Persuasion

Defining Persuasion

In psychology, persuasion is the ability of others to convince you to change your thoughts or behavior due to varying principles, and through different methods. Persuasion is an intentional action; no one unintentionally persuades someone to do something.

Principles of Persuasion

Psychologist Robert Cialdini gained notoriety through his book, Influence: Science and Practice. In this book, he first outlined what he claimed were the six principles of persuasion. Cialdini has since added a seventh and final principle of persuasion and influence.

Reciprocity

This principle can be stated as: "If I do something for you, then you should do something for me." You are more likely to comply with a request from someone if they have helped you out, paid you, or done something for you in the past.

Consistency/commitment

People like consistency! Persuasion can be more effective if the request being made is consistent with what people have done in the past.

Social proof/consensus

We look to what other people are doing to keep abreast of new information. If you’re walking in the mall and see that a particular store is more crowded than the others, you may think that store offers great products. You are being persuaded through the actions of your peers rather than words.

Liking

People who we like more, those we share similarities with, can persuade us more.

Authority

People will be persuaded more by people in a position of authority. In addition, people will be more influenced by others in uniform (think of who you would choose to listen to more – a scientist in a lab coat, or a scientist in regular clothes).

Scarcity

We are more susceptible to persuasion when we are informed of the scarcity of something. Imagine you’re thinking about booking a plane ticket, and you see that there are only three tickets left at the cheapest price. You’re going to book those tickets! There are only three left!

Unity

The final principle that Robert Cialdini put forth is unity. Similar to liking, unity states that we like belonging to a group, and we will be persuaded to more effectively fit in with that group.

Factors That Affect Persuasion

Let’s use an example; you are trying to persuade your coach to cancel practice on a Friday afternoon. This will help us to understand the factors that impact how psychologically persuaded someone will be.

Fig. 1 How convincing will you be to your coach? pixabay.com.

Who Is Saying It?

Off the bat, it matters who the persuasive person is. Studies have shown that people who are physically and socially engaging and superior will be more successful in their persuasion. In this example, your being socially inferior to your coach is not in your favor. If you were instead trying to persuade your friend to buy you ice cream, you would have a higher chance of success, due to social equality and potentially physical attractiveness.

Additionally, the person’s level of knowledge is also a factor. Chances are, you have a significantly lower level of knowledge about your sport than your coach does. Due to that, it is less likely that you would be able to effectively persuade them.

How Are They Phrasing It?

When you’re trying to persuade your coach to cancel Friday practice, it would be in your best interest to explain both sides of the argument. You understand that canceling practice would mean it’s one less opportunity to get better, but you still think the practice should be canceled so that you and your friends can have a real social life on a Friday. You would actually be less persuasive if you did not include the other side of the argument in your pitch.

Phrasing your thoughts in a way that is intended to scare people has also been found to be effective. If you are in a driver’s education class and the teacher is trying to persuade you to wear your seatbelt, they might say, “if you don’t wear your seatbelt, you will die in a car crash”.

Who Is Being Persuaded?

Studies have shown that in public, women have a higher chance of being persuaded and changing their actions than men. However, even though women might be persuaded more in public, studies have also shown that women are less likely to change their thoughts in private.

Techniques of Persuasion

Although you might not even realize it, you use persuasive techniques all the time. Maybe you’re trying to convince your parents to buy you a new phone or your teacher to cancel all your homework. Chances are, you’ve tried different methods to get what you want.

Foot in the Door

"Of course I'll do that; that is no problem at all!"

One reason behind the foot in the door is self-perception theory.

In the “Drive carefully” billboard experiment, the participants were interpreting their own actions to understand how they felt about driving. Allowing the lawn sign would indicate they were in favor of safe driving; it would make sense for them to allow the billboard as well, since it was for something they cared about. The interpretation of their behavior leads to an attitude change.

The other main reason why this technique is successful is due to the building up of the requests.

Door in the Face

"How dare you ask me such a question! I would never do that!"

Since the first prodigious request was not allowed, the next request you make will have a higher likelihood of getting accepted. Once you make a large request, any smaller ones that come thereafter will seem more reasonable.

Persuasion Example

Persuasion is used daily in advertisements.

An example of persuasion is the anti-smoking campaign, "A Tip from Former Smokers". It is a nationwide campaign to reduce the number of people who smoke through various commercials and advertisements. It features former smokers whose health has deteriorated to a concerning degree. The people behind the campaign know that people who are more informed on the subject can be more convincing, so who better to persuade people to stop smoking than ex-smokers who either have a trach, show physical deformities from smoking, or are showing pictures of lost loved ones.

They know that it is extremely difficult to stop abruptly, so they encourage people to take the necessary steps to finally be fully free from the addiction. This campaign also relies on persuasive messaging to get the viewers to stop smoking.

Psychology of Persuasion

Through persuasion, we are able to influence others into doing what we want. Persuasion falls perfectly into social psychology for it deals with social interactions, and the influence and pressure we feel from people and situations. Additionally, Robert Cialdini's book helps further our understanding of why people in social situations are more likely to agree to certain things.