000) found political adverts, defamatory news stories, public service announcements and many more all showed a robust third-person effect. Perloff also found that when people do not agree with the message or judge its source as negative, the third-person effect became even stronger.

Cont,,We think we are different from others:Illusion of invulnerability. We prefer to believe that we are less vulnerable than others to negative influencesPoor self-knowledge. We do not know how easily we are influenced because we do not really know what is going on in our own minds.We can raise our defences against the power of advertising and messages of influence, and take back control for ourselves.

18. Principles of Persuasion The 20 principles of persuasion, based on established psychological research works:

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).

Cont..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.

Cont..4. Likeability: ingratiating yourself with the audience is no bad thingmost successful performers, actors, lawyers and politicians do it. Likeability can be boosted by praising the audience and by perceived similarity. 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

Cont..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 video8. 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.

Cont..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.

Cont..11.Social proof: you've heard it before and you'll hear it againdespite all their protestations of individuality, people love conformity. So tell them which way the flock is going because people want to be in the majority12.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.

Cont..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 influence as they can sidestep psychological reactance (power of overheard arguments to change minds).

Cont..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. 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.

Cont..18.Confidence: not only your confidence, but 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: they 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.

Cont..20.Avoid targeting strong beliefs: strong attitudes and beliefs are very difficult to change. Long-standing ideas to which people are committed and strong beliefs must be approached indirectly.

Many of these factors interact with each other. Argument strength is critical and when they are weak, distract the audience from the content. Incorporate the factors for maximum effect.

19. Stories That Lead to PersuasionStories are a powerful tool for persuading people because they are easy to understand.Research suggests that trying to persuade people by telling them stories does indeed work (Green & Brock, 2000). We get swept up in the stories and transported inside them. And we become less aware of the persuasion attempt when the story is more engaging in emotion or content. We are persuaded by fiction just as much as fact.

Cont..Factors to make the story more engaging and persuasive (Green & Brock, 2005):Literary techniques such as irony or metaphor make the everyday seem new and fresh. Imagery helps the story come alive in the reader's mind.Suspense keep us readingModelling a change in behaviour of a main character in the story to persuade the reader

20. Encourage People To Change Their Own MindsLet people talk themselves around to our point of view. They will listen to themselves1. A parent can change a child's behaviour by asking them why it is wrong, rather than just telling them it is wrong.2. In role-play, we espouse attitudes and values we don't believe in.3.In health eating, we convince ourselves we don't like the forbidden foods that much

Cont..Janis and King (1954) found that people were more convinced by the talk when they gave it themselves than hearing it passivelyPeople are more put off smoking when they deliver an anti-smoking message than when they passively receive it (Brinol et al., 2012).Whenever a person is encouraged to generate their own arguments, it has a chance of changing their mind.

21. Does Reverse Psychology Work?Reverse psychology is when we get someone to do something by telling them to do the opposite.People do not like to have their freedom restricted so they rebel; and 3 things happen: They want the forbidden things even more.They rebel by reasserting their freedom.They feel angry at the person restricting their freedom ( even 2 year old kids rebel)It works best when used subtly and sparingly on people who are resistant to direct requests

22. Persuasion Technique for Everyone The request is made face-to-face and uses phrases like 'But You Are Free (BYAF) or "But obviously do not feel obliged," to add on the sentiment that they are free to choose.BYAF technique helps other people come to the decision we want through their own free will. If they have other options, like simply walking away, then we can wave them goodbye.We show respect and look good; and we are more likely to get what we want.

23. Most Effective Method for Influencing People Fast The Disrupt-then-Reframe (DTR) technique works like magic. It disrupts the routine thought process and then reframes it in the words: "It's a bargain!" Davis and Knowles, (1999) used DTR to sell note cards door-o-door for church charity$3 for 8 cards 300 pennies for 8 cardsThe disruptions used can be quite childish e.g. calling the cupcakes the halfcakes

Cont.. Carpenter & Boster, (2009) found that the DTR technique can be used to increase the charity donations, encourage people to fill out surveys and help change their attitudes. In a sales situations, he says something confusing ("Only lady one owner!"), then quickly sticks us with their reframe ("Between you and me this car is incredible value.") to make sure we take our time to decide and treat the reframe with scepticism.

SummaryWe can learn this Art of Persuasion to get almost anything we want, almost any time: Get that date we have been wanting.Interview powerfully for that job - and get it!Sell more at higher prices.Get our boss, employees, kids and spouse to do what we want.Talk our way out of traffic ticketsEtc.

Mastering the Art of PersuasionMastering the Art of Persuasion involves the use of our body language and our words strategically, so that people would automatically open up to us and be receptive to our ideas

Persuasion can be used to promote or sell goods & services in ways that meet peoples physiological and emotional needs.

Factors affecting a customers purchasing propensityPriceTangible needsPurchase affectionSalesmans credibilityAfter-sale service

Needs of customersBefore persuading the customers, we need to find out the needs of customers

The objective is to identify the direction to follow for us to persuade customers

Four mains needs of customersNeed for Emotional SecurityAfraid cheated by the companyBuy fake good or receive bad service

2. Need for Reassurance of Worthfeel valued for what they doget the feeling of respect from other peoplePromote their self-esteemDont give the aggressive service to our customers.

Four mains needs of customersNeed for the high quality of productreceive good service or buy the high quality product.aim to use lowest price to buy the highest service.

4. Need for the sense of powerBe strong , handsome in outlook, seem powerful from the eyes of other people.

Persuasive Strategies in Customer ServiceStep one: Listening Know your customers needs You may get the critical information of your customers, e.g. age, income, social class, occupation & their preferences

Personality Type and PersuasionWhere we get our energy Extrovert or introvert

What type of information we pay attention toSensor or intuitive

How we make decisionsThinker or feeler

How we resolve issuesJudger or Perceiver

Persuasive Strategies in Customer Service (cont..)Step two: Prediction Different kinds of customers will have different kinds of needs; we can focus on their touchstones in order to get a better outcome of the persuasion.

Step three: Focusing Lastly, we could grasp their preferences and sell our ideas confidentially.

Verbal Persuasion1. Wording your messageUse stylish speech and exciting language choices Have variety in word choiceHold the attention of the audience2.Figures of speechUse some special method e.g, metaphors Smile during your speech3.Use a proper tone (be gentle)No aggressive or impolite wording Speak clearly and fluently Use some non-verbal skills to help your persuasions

Other Skills of PersuasionFoot-in-the-door techniquePoor product first strategyVIP discount respect esteem boosterIntensify your uniqueness / strength (decoration, view, peripheral service, support service, after-care service)Downplay opponents weakness

CONCLUSIONWe can use our body language and words to get what we want.We can influence even the most resistant people when we know how to read their body language and become flexible in our communication. We can profile people's communication style and use the words that they NEED to hear from us. Once we give them what they need, they will open right up and our ideas will be instantly acceptable as if the ideas are theirs

THANK YOU

*Effective influence and persuasion isn't just about patter, body language or other techniques, it's also about understanding people's motivations.

*Agreeing to the smaller request makes people more likely to agree to a second, larger request. The art is in judging the step up just right.

** A balanced argument is more appealing morally. It is also more persuasive. People know there are two sides to every story and they'll discount your message unless you acknowledge and counter the other side.

*Any time we receive a persuasive message before we find out who the source is, the sleeper effect can come into play.

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