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Persuasion

 

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Persuasion



 
 
Persuasion is a form of social influence
Social influence

Social influence occurs when an individual's thoughts or actions are affected by other people. Social influence takes many forms and can be seen in conformity, socialization, peer pressure, obedience , leadership, persuasion, sales, and marketing....
. It is the process of guiding people toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic (though not always logical) means. It is strategy of problem-solving relying on "appeals" rather than coercion
Coercion

Coercion is the practice of compelling a person or manipulating them to behave in an involuntary way by use of threats, intimidation, trickery, or some other form of pressure or force....
. According to Aristotle
Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
, "Rhetoric
Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of using language as a means to persuade. Along with logic and dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse....
 is the art of discovering, in a particular case, the available means of persuasion."

Principles
According to Robert Cialdini
Robert Cialdini

Robert B. Cialdini is a social psychology who is currently Regents' Professor of Psychology and W.P. Carey Distinguished Professor of Marketing at Arizona State University where he has also been named Distinguished Graduate Research Professor....
 in his book on persuasion, he defined six "weapons of influence":













Propaganda
Propaganda

Propaganda is the dissemination of information aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people. As opposed to Objectivity providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience....
 is also closely related to Persuasion.






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Quotations


A man does not recover from such a devotion of the heart to such a woman!-He ought not!-He must not!.

Ch. 20

Dare not say that a man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you.

Ch. 23

She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older—the natural sequence of an unnatural beginning.

Ch. 4

...that she thought it was the misfortune of poetry, to be seldom safely enjoyed by those who enjoyed it completely; and that the strong feelings which alone could estimate it truly, were the very feelings which ought to taste it sparingly.

Ch. 11





Encyclopedia


Persuasion is a form of social influence
Social influence

Social influence occurs when an individual's thoughts or actions are affected by other people. Social influence takes many forms and can be seen in conformity, socialization, peer pressure, obedience , leadership, persuasion, sales, and marketing....
. It is the process of guiding people toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic (though not always logical) means. It is strategy of problem-solving relying on "appeals" rather than coercion
Coercion

Coercion is the practice of compelling a person or manipulating them to behave in an involuntary way by use of threats, intimidation, trickery, or some other form of pressure or force....
. According to Aristotle
Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
, "Rhetoric
Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of using language as a means to persuade. Along with logic and dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse....
 is the art of discovering, in a particular case, the available means of persuasion."

Principles


According to Robert Cialdini
Robert Cialdini

Robert B. Cialdini is a social psychology who is currently Regents' Professor of Psychology and W.P. Carey Distinguished Professor of Marketing at Arizona State University where he has also been named Distinguished Graduate Research Professor....
 in his book on persuasion, he defined six "weapons of influence":

  • Reciprocation
    Reciprocation

    Reciprocation is the action in which a body's displacement returns to its starting location in a given time repeatedly, the velocity over which the displacement occurs with each repetition not necessarily being constant....
     - People tend to return a favor. Thus, the pervasiveness of free sample
    Free sample

    Click here if you are looking for food sampling in relation to testing/analysis)A free sample or freebie is a portion of food or other product which is given out in shopping malls, grocery stores, and other venues....
    s in marketing. In his conferences, he often uses the example of Ethiopia
    Ethiopia

    Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast....
     providing thousands of dollars in humanitarian aid to Mexico
    Mexico

    The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
     just after the 1985 earthquake, despite Ethiopia
    Ethiopia

    Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast....
     suffering from a crippling famine and civil war at the time. Ethiopia
    Ethiopia

    Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast....
     had been reciprocating for the diplomatic support Mexico provided when Italy invaded Ethiopia
    Ethiopia

    Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast....
     in 1937.


  • Commitment and Consistency
    Commitment

    Commitment means to duty or pledge to something or someone, and can refer to:*Personal commitment, interaction dominated by obligations. These obligations may be mutual, or self-imposed, or explicitly stated, or may not....
     - Once people commit to what they think is right, orally or in writing, they are more likely to honor that commitment, even if the original incentive or motivation is subsequently removed. For example, in car sales, suddenly raising the price at the last moment works because the buyer has already decided to buy. See cognitive dissonance
    Cognitive dissonance

    Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. The "ideas" or "cognitions" in question may include attitude and beliefs, and also the awareness of one's behavior....
    .


  • Social Proof
    Social proof

    Social proof, also known as informational social influence, is a psychology phenomenon that occurs in ambiguous social situations when people are unable to determine the appropriate mode of behavior....
     - People will do things that they see other people are doing. For example, in one experiment, one or more confederates would look up into the sky; bystanders would then look up into the sky to see what they were seeing. At one point this experiment aborted, as so many people were looking up that they stopped traffic. See conformity, and the Asch conformity experiments
    Asch conformity experiments

    The Asch conformity experiments were a series of studies published in the 1950s that demonstrated the power of conformity in groups. These are also known as the "Asch Paradigm"....
    .


  • Authority
    Authority

    In government, authority is often used interchangeably with the term "power ". However, their meanings differ: while "power" refers to the ability to achieve certain ends, "authority" refers to a claim of legitimacy , the justification and right to exercise that power....
     - People will tend to obey authority figures, even if they are asked to perform objectionable acts. Cialdini cites incidents, such as the Milgram experiment
    Milgram experiment

    The Milgram experiment was a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychology Stanley Milgram, which measured the willingness of study participants to Obedience an authority who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience....
    s in the early 1960s and the My Lai massacre
    My Lai Massacre

    The My Lai Massacre was the mass murder of 347 to 504 unarmed citizens in South Vietnam, entirely civilians and some of them women and children, conducted by U.S....
    .


  • Liking
    Like

    In the English language, the word like has a very flexible range of uses, ranging from conventional to non-standard. It can be used as a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, preposition, grammatical particle, conjunction, hedge , interjection, and quotative....
     - People are easily persuaded by other people whom they like. Cialdini cites the marketing of Tupperware
    Tupperware

    Tupperware is the brand name of a home products line that includes preparation, storage, and serving products for the kitchen and home, which debuted in 1946....
     in what might now be called viral marketing
    Viral marketing

    Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating Viral phenomenon processes, analogous to the spread of virus and computer viruses....
    . People were more likely to buy if they liked the person selling it to them. Some of the many biases favoring more attractive people are discussed. See physical attractiveness stereotype
    Physical attractiveness stereotype

    The physical attractiveness stereotype is a term that psychologists use to refer to the tendency to assume that people who are physical attractiveness also possess other socially desirable personality traits....
    .


  • Scarcity
    Scarcity

    Scarcity is the problem of infinite Fundamental human needs and wants, in a world of finite resources. In other words, society does not have sufficient productive resources to fulfill those wants and needs....
     - Perceived scarcity will generate demand
    Demand

    Economics*Demand ,the desire to own something and the ability to pay for it*Demand curve,a graphic representation of a demand schedule *Demand deposit, the money in checking accounts...
    . For example, saying offers are available for a "limited time only" encourages sales.


Propaganda
Propaganda

Propaganda is the dissemination of information aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people. As opposed to Objectivity providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience....
 is also closely related to Persuasion. Its a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of large numbers of people. Instead of impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience. The most effective propaganda is often completely truthful, but some propaganda presents facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis, or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the cognitive narrative of the subject in the target audience. The term 'propaganda' first appeared in 1622 when Pope Gregory XV established the Sacred Congregation for Propagating the Faith. Propaganda was then as now about convincing large numbers of people about the veracity of a given set of ideas. Propaganda is as old as people, politics and religion.

List of methods


By appeal to reason:
  • Logical argument
  • Logic
    Logic

    Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and inference. Logic is a branch of philosophy, a part of the classical Trivium . The word derives from Greek language ?????? , fem....
  • Rhetoric
    Rhetoric

    Rhetoric is the art of using language as a means to persuade. Along with logic and dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse....
  • Scientific method
    Scientific method

    Scientific method refers to techniques for investigating phenomenon, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and Measure evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning....
  • Proof
    Scientific evidence

    Scientific evidence is evidence which serves to either support or counter a scientific theory or hypothesis . Such evidence is expected to be empirical and properly documented in accordance with scientific method such as is applicable to the particular field of inquiry ....


By appeal to emotion:
  • Advertising
    Advertising

    Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to Purchasing or to consume more of a particular brand of Product or Service ....
  • Faith
    Faith

    Faith is the confident belief in the truth of or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. It is also used for a belief, characteristically without proof....
  • Presentation
    Presentation

    Presentation is the process of showing and explaining the content of a topic to an audience. A presentation program, such as OpenOffice.org#Components, Keynote or Microsoft PowerPoint, is often used to generate the presentation content....
     and Imagination
    Imagination

    Imagination is the faculty of imagining, or of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses, and the action or process of forming such images or concepts....
  • Propaganda
    Propaganda

    Propaganda is the dissemination of information aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people. As opposed to Objectivity providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience....
  • Seduction
    Seduction

    In sociology, seduction is the process of deliberately enticing a person to engage in some sort of behavior, frequently sexual in nature. The word seduction stems from Indo-European roots and means literally "to lead astray." As a result, the term may have a positive or negative connotation....
  • Tradition
    Tradition

    The word tradition comes from the Latin traditionem, acc. of traditio which means "handing over, passing on", and is used in a number of ways in the English language:...
  • Pity
    Pity

    File:Pity.jpgPity evokes a tender or sometimes slightly contemptuous sorrow or empathy for a people, person, or animal in misery, pain, or distress....


Aids to persuasion:
  • Body language
    Body language

    Body language is a term for communication using body movements or gestures instead of, or in addition to, sounds, verbal language or other communication....
  • Communication skill or Rhetoric
    Rhetoric

    Rhetoric is the art of using language as a means to persuade. Along with logic and dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse....
  • Sales techniques
  • Personality tests and conflict style inventory
    Conflict style inventory

    A conflict style inventory is a written tool for gaining insight into how people respond to conflict. Typically, a user answers a set of questions about their responses to conflict and is scored accordingly....
     help devise strategy based on an individual's preferred style of interaction


Other techniques:
  • Deception
    Deception

    Deception is the act of convincing another to believe information that is not true, or not the whole truth as in certain types of half-truths....
  • Hypnosis
    Hypnosis

    Hypnosis is a mental state or set of attitudes usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a series of preliminary instructions and suggestions....
  • Subliminal advertising
  • Power (sociology)
    Power (sociology)

    Power is a measure of a person's ability to control the environment around them, including the behavior of other people. The term authority is often used for power, perceived as legitimate by the social structure....


Coercive techniques, some of which are highly controversial and/or not scientifically proven to be effective:
  • Brainwashing
    Brainwashing

    Brainwashing consists of any effort aimed at instilling certain attitudes and beliefs in a person ? beliefs sometimes unwelcome or in conflict with the person's prior beliefs and knowledge, in order to affect that individual's value system and subsequent thought-patterns and behaviors....
  • Coercive persuasion
    Coercive persuasion

    Coercive persuasion comprises social influences capable of producing substantial behavior, attitude and ideology change through the use of coercive tactics and persuasion, via Interpersonal relationship and group-based influences....
  • Mind control
    Mind control

    Mind control is a broad range of psychology tactics able to subvert an individual's control of his own thought, behavior, emotions, or decisions....
  • Torture
    Torture

    Torture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is:In addition to state-sponsored torture, individuals or groups may be motivated to inflict torture on others for similar reasons to those of a state; however, the motive for torture can also be for the sadism gratification of the torturer, as was the case in the Moors M...


Systems of persuasion for the purpose of seduction:
  • Seduction
    Seduction

    In sociology, seduction is the process of deliberately enticing a person to engage in some sort of behavior, frequently sexual in nature. The word seduction stems from Indo-European roots and means literally "to lead astray." As a result, the term may have a positive or negative connotation....
  • Mystery Method


See also


  • Communication
    Communication

    Communication is commonly defined as "the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs...",, 1: an act or instance of transmitting and 3 a: "a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or beha...
  • Elaboration Likelihood Model
    Elaboration likelihood model

    The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion is a model of how attitudes are formed and changed . Central to this model is the "elaboration continuum", which ranges from low elaboration to high elaboration ....
  • Social psychology
    Social psychology

    Social psychology is the study of how people and groups interact. Scholars in this interdisciplinarity area are typically either psychology or sociology, though all social psychologists employ both the individual and the group as their Unit of analysis....