Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
2006 2007
TABLE OF CONTENTS
AN ORIENTATION TO PERSUASION........................................................................................1
WHAT IS PERSUASION?..........................................................................................................1
A PRELIMINARY DEFINITION...............................................................................................2
VIEWS ON PERSUASION.........................................................................................................4
Can the Persuasion Process be Understood, that is, Is a Theory of Persuasion Possible?.......6
What are the Sources of Knowledge for Persuasion Theory?..................................................8
What Are the Elements of the Persuasion Process?.................................................................8
Should the Teaching of Persuasion Stress Understanding or Application?.............................9
Is Persuasion an Acceptable Method of Influence?..................................................................9
PERSUASION VS NEGOTIATION...........................................................................................9
THE NATURE OF COMMUNICATION.....................................................................................10
A MODEL OF THE PERSUASION PROCESS...........................................................................11
CHARACTERISTICS OF PERSUASION PROCESS..............................................................13
Source Characteristics. ..........................................................................................................13
Target Characteristics. ...........................................................................................................13
Message Characteristics. ........................................................................................................13
COGNITIVE ROUTES TO PERSUASION. ............................................................................14
THE KEYS TO POSITIVE PERSUASION..............................................................................15
DECISION-MAKING THROUGH PERSUASION......................................................................16
PERSUASION AND THE INDIVIDUAL................................................................................18
As Persuader...........................................................................................................................18
As Persuadee...........................................................................................................................20
PERSUASION AND SOCIETY................................................................................................22
MOTIVATION, ATTITUDES, AND BEHAVIOR......................................................................24
THE CONCEPT OF MOTIVATION.........................................................................................24
Control of Motivation.............................................................................................................24
Attitudes and Values...............................................................................................................25
ANGER AS A PERSUASIVE TACTIC....................................................................................25
VARIABILITY OF RECEIVER RESPONSE...............................................................................26
General Characteristics of Receiver Response.......................................................................27
THE NATURE OF ATTENTION..................................................................................................28
IMPLICATIONS FOR PERSUASION......................................................................................28
THE DECISION TO PERSUADE.................................................................................................30
Alternative Decisions..............................................................................................................31
SELECTING THE SPECIFIC PERSUASION PURPOSE.......................................................32
Factors Affecting Formation of the Specific Purpose............................................................32
The Process of Selecting the Specific Purpose.......................................................................34
Framing a Specific Purpose Statement...................................................................................36
LOGICAL APPEALS....................................................................................................................37
Strategy in Use of Logical Appeals........................................................................................37
MOTIVATIONAL APPEALS.......................................................................................................39
Strategy in Use Motivational Appeals....................................................................................39
LANGUAGE AND STYLE...........................................................................................................41
LANGUAGE AND STYLE IN PERSUASION........................................................................41
ii
PERSUASION PROCESS
AN ORIENTATION TO PERSUASION
The word "persuasion" undoubtedly stirs up diverse responses in people. For many,
persuasion suggests something a bit distasteful, something more or less hidden, unfair; a subtle or
not so subtle playing on or manipulating people, perhaps by appealing to emotion or to the baser
nature. Persuasion suggests people doing things to other people without regard for these people,
their needs, or their integrity
Most of us would rather choose to do something, become convinced of the proper course
of action rather than be persuaded. No one should try to decide how we should think or feel.
Persuasion is at best at logical if not illogical; it emphasizes the emotions; it leads people astray.
Such negative connotations are so linked to the term "persuasion" that for some people
these associations have become part of the denotative meaning of persuasion. This view is often
associated with the belief that persuasion is so pernicious that most individuals are powerless to
resist it. But it is important for us to develop sufficient common ground that the term
"persuasion".
WHAT IS PERSUASION?
Persuasion is a complex process. Understanding this process will involve an
understanding of the psychology of man. Further, we must look outside the narrow specifics of a
given situation to the forces that bear upon inviduals in terms of their past history, the present,
and their goals for the future.
Persuasion is integral to much of daily communication. Each of us is the target of massive
amounts of persuasion from sources far removed from our daily conversations with family,
friends, and associates. But these daily interactions also have much persuasion in them, and often
the more important effects on our lives come from these "ordinary" interactions. Each of us is
alternately persuader and persuadee in these daily interactions.
Persuader and persuadee are both responding to forces outside as well as inside
themselves. The reasons why a particular persuasive effort is attempted are as much a response to
forces outside and inside that individual as are the responses to that particular persuasive attempt
by the target.
Persuader and persuadee are typically involved in an ongoing system of relationships: one
to the other and to the society at large. A tremendous amount of persuasion goes on between and
among people. Much of this influence probably is unconscious: the persuader has no clear
recognition that he is attempting to affect the behavior of another person; the persuadee has no
awareness that his behavior is being affected by the other. We are much more aware of
persuasion efforts being transmitted through the mass media.
Not all attempts at persuasion are successful. Some are successful for a while and then are
reversed. Others are not successful for a long time and then the desired goal is achieved.
People may respond one way in one situation but quite differently in another. What turns
a person on one day may turn him off the next.
It is extremely difficult to measure the success or failure of a persuasive effort.
In the analysis of actual persuasion it is extremely difficult if not impossible to say
accurately "This persuaded him." "The reason he did this was that I told him the truth." It may
equally be untrue to say, "He did it of his own free will. I didn't try to influence him. I told him he
could do whatever he wanted and I wouldn't interfere. It was all up to him."
To define the beginning or ending of a persuasive attempt may be exceedingly difficult.
The entire previous experience of both the persuader and the persuadee are involved in any given
persuasive situation. Furthermore, the cumulative effects of a whole lifetime of persuasive
attempts may finally result in a dramatic conversion for which the persuader of the moment takes
credit.
A PRELIMINARY DEFINITION
Persuasion is the communication process of getting someone to do something by
convincing him that it is the logical and reasonable thing to do. We persuade each other
constantly, many of our most familiar activities, convincing, requesting, arguing, flirting,
coaxing, advertising, debating, buying, selling nagging, flattering and criticizing, are rooted in
persuasion. Since infancy, weve persuaded and been persuaded countless times.
Communication suggests that two or more distinct individuals are involved and that the
means employed stresses the use of symbols, particularly language, as the key instrumentality. In
communication, meanings are not transferred directly from mind to mind but rather ideas in a
mind are translated or encoded into symbols which are placed in a channel, picked up by the
target from the channel, and decoded into meanings. The meanings that are stirred up may be
2
more or less like those intended by the sender. We often confuse the process of communication
and the question of the degree to which the communication is successful.
"Process" suggests something of an ongoing, interacting, interrelated nature. The process
may go on even if it fails to achieve the goal set by a communicator. Thus it is important to
carefully distinguish between the process and the result of that process in terms of accomplishing
the intended goal of a sender. You may totally fail to influence your target but be engaged in a
process of persuasion.
"The communicator seeks" raises important issues. It should be noted that both a sender
and a target may alternate roles. You may be seeking to persuade a friend to vote for the
Democratic candidate and he may be trying to persuade you to vote for the Republican candidate.
You are both simultaneously persuaders and persuadees; however, until you are about to have a
complete breakdown or blowup in communication, it is doubtful if you are simultaneously both
rather there will be some sense of alternation of roles.
"The communicator seeks" suggests some degree of conscious intent. Conscious intent
becomes a very real problem in the definition of persuasion. Most of us recognize the idea that
the mind can be viewed as having various levels of conscious awareness. Indeed, it takes a
psychiatrist to tell us we are overeating so we will not have to compete in attracting the opposite
sex or that we try to be a Don Juan because we are so insecure about our real sexual abilities.
Behavior is the result of both conscious and unconscious forces, at least as we discuss these
things in normal terms. Similarly, the decision to persuade may be the result of conscious and
unconscious forces, and we may not be consciously aware that we are attempting to persuade. To
the degree persuasion has negative connotations, we may repress the awareness.
"A desired response" may suggest some immediate action or behavior, or it may mean
some type of mental assent or change. Perhaps the most dramatic change occurs when a target
simply is willing to expose himself to further persuasion, such exposure ultimately affecting a
change in his attitude. Again, we encounter the problem of the temporal dimension in evaluating
the persuasion process. Initial persuasion may cause a violently negative response but with time
and perhaps additional persuasion from other sources, the target may come to accept the view
offered. Or the target may be stirred to a very positive response, but in three weeks he has
forgotten all about the matter and his attitude is exactly the same as it was before.
In one sense, this definition makes persuasion almost synonymous with ' all
communication, for in communication a sender seeks to win response to his ideas. To some
degree this is true; all communication can be viewed as persuasion. But for purposes of study, it
is useful to limit persuasion communication in which the elements in the communication process
are weighted by the communicator for the purpose of directing the response to a relatively
specific goal. It is one thing to describe the ocean so a listener will understand more about the
ocean (and clearly there are motivational links involved in this process), and another to attempt to
form this description so that he will invest in a project or take up skin diving.
VIEWS ON PERSUASION
1. What is persuasion in terms of function, users, and setting? Initially, persuasion was
thought of as oral communication largely limited to structured situations. Corax, credited with
being the founder of rhetoric, normalized the already-recognized importance of effective
speaking by advising petitioners how they might gain greater success in the courts. Aristotle
treated three settings: public speeches of a ceremonial nature,\speeches in legislative settings, and
speeches in judicial settings.
However, the expansion of education in the last century, the rise of the democratic ideal,
the increased emphasis upon self-determination, the greater concern with understanding all
people, not just "those who matter," made it inevitable that persuasion be perceived in a broader
sense. Persuasion is now considered as a process in which all men engage. Persuasion is as much
a phenomenon of the breakfast table as the conference table, of the common man as of the
uncommon man. The mass media by one means or other floods potential targets with appeals for
everything from Ban to presidential candidates. Communication settings from the one- to-one
conversation or letter to world-wide peace campaigns necessitate persuasion. Further, the sit-in,
passive and not so passive civil disobedience, the march, and the propaganda campaign using a
variety of media are all powerful persuasive efforts.
2. What is persuasion in terms of media employed? Persuasion in the writings of Aristotle,
Cicero, Quintilian, and Isocrates, was discussed almost solely in terms of oral communication.
Speeches might be written but they became speeches only when delivered orally. With the advent
of print, rhetoric not unnaturally expanded to include written communication as well. Indeed, the
term rhetoric now is often thought to refer strictly to written communication. The term
persuasion, although still seeming to be applied more to oral communication settings, has now
4
come to include the use of all the media of communication. The increase in available media and
the possibility of the use of multiple media have made media considerations more important
factors in contemporary persuasion theory. Marshall McLuhan has been a significant popularizer
of this increased emphasis upon the role of the medium. The oral mode of communication is still
the most used medium for communication, and the electronic media are enhancing that
domination.
3. What is persuasion in terms of definitional focus? Aristotle discussed rhetoric as the
study of the available means of persuasion. But the emphasis in Aristotle's Rhetoric is upon the
process by which the speaker creates and delivers his speech with the focus almost totally upon
advance preparation of the speech.4 While this process of preparation involves an understanding
of the nature of targets and the effect of certain situational elements, the speaker and the process
of creating the message is the essence of the Rhetoric.
The Rhetoric describes the process of preparation as involving four key stages: invention,
the finding and selecting of proofs; disposition, the organization of material; elocution, the
wording and styling of the material; and pronunciation, the delivery of the prepared material
orally. signed.
Some definitions focus more sharply upon the message or items relevant to messages.
Many definitions stress the use of language as a means of achieving the desired impact.
Contemporary definitions take more note of, language in definitions of persuasion than was
formerly the case.
Historically, the term "persuasion" has often been limited in terms of \ the appeals
employed or the mental "faculty" being utilized. Some text-books today still retain the divisions
of speeches to convince (reliance upon logic), to persuade (reliance upon emotional appeal), and
to actuate, as well as speeches to inform or entertain. This distinction between persuasion and
other forms also appears in the separation of courses in argumentation from those in persuasion.
Contemporary definitions of persuasion tend to focus upon the processness of persuasion
and to stress the interaction and interrelationship of a number of factors in a complex matrix.
While the source and the intent of the source remain a frequent key to the determination of the
appearance of the process of persuasion, study of persuasion theory involves increasing emphasis
upon the total processall the elementswith greater attention to target response.
attempts to provide formulas for success. The secrets of selling, five ways to success, how to get
your man, how to win friends without creating enemiesthese are suggestive of the titles of
books and articles widely available. As long as these books tend to focus upon certain key and
rather general propositions of theory, the formulas are surprisingly useful. Feeding a crying baby
who has been four hours without feeding is generally good advice. He usually stops crying, but
not always.
Writers interested in extended analysis of persuasion inevitably stress that no formula
works. But certain processes are described and certain techniques suggested which are useful.
2. What is the best approach to understand persuasion: to view it as a fixed, invariate
procedure or as a variable process? Noting that Aristotle's treatment of logic became a prison for
future logicians, Bertrand Russell urges that Aristotle's followers and not Aristotle made his
approach descriptive and fixed.9 Similarly, persuasion theorists see the process of\ persuasion as
involving much flexibility, the interaction of many variables. However, as these theorists proceed
to give advice to the communicator or as others take over the theory, the tendency is to treat the
formula as rigid and prescriptive with universal laws rather than flexible and descriptive, with
qualified generalizations.
The prescriptive approach seems to have two inherent flaws: (1) Exceptions to the
generalizations always occur, and thus the person who treats the generalization as prescriptive
tends to reject the validity of a useful generalization. (2) The approach denies the practitioner the
opportunity to draw upon the totality of the theory and to attempt from all that he knows to
generate a unique "solution" of what is most likely to be effective in this particular instanceone
that will never again be exactly duplicated.
People who approach the persuasion process as a fixed procedure often place the
emphasis upon the wrong idea. For example, teachers have been known to urge nervous student
speakers to look about two inches over the heads of their receiver. The speakers will then appear
to have eye contact with their receiver but will not become nervous. The assumption is that eye
contact per se is valuable or at least the appearance of eye contact is valuable. Eye contact
provides the speaker with feedback with information from and about his receiver during the
delivery of the speech that enables him to adjust to his targets. The advice to avoid looking at the
targets exactly violates the basic reason for eye contactthe chance to be more effective by
adjusting to auditors.
Assuming the view that persuasion is a complex, interrelated, interactive process means
accepting the practice of persuasion as an art calling for judgment and insight in application that
cannot be marched by the application of rigid, unvarying techniques of approach.
Persuasion models typically involve greater emphasis upon the properties and interaction
of source, message, channel, and setting in yielding effects in the target. Many psychological
models note these elements, but in less detail, or perhaps group them in one general category
such as extrinsic stimuli.
PERSUASION VS NEGOTIATION
When persuasion works, it usually works pretty quickly. After one good, solid
presentationand an encore for insurancethe other side will almost certainly understand your
argument. If they havent been convinced by then, theyll probably never be convinced.
Persuasion- wise, its time to fold your cards and go home. If you continue to argue your position
thereafter, you wont just be wasting time, youll be annoying the bejeezus out of the other side.
9
Each repetition will only crank up the volume on an already unmistakable message: Your
counterpart is obtuse, weak-willed, or both. While you and your counterpart are still on speaking
terms, stop persuading and start negotiating.
What is the difference between persuasion and negotiation? ; Concessions. Negotiating is
the process of getting someone to do something, even if they disagree with it, by giving them
enough concessions to make it worth their while. When you cant win the other sides agreement
with the compelling power of your argument, you can usually buy it with concessions.
Persuaders give reasons. Negotiators give concessions. The other side may or may not
like your reasons, but everybody likes concessions. Always persuade first. Put your heart into it.
Persuasion is faster, easier, more comfortable, and, above all, cheaper than negotiation. The
agreements you cant win through persuasion youll have to negotiate with concessions, and
concessions are expensive.
of communication on the basis of intent is a sticky problem. Often the communicator is only
partially conscious of having any purpose, and one may argue endlessly about his real purpose.
Inevitably, the basis for discrimination between the two comes down to someone's estimate of
how much the information, data, or whatever is being transmitted is being "valenced" or
strategically employed for ends beyond the simple communication of the material itself.
Actually, the distinction between communication and persuasion seems of limited
importance. The dividing line, if there is one, is most indistinct. And there is no clear evidence of
harm if one treats a communication situation largely from the point of view of persuasion. There
is slightly greater risk in the reverse since certain "effects" may not be anticipated when the
viewer, the target, or the communicator, looks upon he situation as nonpersuasive and others
involved do not. Gross differentiations can be made and seem useful; those that involve the
splitting of hairs are probably not useful points for disagreement.
is limited by what he brings to the situation. | If his information is wrong and he does not know it,
he must act within this framework. If his knowledge about the target is faulty, he will still act in
terms of it. He is free in some respects, but he is also bound by his perception of reality.
The source is capable of responding to information during the process of persuasion itself.
During the communication the source often receives feedbackresponses from the target which
can be interpreted consciously or unconsciously and thus provide additional basis for altering or
structuring the persuasive efforts. The message itself provides stimulation to the source. Having
framed an idea in a certain way, the source may seek to alter the form because he almost
automatically rejects the particular form the idea has taken.
Message. The message is the constellation of stimuli the source actually puts into the
channel. The message is what we may capture on tape, on video tape, in cyclorama. The message
is the one element in the communication matrix that can be exactly replicatedit can be held
constant and reused again and again.
The definition of message in this way is a very crucial point. Whatever the ideas the
source may have intended, the message is what is in the channel. Some of what is in the message
(a composite of responses of the source that is simultaneously a composite of stimuli to target)
was put there consciously by the source, but in most instances the vast majority of the elements
are unconsciously placed in the message.
It is important to note that the message is, but the message does not mean. Meaning is a
property of the human mind. Thus the elements or stimuli that constitute the message have
meaning for the person that put them there; they may stir up meanings in the target, meanings
like or unlike those intended by the source. Further, an observer examining the process may see
quite different meanings than those attached to the stimuli by source and target. The concept that
the message does not mean but that people have meanings for messages is a critical one. Unless
this view is firmly fixed, some parts of this book may appear contradictory.
Target. The target is the person for whom the communication serves as a stimulus. At
times, persuasion will fail because the desired target, either from accident or by his active choice,
does not pick up the message in the channel. The target must act through his senses to pick up the
message from the channel and give meaning to it. At times the target is best viewed not as an
individual but as a composite average of all targets. Accidental or unintended targets may be of as
12
much interest as those intended by the source. Thus, the precise limitation of the term "target"
that will be most useful must be left to the specific situation or purpose of study to determine.
Source Characteristics.
Three major characteristics of the source affect persuasion: expertise, trustworthiness, and
attractiveness .A source that is perceived as an expert is particularly persuasive. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, for example, would be a persuasive force for changing our attitude toward
fitness because of his expertise. Trustworthiness is also important. Dr. C. Everett Koop, the
former surgeon general, engendered a great deal of trust through his many public appearances
and open style of communication. He consequently was credited with helping change Americans'
attitudes toward smoking. Finally, attractiveness and likeability play a role in persuasion.
Attractive communicators have long been used in advertising to persuade consumers to buy
certain products. As a source of persuasion, managers who are perceived as being experts, who
are trustworthy, or who are attractive or likable will have an edge in changing employee attitudes.
Target Characteristics.
Some people are more easily persuaded than others. Individuals with low self-esteem are
more likely to change their attitudes in response to persuasion than are individuals with high selfesteem. Individuals who hold very extreme attitudes are more resistant to persuasion, and people
who are in a good mood are easier to persuade. Undoubtedly, individuals differ widely in their
susceptibility to persuasion. Managers must recognize these differences and realize that their
attempts to change attitudes may not receive universal acceptance.
Message Characteristics.
Suppose you must implement an unpopular policy at work. You want to persuade your
employees that the policy is a positive change. Should you present one side of the issue or both
sides? Given that your employees are already negatively inclined toward the policy, you will
have more success in changing their attitudes if you present both sides. This shows support for
13
one side of the issue while acknowledging that another side does exist. Moreover, refuting the
other side makes it more difficult for the targets to hang on to their negative attitudes.
Messages that are obviously designed to change the target's attitude may be met with
considerable negative reaction. In fact, undisguised deliberate attempts at changing attitudes may
cause attitude change in the opposite direction! This is most likely to occur when the target of the
persuasive communication feels her or his freedom is threatened. Less threatening approaches are
less likely to elicit negative reactions.
14
15
4. Talk to the decision-maker. No matter who has asked a question, direct your answer to
the decision-maker. That's the person who has to be persuaded.
5. Never engage in personal attacks on your adversary, either directly or indirectly. This
includes not only the person you're negotiating with, but also their superiors, subordinates, and
the organization they work for.
6. If possible, support your arguments with reference to third parties, since this adds
credibility. For example, "The MNZ Corporation increased production 20% by using our
machines." Naturally, if you have documentation providing third party testimonials, it's even
more convincing.
7. Show the other side how you can solve a problem they have. If the subject matter of
your negotiation is such that you can do this, you can't ask for anything more convincing.
8. Appearance counts. Whether it's a well-prepared written proposal, ora neatly dressed
negotiator, people are influenced by appearance.
totalitarian society. But to call the situation one of voluntary change, the receiver must have an
option to accept or reject without the "manifest certainty" of injury.
Application of this view returns us to the dilemma that life is not easily subjected to
dichotomous analysis. The persuader often seeks to make a person work with the induced
"mental certainty" that he is in danger, whether of smelling bad, losing his friends or his life if he
continues smoking. But in these instances the receiver is asked to elect a conclusion, he has the
sense of choice. "Indeed, if a man holds a gun to your head, you may decide he is bluffing, thus
the threat is less "persuasive." We cam view persuasion as a process in which the persuader at
some level of consciousness "chooses" his persuasion goal and means, and both persuader and
persuade operate with the presupposition that the receiver is given meaningful choice to accept or
reject the persuasion attempt, give or not give his attention, and to decide what his response will
be. This means a possibility of responses other than those anticipated by the persuader.
In this sense then, persuasion is a process in which the actions of receiver and source
become interlinked with both choosing their actions from among the factors known to them. The
persuader "grants" the freedom of; response to the receiver and the receiver "grants" the freedom
to persuade to the receiver.
What function does the persuasion process serve? The persuasion process is a means of
reaching decisions. The process may provide the stimulus for a receiver to reach a decision, a
means by which the decision is reached or affected, and/or a means to implement that decision.
Is persuasion involved in logical decision-making? Yes. The information a man has is in
part the result of persuasion efforts directed at him. Further, the presuppositions from which he
operates and the reasoning structures employed are likely to be the result of extended persuasion
efforts of others.
The efforts of some persuader, long forgotten by an individual now reaching a decision,
may bear fruit. There seems no valid way to separate the persuasion process from the individual
decision-making process, whether that process seems pre-eminently logical or totally illogical or
illogical.
In achieving decisions, persuasion involves the communication of information.
Information not only includes data, but also possible interpretations and meanings of that data.
Hence, persuasion involves information about data and responses to data, including judgment,
interpretation, emotional reaction, point of view, or any of the variety of possible human
17
responses. Many persuasion efforts stress logic and reasoning, and the basis for decision may be
(as far as we can dichotomize) essentially logical. One-to-one or small-group settings may
involve as much persuasion as do mass receivers.
As Persuader
In our private lives and personal roles. Dad, can I have the car tonight? NO! But Dad,
I need.A normal, ordinary, trite scene. Normal, ordinary, everyday use of persuasion. And
who persuaded whom when the use of the car is traded for a wash and wax job next Saturday
afternoon.
Man seeks to adjust his environment to his needs and desires. Nowhere is this adjustment
more necessary and more obvious than in a small primary group: the family unit, the roommates
in an apartment triple, the dating couple, and the young married. These situations are not labeled
as persuasive by those engaged in them. These ordinary interactions are usually entered into
without thought and without awareness of affecting one another. The level of consciousness of
intent will vary: yours will not be the first family in which the wife cooks the husband's favorite
meal and then just happens to mention a new dress, or when the wife wants to talk, the husband
retreats behind the paper or to the couch with a splitting headache.
We can dislike a law or a politician and live with it. But the dislikes, frustrations, and
problems with people with whom we interact intimately, demand solutions. Persuasion is a tool
that enables us to come to mutual accommodation. Failure of persuasion can produce stresses we
cannot tolerate and fragment relationships or ourselves.
18
We can fail in many of our persuasion efforts in our work, in dealing with society and
larger groups. But failure of persuasion efforts in our personal lives and roles is the failure that
can destroy the self.
We are more conscious of our use of persuasion in relationship to groups with which we
associate voluntarily. We join these groups for the rewards they offer us. In joining we stabilize
interaction to some degree, and we gain greater power in affecting others. We can multiply our
personal power to affect larger groups in society, and that power is important to many of us.
In our work. Any career role provides opportunity for and typically demands persuasive
efforts. A society in which man concentrates on extracting his living from the work of his hands
in the soil, on products, or through machines tends to make his use of persuasion more incidentals
to his work. He need not persuade to do his job. To alter conditions, to achieve change in the
pattern, to change his wages, however, may involve persuasion. Often these persuasive tasks are
delegated to unions or to others for action. For much of man's history these decisions were to be
accepted or "imposed." Currently, "ratification" by those involved is becoming more accepted.
Many people prefer to delegate responsibility for persuasion to others. At times this is the only
practical alternative.
Recent decades have brought a rapid evolution from man working directly on "things" to
man working with words: man as decision-maker, as an interactive link in a complex system
developing new knowledge or generating decisions characterizes developed nations. Words
become the tools which significantly shape man's world and by which man shapes his world.
Accomplishing one's "job" therefore involves persuasion. In the "professions" this becomes the
main tool.
The government official becomes a persuader. If elected, he must gain and continue to
win election. As a diplomat he represents his government. He alternately shapes and is shaped by
persuasive influence. Anyone in a leadership or decision-making role becomes a persuader, and
everyone can lose if he fails.
Nor should the increasing number of people whose job directly involves the task of
persuasion be ignored. Salesmen have graduated from selling anvils (never on credit) to IBM
machinesavailable only in a complete package including servicing and installation contracts.
The salesman has traded in the week-long railroad and car odyssey for jetting coast to coast;
telephone and telegraphy replace the Pony Express. The "soda jerk" has given way to the modern
19
retailer with a drugstore that sells everything from plush toys, liquor, discount drugs, to lighting
fixtures, dresses, and tickers to sporting events and the theatre.
The public sees the salesman directing his persuasion to them. It is easy to overlook the
sales campaign that persuaded companies to put various vitamins, mineral, and synthetic
additives in hog feed, thus eliminating the difficult task of convincing all the farmers that these
products will reduce disease and produce faster-growing pigs and better-quality bacon at lower
cost. Many of the persuasive efforts that affect our lives are never visible to us.
The number of people whose lives are directly dependent upon commercial persuasion is
growing rapidly: TV producers, commercial writers, admen, layout artists, ad agenciesthe vast
communications network that depends upon advertising to exist.
The safest prediction that can be made is that more and more people will find that doing
their jobs necessitates persuasion as a part of internal decision-making and information-sharing
and in relating to the society at huge. Commercial persuasion from pushing real estate to
cemetery lots, vacation cruises or soap, or selling services will continue to increase. Whatever our
"work," persuasion is involved, and the evolution of society is creasing the importance of
persuasion in doing that work.
As Persuadee
We are the constant recipients of attempts at persuasion. We are bombarded with
advertisements, billboards, advice and argument from friends, associates, spouses, children.
Further, much of what is news is deliberate persuasion. The mayor's statement that the tragic
death rate will be orbed by greater use of policemen, stiff sentences, and the addition of thirty
more men patrolling for speedsters on the major roads is news and conscious persuasion. The
mass media have come under fire for making news of groups who march, sit-in, or attack the
status quo. "Why give attention to the three percent who are malcontents? Publicize the ninetyseven percent going to class and doing their work!"
Persuasion is a tool for the receiver: it may serve him or it may destroy him. What can
persuasion do for the receiver? At the most basic level, it aids him in the decision-making
process, it puts others to work for his benefit. How does the persuader serve the receiver?
1. The persuader can sound the cry of alarm. He can arouse us to face a problem,
often a problem that we were not aware existed.
20
2. He can provide us with information about causes, about solutions, about reasons
for us to act. If the problem is significant, competing streams of persuasion will evolve.
These will, with little effort on the receiver's part, provide information, alternative lines of
analysis, discussion of solutions.
3. He may rouse us to persuasion, to take up the cause or to move to counter
persuasion.
4. He may cause us to test our habits. Our mental world tends to become ordered,
balanced, congruent. We see things as we think they are; we stop seeing what we look at.
We may suddenly discover a new toothpaste that fights cavities 59 percent better," and we
buy it. Who cares about toothpaste? It is not worth a year's research, but we all do care at
one level. The persuader can lead us to check to see if the world has changed, if
yesterday's solution, yesterday's tax payment, yesterday's ideal is still functional. He may
inoculate us by testing the rusty tool, the unused idea.
5. He may enable us to succeed in our work, in attaining our goals, both personal
and public. We cannot know, we cannot have time to gather all the information we need.
But the role of persuasion is to bring us these materials so we can make reasoned,
informed decisions. A persuader works for us.
The higher a person rises in terms of decision-making responsibilities, the more essential
persuasion becomes to him, particularly as receiver. He becomes increasingly dependent upon
others to provide relevant materials: information, analysis, solutions. His task is to absorb all that
he can and then make the best judgment. He thus puts all the others to work for him, but he is
heavily dependent upon their work.
Of course, the persuader can affect us negatively. We can be confirmed in our idiocy. We
can be persuaded to "buy the Brooklyn Bridge," "afford the two cents a day for the three
magazines and the five free gift magazines of our choiceyes, and help a needy student through
college, too." One can be persuaded to take out an insurance policy on one's son, an endowment
that will mature in eighteen years to provide him $5,000 for college. We may not know that the
regular life insurance on the father's life would provide perhaps $50,000 for the son's education if
the father dies, and if the father lives his earnings are likely to provide sufficient aidcertainly
more than the equivalent of the $5,000 guaranteed, but not guaranteed to balance the rise in
inflation or the increase in tuition.
21
Surely no one argues that the day of "preserving the Aryan race" or" keeping the
bloodlines pure" is past. And men are being persuaded to yield their freedom of choice for food,
or power, or escape from responsibility. Persuasion is a powerful instrumentality. Man, in
responding, may make his life richer, more meaningful, more useful, both as persuader and as
persuade. But man can also destroy the richness of his own life and the life of others, corrupts his
environment, limit his choices, and choose to imprison himself. And he may boast that he has
done so.
22
Arabs
Affective: Appeals
made to emotions
Russians
Axiomatic: Appeals
made to ideals
Objective facts
Subjective Feelings
Asserted ideals
Small concessions
made early to
establish a
relationship
Concessions made
throughout as a part
of the bargaining
process
Response to
opponents
concessions
Usually reciprocate
opponents
concessions
Almost always
reciprocate
opponents
concessions
Relationship
Short term
Long term
Authority
Initial position
Deadline
Broad
Moderate
Very important
Broad
Extreme
Casual
Primary negotiating
style and process
Conflict:
Opponents
arguments
countered with
Making concessions
Opponents
concessions viewed
as weakness and
almost never
reciprocated
No continuing
relationship
Limited
Extreme
Ignored
23
The "organizations" that we use (and are used by) may be large or small. They may relate
to a single issue or to multiple ones; the organization may be constituted for a matter of an hour, a
day, a year, or may exist for centuries. Hence, persuasion will function at and between many
levels as well as between and among various organizations. In these organizations persuasion will
be directed both internally and externally.
These organizational systems provide opportunities for decisions on developing a product,
merchandising the product, selling a service, establishing a national policy, voting an
appropriation, developing a campaign to gain greater support.
Persuasion is not a sufficient explanation of change or the lack of change. But the process
of persuasion is the tool of the individual and of the group to affect the collective decisions of the
society. The persuasion process is not a sufficient explanation of the totality of societal processes
but try to explain a society without consideration of the process.
Control of Motivation
Can we as individuals control our own motivations, our own responses? Can we as
persuaders create and direct the motivations and the responses of others? Probably the answer to
both questions is: Yesto a degree.
As persuaders, we seek to affect the motivations of others so as to affect a desired
outcome. Certainly the persuader is capable of evolving a psychology of man. If his psychology
24
is accurate, it may lead him to manipulate stimuli that can affect the motivations of another. This
control is not total. Indeed, every society imposes certain restrictions, moral and legal, upon the
degree to which we may manipulate the motivations of others. Our own ethical codes impose
others.
A persuader can adjust stimuli to accommodate himself to internal motivational forces; he
can use external stimuli to allay or arouse new motivational forces within his auditor. To deny the
possibility of such stimulus manipulation is to deny the possibility of persuasion. To assume that
We persuaders would be equally skilled is to assume all are equal in ability. To doubt that chance
and accident play a role is ridiculous.
25
Anger is only one of several means that a negotiator can use to emphasize an issues
importance. However, using anger to emphasize one's position on an issue has certain
advantages. One advantage is that anger can be a very compelling influence on the other party's
behavior. Growing angry at an unreasonable tactic or offer shows that the angered negotiator
believes the other party ought to abandon that tactic or position as a matter of principle. Etzioni
(1988) maintains that, for most people, the performance of moral commitments and duties tends
to take precedence over the pursuit of economic gain. Growing angry at the other party's behavior
in negotiations also has the advantage of functioning as an unspecified threat. Anger is often
preliminary to aggression (Averill, 1982). When a negotiator's interests are threatened, angry
responses can perform a function for the angered negotiator similar to that of growling for a dog
whose meal is being targeted by another animal: they convey an open-ended threat. For a
negotiator, anger may be used to indicate that negative consequences (such as an impasse) may
ensure if an unreasonable tactic or position is pursued, without specifically committing the
negotiator to such a course of action. Angry responses may also lend credence to a stated threat.
The practical implications that have been drawn from this analysis of anger in mergers
and acquisitions negotiations are just a few of the many that could be identified and further
developed from future research. Future studies of conflict behavior can profitably go beyond the
narrow focus on anger used here to consider other emotions and related states, such as fear,
resentment, gratitude, guilt, or stress. Scholars and negotiators should be mindful not to ignore
emotional factors in negotiation simply because emotions and their causes are complex. As 1
pointed out earlier, emotions are an integral part of the way human beings approach many
conflict situations. Those of us who are interested in resolving disputes can only benefit by
gaining a better understanding of emotions, the factors that trigger them, and their consequences.
26
27
28
conscious desire of the person to focus on a stimulus. Non-voluntary attention is a result of the
person's interest and involvement in the stimulus. A speaker can use involuntary attention only
for highly limited purposes; an receiver may give voluntary attention but the effort and the selfdefeating nature of this effort render it suspect. What the communicator is seeking is nonvoluntary attention.
The communicator seeks to use the process of attention, then, to aid in the
accomplishment of his purpose; however, he must be very careful that he does not use it
negatively. In one recent class a student speaker who had just been introduced paused to adjust
his tie and then fired three quick shots point-blank at the first row with a hand gun loaded with
blanks. He then proceeded to give an extended speech loaded with statistics, facts, testimony of
authorities, and concluded by asking if gun legislation could increase the probability of what
could have happened in that classroom.
Lack of attention is often erroneously blamed for a failure in communication. It is
unfortunate that when one thing starts to go wrong with the effectiveness of a communication,
many things start to go wrong. Thus, a person who uses poor logic is often going to have rather
vague
Language. The receiver will become confused; in the attempt to understand the argument
being made, the receiver will "tune out" and attempt to wrestle through the idea. If reading, the
receiver may stop and reread it again or continue on. But the communicator may have lost vital
ground he will never regain. Thus the communicator has poor logic, vague language, loses
attention, and fails. It seems as if everything has gone wrong when one thing really produced all
these outcomes. Similarly when a speech works, everything seems to go right even though some
things were potentially bad.
Often a speaker will pick a particularly interesting topic of significant concern to his
receiver. Because of their concern, the receivers manifest great attention; they follow the
communication carefully; they become involved; the communication succeeds. Judged in terms
of persuasive tactics, strategy, and implementation, the speech may be far poorer than another
one that deals with a less interesting topic. The second speaker may strive harder and receive less
attention.
One final point needs to be made about attention and its relationship to communication. A
receiver tends to identify with the communicator, particularly in an oral situation. In a classroom
29
with a friendly receiver indeed in most situationsthe receiver feels some sense of rapport
with the communicator. If the communicator gets into trouble, shows he is extremely nervous,
makes a few slips, or forgets the words he memorized the night before, the receiver will normally
pretend that their attention is not drawn to these problems. But, they may become so involved
that they feel something akin to the speaker's rising tension. They will begin to pull with the
speaker; they will give attention to what comes next; they will almost literally heave a sigh of
relief as the speaker concludes. Unfortunately, here again the attention of the receiver has been
directed to the wrong things, the speaker and his problems, and not to the message the speaker
sought to communicate. To the degree that the speaker wishes his message to be the central focus
he must direct attention to the message and not to things which detract from the message.
maintenance of balance and sanity in our world. Man seeks a sense of understanding, hence
predictability and control.
2. Persuasion is related to adjusting the environmental forces so that conditions are altered
in such a way that man achieves his long-term goals. The status quo may be sufficient for the
moment, but man attempts to evolve new patterns leading to the accomplishment of future goals.
The concept of growthof man striving toward some "better" futureis prominent in many
psychological and philosophical views of man. Not all goals or the future involve more status,
money, or fame; they may involve more freedom, more ability to serve, more ability to give,
more fullness and richness in being not in having.
3. Man associates himself with groups and causes which he views as beyond himself and
his personal goals: much persuasion flows from the perception of the imperatives placed upon us
as individuals by these larger interests with which we identify and are associated. Hence, the
diplomat at the United Nations may become more committed to the goals of the United Nations
than to those of his own country. The minister serves God by communicating the "good news" of
the Gospel. We persuade to save the redwoods, to save our society from corrupt politicians, to
save our lives from the corruption of the system. We persuade to save our children from the
"Communist plot" of fluoridation of the water supply and from sex education in the schools.
Although these actions also carry personal rewards, we see them as beyond our individual needs.
Such service to man and such altruistic actions seem to give the person some sense of reward.
4. Persuasion is a part of man's response to his search for meaning. The very act of
persuasion suggests some degree of personal value: it suggests what one does have meaning. The
act of attempting persuasion then is a reward in itself. To attempt to persuade at some level seems
to affirm.
Alternative Decisions
The decision to persuade is only one of several alternative responses. Differences in
perception, comprehension, and judgment, past experience, habit patterns, and values all
potentially affect the response made. A person who has been successful with persuasion in the
past may try again. A person who has never succeeded may not view persuasion as a meaningful
choice. In the same situation one person might elect to attempt persuasion, an- other retreat with
defeat or apathy, a third attempt to gain his end by force.
31
Some people appear to abandon persuasion as a meaningful way of mediating with their
environment. Even in dealing with family or friend, the assumed authority of prescribed roles
such as father or "boss" may produce a reign of force met in turn by counterforce, trickery, and
guile. Further, in our complex society many individuals feel they are denied access to the
society's persuasion marketplace.
Although the foregoing discussion has dealt with the positive ends and effects of
persuasion, it should be noted that the tools of persuasion are available for any purpose. The
persuader may seek to destroy the freedom of a people or merely trick a store clerk out of an
extra dime. The persuader may want to destroy a marital relationship or a personal friendship.
Persuasion may be used to spread societal malaise, particularly in times of change and transition.
Persuasion, even seeking "bad" ends, is presumed to be a better alternative for the society
and the individual than either force or withdrawal. But this means everyone must have
meaningful access to persuasion opportunities. The existence of interplay of force, persuasion,
and withdrawal, factors affecting all societies, is unchallenged. The balancing these factors in a
society are a complex and delicate process.
32
receiver and a specific matrix of factors; therefore, the specific purpose must articulate with
factors specific to the given effort.
1. The persuader may be responding to a highly specific need. "I need a date tomorrow
night."
2. The persuasive effort may be a response to the persuasive efforts of others. Often we
are pushed into persuasion by the actions of another persuader that moves us to response.
3. The persuasion effort may be the result of an assigned task. Commercial persuasion and
persuasion campaigns involve many people working together in an interrelated system. The role
of the individual, whether salesman, commercial artist, copy writer, advance man, even the
political candidate himself, may be quite specifically defined by others. The task will typically
involve some degree of planning, implementation and the setting of a specific purpose or sub
purpose if the individual is actually a persuader and not merely the agent of a persuader.
4. The forces or factors that induce the person to become a persuader may fix the specific
purpose. If one volunteers to campaign door-to-door in the mothers' march on birth defects, the
purpose has been set.
5. The knowledge, understanding, and abilities of the persuader will structure his purpose.
One cannot present information he does not have; he cannot seek to accomplish a persuasive
purpose he does not realize is available to him. The limitations of the persuader, since he tends to
be unaware of them, are extremely powerful factors conditioning any specific purpose as a
persuader.
6. The receiver may determine the specific purpose. In many instances the persuader
becomes one at the invitation of his receivers. The receiver calls him into the role of persuader,
perhaps dictates the subject matter or even the purpose.
7. Receiver analysis may cause the persuader to adjust, discard, or reshape his goal. It
would seem unreasonable to try to convince James Hoffa that the government never makes a
mistake; he might agree that sometimes it does not. It would seem difficult to convince most
businessmen that they should operate without any profit.
8. Forces in the real world such as the realities of the subject matter affect the specific
purpose.
9. Other goals, other values, and other commitments are potential factors shaping a
specific purpose. Man wants to propagate a given idea, product, or service, but he is also
33
conscious, at least potentially, of many other needs. A person may have no objection to earning a
million dollars but would object if he had to rob a bank, defraud the government, or encourage a
war in order to obtain the money.
35
It is difficult to settle for a limited persuasive goal such as opening a receiver to further
information when the persuader really wants to take them all the way by telling how it really is!
But if such an attempt is more likely to freeze the receiver in their current attitude or even to
intensify their current condition, the decision demands realistic action. Many are the "hotheads"
who undermine the possibility of persuasion for others. They typically think they have been more
virtuous and honest for telling those "fat cats just where the truth lies." But is it more ethical to
confirm; these people in their current status and to lessen the probabilities for success of other
"truth-tellers?"
In essence, the idea of taking a receiver where it is and moving it in the direction you want
it to go with a potentially obtainable goal is a sound standard. The direction is defined by the
individual; the realities of subject matter, receiver, and skill of the communicator will define the
potential degree of change.
36
7. Is the purpose statement adequately refined and modified as the thinking of the
persuader and his analysis progress during the preparatory process? It seems naive to assume that
a purpose statement once framed may not need refinement as the preparation process continues.
Indeed, the purpose may change as the actual communication is under way. Clearly a purpose
found untenable through further work should be altered.
LOGICAL APPEALS
Appeals to man's ability to make rational choices are clearly important aspects of
persuasion. The effects which logical appeals produce in persuasion are yet to be fully explored,
but consideration of their direct and indirect role is essential. The difficulty of analysis and
testing should not limit appreciation of their value. Nor should the tendency of some to worship
at the shrine of logic as the only basis on which man should act and then constantly bemoan his
failure to do so, thus suggesting man never uses logic, cloud our perception of the value of logical
analysis and logical appeals as one factor governing man's actions.
37
4. Since people typically desire to appear logical, the presence of logic is often
seen as a mark of respect to them and serves as a motivational appeal apart from any
logical impact.
5. Logical proofs (as will be demonstrated later) may significantly enhance the
credibility of a source.
6. Evidence and documentation can improve persuasiveness as contrasted to
repeated assertions without support.
7. Evidence may be particularly useful in enhancing the persuasiveness of a
message whose source is not seen as having much prestige.
8. Logical appeals may not be perceived as such by receivers.
9. Receivers often, but not always, judge validity and acceptability of logical
appeals at least in part in terms of prior set, attitudes, and convictions.
10. Two-sided presentations seem warranted when dealing with hostile receivers,
with relatively well-educated groups, and probably when dealing with persons more
interested in the topic or with greater information on the topic.
11. Logical proofs are not necessarily more effective than emotional or ethical
appeals, but often they are as effective and in some instances may be more effective.
12. Logical appeals are likely to have a high degree of acceptance for friendly
receivers.
a. This may make a friendly receiver more resistant to counterpersuasion.
b. This may provide them with arguments to use on others, thus spreading impact.
c. Often a friendly receiver is seeking to rationalize,' to find good reasons for that
which they already believe; thus, they seek logical support for their position.
13. A hostile receiver may respond favorably to logical appeals.
a. Both sides presentations may be effective.
b. A sleeper effect may occur in which evidence and lines of argument are retained
and over time may affect the attitude in question.
14. Receivers need to be motivated to use logic and to make the effort necessary to
make a "rational" choice.
38
MOTIVATIONAL APPEALS
The term "motivational appeals" is linked to the classical term "pathos" while
contemporary sources would tend to use "emotional appeals" as the rubric.
Motivational appeals are stimuli designed to create a tension, to elicit a feeling or
affective response from a receiver. Motivational appeals are directed to the wishes, wants,
desires, goals, and needs of the person. These needs and wants are not necessarily logical (nor
necessarily illogical), rather they exist either as the result of inherent predispositions or the
conditioning of the self by the society and one's experiences. Appeals to emotions are clearly one
part of this area of motivational appeals.
approaches.
Excessive
and
unwarranted
appeals
can
prove
sharply
40
12. Consonant and mutually reinforcing motivational appeals seem more effective
than appeals that "shotgun" the entire range of possible appeals. Subsidiary appeals should
be used that reinforce the dominant appeal.
13. Motivational appeals need to be distributed throughout the communication
rather than concentrated solely in the opening. However, motivational appeals should be
emphasized early in the communication.
41
adopt words for associational rather than denotative values. Slogans can be extremely effective in
gaining acceptance. Persuasion occurs as the source and receiver become identified one with the
other through the linguistic strategies employed. Language is the most important tool employed
to yield identification. The phrase "he talks my language" is a common indication of praise and
identification. As a man uses words that unite him with my ideas, my values, my reference
groups, I may accept him, his proposition, and his attitudes. The confusion between the word and
the thing is much emphasized in general semantics. People who might faint at the sight of blood
may also faint at the mention of it. Vivid descriptions can make us feel the horror of a vicious
crime. The tendency not to distinguish between the word and the reality the word presumably
symbolizes suggests that style often has direct persuasive impact.
The limits of language and style as the direct cause of persuasion versus their role as
mediators for other factors inducing persuasion cannot yet be assessed. By concentrating on
smaller units of material and seeking to maximize the effect of the linguistic medium in terms of
attention, comprehension, and acceptance, the communicator should be improving his persuasive
effort.
42
"expertise." In looking for explanations of persuasion effectiveness, various analysts turned to the
"magical personality that persuades," "the mesmerizing personality," when other explanations fell
short.
Definition
Ethos is the image of the source held in the minds of the receiver (s). Fully
operationalized, ethos is the total of the receiver's (s') responses to all possible questions about the
source. Typically in measurement only a limited number of questions are employed to estimate
the image. Thus the image of the source corresponds to the psychological concept of attitude
toward the source and measurement involves the collection of opinions.
Three distinctions implicit in the definition of ethos provide a basis for more extended
discussion: (1) ethos is determined by receivers; (2) ethos may change over time; (3) ethos are
measured at different points in time as related to a given communication act.
This should not suggest that what a person "is" and what a person does is irrelevant to his
image; far from it. But the meaning of these things independent upon the person who perceives
these stimuli. And in addition, that image may be either negative or positive.
The ethos of a source can be thought of in many different ways. An image may be an
average of the images of any defined set of receivers. It is also possible to talk about the
variability of the image. In some instances a source may have a relatively congruent image; a
wide variety of people see him in approximately the same way. Certainly many things affect the
ethos which an individual has at a given moment in time. But the communication act provides the
maximum opportunity for a person to affect the image that exists in the minds of his receivers.
Therefore it is particularly useful to talk of ethos at certain key points in the communication act
and to attempt measurement at the following points in time: (1) prior to the communication, (2)
curing the communication, and (3) after the communication.
43
of the source. A successful persuasion effort may place the source in a position to accomplish his
goals. An unsuccessful persuasion effort may result in redoubling of efforts, radically revising
strategy, shifting to new goals or abandoning the effort.
But there are other effects upon the source which should be noted as well. The behavior of
the source immediately before, during, and after an open communication effort is obviously
affected quite directly by the persuasion process. But other, more far-reaching effects may also
occur. The source may perform a good deal of self-persuasion: he may become more or less
committed to his point of view or he may shift to another point of view due to adjustments made
to his own behavior as well as the response of others. His persuasion efforts may place limitations
on his future behavior, shift his self-image, alter choices available to him. We shall examine such
effects on the source as one important aspect of the persuasion process.
SIGNIFICANCE
Of what significance are the effects the persuasion process produces on the source? The
answer to this question lies in an examination of some of the important effects and an evaluation
of the import of these effects on the source in terms of his attitudes and behavior.
Some effects of the persuasion process on the source are long-term-and relatively difficult
to isolate since the effects are the result of an on- going process rather than any one element in
the process. Other effects are quite short-term and can be specifically related to one element in
the total process. Thus, a sudden surge of negative feedback may increase the tendency to
vocalized pauses; anticipation of an important speech may produce heightened tension.
The most obvious effect upon the source is whether or not his immediate goal in the
persuasion attempt is achieved. If it is achieved he can proceed accordingly. To the degree it is
not achieved he can make adjustments either by continuing his persuasion efforts, changed or
unchanged, or
By altering his goals in some respect.
How does one's persuasive effort affect him? For purposes of illustration let us assume
that a given communicator is relatively successful. His communication efforts are rewarded in
that he moves toward the accomplishment of his goals. He is given feedback which indicates a
positive response to him and his efforts. His perceptions of the world are accurate because other
people accept them and operate in terms of them. Since this individual is being rewarded he tends
to persevere in what he is doing. He will continue to use the persuasion process as a means of
44
accomplishing his goals. Further, in receiving such reinforcement he should develop enough
security to profit from error. Differential reinforcement will / provide him with a basis for
adapting his efforts in more effective ways. Negative feedback can become positive in that he
learns from it.
What response would a person make to failure? He might adopt new, strategies to seek the
old goal. He might abandon the goal. He might redirect his energy in any number of constructive
and nonconstructive ways. He might, for example, find newer, more effective ways of
proceeding. But he might also withdraw and cease to compete in the area of ideas. Limited to
individuals, such withdrawal can be destructive both personally and at the potential contribution
lost to the society.
The personality of the individual is clearly related to the persuasion process. Personality,
defined as the integrated and dynamic organization of the physical, mental, moral, and social
qualities of the individual as manifested in social interaction with others, is inextricably linked to
communication.
Communication,
particularly persuasive
communication,
becomes
the
operationalization of our personality. Thus, the persuasion process is the behavioral manifestation
of the source's personality. Not only does an individual judge his personality through the
response to his communication, bur since the response affects the individual, it shapes his
personality.
EFFECTS ON ACTION
Before the Communication Act
Much of the behavior of the source in advance of the communication acts related to his
preparation. According to the importance of the occasion and the receiver, the source may devote
extensive time and effort to the preparation process.
The anticipation of persuasion may also affect relationships with potential receivers. A
good deal of the attention of the source may be devoted to developing and maintaining a
favorable ethos. A source may develop a strategy that involves manipulation of setting or
receivers in preparation for the particular persuasion effort. Thus, in many instances the
persuasion strategy is being implemented in tactics that occur well in advance of the given
communication. Therefore the source's behavior is being determined in large part by the demands
of his strategy and the tactical considerations involved in its implementation.
46
success, the impact which it had for short- and long-range purposes. This evaluation is important
because it presumably controls the future behavior of the source to some degree as well as
contributes to the long-range effects on the source discussed in the early part of this chapter. One
of the most significant aspects of this stage is the evaluation of strategy and tactics and the degree
to which the goal has been accomplished. Changes in strategy may be evolved almost
automatically, plans for the next stage formulated, or other adjustments in the long-range
persuasion process undertaken.
47
make about how ethical the appeal is. Although it may be effective in some respects in the short
run, one must ask questions about its effectiveness in terms of other aspects and in the long term.
If one effect is to cause receivers to distrust other persuaders, this has some relevance to the
persuader. It is not easy to divorce ethical elements from short-term effects; it is impossible to
divorce ethical questions from long-term effects. To suggest that the two are divorced suggests
that we must systematically exclude many of the effects of the persuasion process that we might
be exceedingly interested in investigating.
48
in general. Some people assume the posture of certainty (perhaps because they are ultimately
more insecure). Some may be too stupid to realize the possibility of error. Yet others may be so
uncertain that they undertake no action at all. Inevitably, the decision to persuade or the decisions
not to persuade are equally decisions and both carry ethical implications. Obviously, one can vary
in the degree of probability that he feels about a certain position. But just as we can be wrong in
our position, we can be wrong in the degree of probability or the degree of certainty that we
attribute to that position.
Lacking Certainty about Effects. Even if one assured himself that he had a valid truth to
communicate, he still does not have full knowledge of the effects. We cannot predict the effects
of a message, even a truthful message. We may succeed in arousing action to a degree far beyond
that we consider tenable. A given approach may be so mild that it produces no effect, or even
being mild may produce wildly intemperate effects. One cannot know all that is to be known
about actual, let alone potential, receivers.
Lacking Certainty about Ethical Values. Despite the long search for ultimate ethical
values, man has yet to agree upon such values. Many men have agreed on one or more, but other
men have disagreed just as vehemently either about the value itself or about its application in
situations. We may become convinced of the validity of our ethical code. And, here as in other
instances, we may operate with varying degrees of certainty of what is right in one situation and
what is right in another. But others do not always share the same code. The values and codes
apparently endorsed by groups or the society may differ from that of the individual. The receiver
may operate in terms of a quite different code than the source. How does one go about persuading
in the face of contradictory or nonparallel codes? Again, we may prefer the man who is less
certain than the man who is more certain. Often the most committed individual is the most
intolerant.
As source. When we function as sources we presumably accept some responsibility for
ensuring that the ideas we are communicating are justifiable. We submit them to a multitude of
tests in terms of our experience, our prejudices and biases, our habits, our feelings, our logic, our
ethical standards. Presumably any idea, any communication, is tested at some level consciously
and unconsciously before we communicate it. In testing ideas, in planning communications, we
are operating within our own frame of reference. The ideas and communications may not meet
49
the tests of other people using other frames of reference. The source should assume responsibility
for the effects of his action. Even though a source knows that his understanding of the process of
persuasion is limited and that his insight into the receiver is necessarily limited, he can still act
from the assumption that he has responsibility.
In persuasion a source is not only forced to decide the goal of his persuasion, he must
decide how to persuade the intended receivers. He tests the ideas not only for himself but by the
ways receivers can be led to accept them through use of the logical, motivational, and ethical
appeals employed. If a source can find no logical, motivational, or ethical reason why his
receivers should accept his proposition in terms of their frame of reference, he has an indication
of a question relative to his responsibility.
As receiver.
responsibility. Just as the source will test materials in terms of his perceptions, so the receiver
similarly tests materials in terms of his perceptions. Clearly the systems may differ. From a
pragmatic viewpoint the receiver will profit from testing for himself. Totally apart from his own
self-image, his desire to be seen as critical and rational and as making his own decisions, the
receiver has practical reasons for drawing his own conclusions. The source may operate with a
quite different ethical, logical, and motivational system. The source may be deliberately
exploiting the receiver to benefit the source but harm the receiver. Or the source may be very
well-intentioned but lack the specific knowledge that is available only to the receiver that causes
the persuasive goal to be undesirable. Indeed, if the source knew this information perhaps he
would have changed his goal.
If one can judge and evaluate which is present and if one can have some choice, one has
responsibility. Again, even though a receiver may not be fully able to exercise control it seems
useful to assume as much control and responsibility as one can. Since we will bear the
consequences of our actions whether or not we are fully responsible for them we can just as well
assume the responsibility even if we fail to fulfill it totally.
Values of the system. It seems logically contradictory to regard the source as having 100
percent responsibility for his persuasion efforts and the effects of those efforts and
simultaneously view the receiver as having 100 percent responsibility for the effect of the
persuasion effort. However, this seems a desirable condition.
50
Source and receiver are two different individuals. They operate with different perceptions,
with minutely or markedly different value systems. Just as a conclusion that is supported by more
than one piece of evidence and more than one independent line of reasoning has greater
probability of being valid, so a persuasion effect that results from two relatively separate,
independent assessments would likely turn out to be a more beneficial one to the receiver and to
the society at large and in many senses to the source.
Further, if either source or receiver defaults on his responsibility, the other active
participant presumably continues to shoulder sufficient responsibility to provide some protection
for both. If we cannot trust others, we can at least trust ourselves whether as persuader or
persuade. And in trusting ourselves we can put others to work to assist us in our efforts.
Dont Interrupt
Because thoughts formulate faster than speech, we have a strong temptation to interrupt
the other person speaking. Its a sign that you are not listening, or that you are eager to sidetrack
the speakers line in favor of your own, or that you are one of the many people who enjoy talking
more than listening. Whatever the reason, you are going to oppose the other person.
51
KEEPING ATTENTION
If we want people to listen to our message, so we have to keep our receiver interested
enough to listen. Attention is held only when interest is rising.
Attention Breakdowns
This problem exists all the time in everyday life. During an interview or a meeting, there
might be a breakdown of attention which is totally beyond our control. To continue in such
unfavorable circumstances is a waste of time and effort, the other persons mind is elsewhere. Try
the suggestion of making another appointment. The next time you should at least receive more
sympathetic attention.
Visual Distractions
A visual distraction is anything that makes us lose our attention to something. In any
situation, if you have something on you that you think may distract the listener, just tell the other
person at the beginning.
52
summarizing what you said each time, you are also helping the other person to crystallize all the
benefits that you have been discussing. (job interview! )
Say it
Say what
you said
MEMORY
Having a good memory with powerful recall is an effective tool for being persuasive in
your dealings with people. The problem is that a lot of people have average memories and many
others have very bad ones. So a good memory puts us in a powerful position.
Remembering Names
Remembering names appears to be the biggest problem for most people.And yet the nam
is the most important information that we need to know about an individual. If you forget
somebodys name, you are knocking down his ego.
In most cases, its not that you actually forget a name. You probably never picked it up in
the first place because you were not interested enough or you were distracted at that time.
Rule 1: Make sure that you hear the name
If you cant catch the name at the beginning, admit that you actually couldnt hear. At the
start, the obvious statement, sorry, i couldnt catch your name would have been the solution.
Theres a two-fold advantage to this:
As a psychological plus, you make the person you are meeting feel more
important.
Rule 2: If you hear a name, make sure you put it to the right face
Calling the person by the wrong name is worse than not remembering the name at all.
53
POWER OF WORDS
Be persuasive with open communication
The style of communication determines whether we can bring people around to our way
of thinking.
The question why? makes us want to justify ourselves rather than look at alternatives
for future. The reason is that it requires a rational explanation for our behavior.
Why cant you be more careful when you ....?
Please try and be more careful when you ...
The use of word you can be responsible for much negative communication. Used in an
accusing way, it can evoke a hostile reaction in the recipient.
You always let me down when theres an important meeting coming up.
I need your cooperation when I have got important meetings
TIMING
If you catch a person at the wrong time, it could be the end of your effort. And you
usually dont get a second chance. Sometimes its easier in life to say no immediately if you are
pushed for time and preoccupied.
You should also remember that people talk and act differently when someone is with
them. The reasons include;
They may not want the person present to know about the topic being
discussed
Timing is vital if we are trying to be persuasive in a situation we will often respond to the
same approach completely differently at different times. Waiting until the right opportunity can
lead you straight to your goal.
54
For the Senser (S), the focus is on facts and the use of the five senses. The person who
engages in sensing is taking in the objective world through perceptual processes through the
senses.
The Intuiter (N) pays attention to the vision of what could be and also engages in the use
of sixth sense. This type likes variety and new and different experiences and they may work on
many different jobs all at once.
The Thinker (T) person relies on intellectual processes reason and logic. Any decision
will be based on the logical results of actions and they will decide impersonally. This type finds
emotions to be a barrier to do decision making process and maybe quiet oblivious to the feelings
of other people.
The Feeler (F) person the key word is emotion and logic may not play a significant part.
They may be motivated not to cause distress or hurt other people as they commonly show a lot of
empathy. They will of the let the heart rule the head (unlike the T).
A persons decision making style based on Jungs findings derives from the four
psychological states. They are usually paired with one of the two from the opposite function, so
that is a combination of the two preferences. The four types have been categorized as:
Lets take a look at the styles and ways of achieving successful outcomes with these
types.
The ST person focuses on specifics and verifiable facts, likes stability and certainty, and
makes practical decisions in an impersonal way, focuses on the present and likes to deal with
realistic goals and deals with things in a logical way. So, when dealing with this type of person:
Prepare well and have facts and any other data readily available
55
Use all your natural empathy to conduct things on a personal basis after
for them
The NF person recognizes a wide range of possible opportunities and decides by weighing
values and considering others. So when dealing with this type of person:
Try to go with the flow of what they want and adapt as necessary.
Check the body language for any disagreement or confusion, this type often
never voices their concern, so you have to look for leakage. Then question to unearth any
concerns.
The NT person prefers a variety of possible solutions and then selects by impersonal
analysis. They like to analyze and create logical options, look at the big picture and focus on the
long term and like to be thought of as resourceful and ingenious. So when dealing with this type
of person:
56
Show that you recognize their vision/concepts and beware of giving the
Accept that this type may bombard you with critical comments
TESTING
1. In the middle of a face to face meeting with a client or whoever, the telephone rings. He
apologizes and takes the call. While hes speaking, do you:
a) Look at him and smile constantly
b) Make a signal to him and sneak out to go to the toilet or chat to the secretary or
receptionist
c) Turn your gaze away from him and perhaps occupy yourself with some papers or
make some notes
d) Use body language to show your impatience, hoping it will make him hurry up
2. The person you are with keeps looking at her watch continuously during your discussion.
She doesnt think you have spotted this, but for the past 20 minutes its been distracting
you and prevented you giving your best. What do you do?
a) Hurriedly bring your discussion to a close
b) Just ignore it it could be a nervous mannerism or obsessive compulsive
disorder
c) Stop talking at each point that she looks at her watch
d) Ask her politely: how long have we got?
57
3. You have discovered your red ink pen has leaked and theres a lot of ink showing down
front of your shirt. As you enter the interviewers office, your mind is on how you can
possibly conceal red ink. Do you:
a) Say that you have just returned from a holiday in Transylvania
b) Hope she wont notice
c) Keep your arms folded at all times
d) Explain on arrival whats happened and make fun of your carelessness
4. You are introduced to three new people and miss one of the names. What do you do?
a) not worry two out of three is not bad
b) ask: sorry, I didnt catch your name
c) make a guess
d) ask one of the other two people the persons name, ideally when the person is
distracted
5. You are telephoning somebody about something that is important to you. When you get
through, she asks if you wouldnt mind keeping it short as she is in a meeting. Do you?
a) Get it over with quickly
b) Ask lots of questions so that it will prolong the call in a natural manner
c) Tell her that youll write to her
d) Suggest that as shes busy, you prefer to call her later in the day when she might
be free
ANSWERS
1)
a) -2 : Give him some brathing place
b) -4
c) +5 : You are making him feel comfortable now; hes secretly thanking you for it
d) -5
2)
a) 0
b) +1
58
c) -1
d) +5 : you should find out the real problem this way
3)
a) 0
b) -5 : the distraction would be too great
c) -4
d) +5 : at least she knows that you know
4)
a) 1: No excuse, he could be the most important member of the group
b) +5 : Right thing to do
c) -10: worse than no name, the wrong name
d) +2
5)
a) +1
b) -5 : Shes already distracted
c) +1
d) +5 : that gives you a better chace of achieving your goal
59
REFERENCES
1. Persuasion : Psychological Insights and Perspectives / edited by Timothy C. Brock,
Melanie C. Green. Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Sage Publications, 2005.
2. Persuasion : The Art of Influencing People / James Borg. Borg, James. New York :
Prentice Hall/Business, 2004.
3. Fundamentals of Negotiation Roger / Clarke Principal, Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd,
1993
4. Individual Processes in Organizational Behavior / Arlington Heights Ill: AHM Pub. Corp,
1978.
5. The Elaboration Likelihood Model Of Persuasion / R.E. Petty and J.T. Cacioppo
Academic press, 1986.
6. Persuasion Theory and Practice / Kenneth E. Andersen, Allyn and Baken Ink, Boston,
1971.
7. Persuasion: How Opinions and Attitudes Are Changed / Abelson, Herbert Irving, 1926New York, Springer Pub. Co., 1959.
8. Negotiate to Win: The 21 Rules for Successful Negotiation, Jim Thomas, Harper Collins
Publishers, Inc., 2005.
9. Leading with Persuasion video,
http://www.videovisions.net/video/Leading_with_Persuasion_Preview.htm
60