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Art of Persuasion: Try Not to Trigger a Detailed Analysis

By Michael Stelzner

Those of us in the business of persuasion could learn something from a very telling research study.

A 1981 study at the University of Missouri (Petty, Cacioppo and Goldman), asked students to listen to a persuasive audio recording.

Students were to consider if a comprehensive exam should be implemented before college seniors would be allowed to graduate.

HOWEVER, one important variable was altered among test subjects. Some students were told the exam would be implemented before they graduated and others were told it would be long after they had graduated.

The results were VERY interesting.

If the exam would not personally impact them, students were overwhelmingly persuaded that this was a good idea. However, when students were told they were going to be personally impacted by such a decision, the tables turned.

As Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence: Science and Practice puts it, “Those subjects with no personal stake in the topic were primarily persuaded by the speaker’s expertise in the field of education; they used the ‘If an expert said so, it must be true’ rule, paying little attention to the strength of the arguments. Those subjects for whom the issue mattered personally, on the other hand, ignored the speaker’s expertise and were persuaded primarily by the speaker’s arguments.”

As Cialdini discusses in his book, most people rely on innate decision making processes, such as “is the author credible” when making decisions. However, when you cross a line, such as the above study did, credibility is not important. Rather, readers will put on their critical reading glasses and be ultra-critical of your proposal.

THE LESSON: Authority and expertise can persuade when the target reader has no personal stake in the topic. However, strong arguments prevail when the reader will be personally impacted by the topic.

Have you experienced this?

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 30th, 2006 at 12:58 pm and is filed under Writing White Papers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • Nuts. Nuts contain large quantities of mono-unsaturated fats, which protect against heart disease. There are many types of nuts, but almonds, peanuts and walnuts top my list of the best.
  • Nice article you have there! Can we apply this in any situation?

    <abbr>Shaz's last blog post..</abbr>
  • Your post astonished me! I've never realized persuasion is such a appealing topic like that. Thanks for sharing :)

    <abbr>David K's last blog post..5 Simple Tips To Lose Belly Fat Quickly For Men</abbr>
  • LMS
    Interesting article there. persuasion is one important thing that I would love to learn. This article enlightened me with some useful information. Thanks. any other resources you would recommend me?? Cheers
  • Interesting article. Funny I didn't come across this earlier. Anyway,that's some really good tips on persuasion there Michael. no matter what type of work your doing persuasion is a must to get things done. Great work with the article. Appreciate it.
  • Nice article Michael I recently have started a blog on loosing weight. explaining my story from my obese situation to where I am now. and I really want to motivate and persuade people on loosing there excess weight. Rather than them not thinking bout there weight. Your article really helped me work out on how to write effectively and persuasively. Thanks a bunch. Appreciate it.

    <abbr>Weight Loss Diet Blog's last blog post..Surgeries Are The New Diet</abbr>
  • Interesting. most of the writers nowadays lack persuasion in writing. Persuasion and motivation are the driving factors for any human being. To accomplish anything they want. For example getting fit or dieting. This is a wonderful article .

    <abbr>Diet Plans's last blog post..CleanseRX-Colon Cleanser</abbr>
  • Great article Mike. Persuasion is always an interesting topic. Everyone some day or the other will need to persuade someone for something. And nowadays since blogging is really in the high writing to persuade is important too. The article is great for this. Thanks a lot. Cheers
  • Hey Mike

    Thanks for the interesting post. I've never come across a topic like this but it does interest me. I'm still new to blogging and I believe this post will help me write much more effectively and much persuasively. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

    <abbr>Student Learning Disabilities's last blog post..Hello world!</abbr>
  • I think you are right but I dont think we should be overly concerned, especially when writing blogs or autoresponders. Just because we havent written books on our field, we still know a bit about it, and if prospective customers like what we say, they are more inclined to buy.

    We just need to be able to back up everything we write.
  • I can't believe they had to do a study to figure that out. That's just human nature. I recall something similar in my own experience. My last term teaching in this sub-par school district, the school administration with the full support of the Board of Ed. decided to institute school uniforms. The high school students were told that it wouldn't be implemented until the Fall term and that it wouldn't immediately be implemented at the high school. They were even told that it might never happen at the high school. The high school kids were overwhelmingly in favor of the new policy at the time. Now, 3 years later, the administration is having problems enforcing the policy because the students are rebelling.

    H - U - M - A - N Nature. If people can't see it happen from their own back yard, they generally don't give a crap.
  • If an expert said so, it must be true’ rule, paying little attention to the strength of the arguments. Those subjects for whom the issue mattered personally, on the other hand, ignored the speaker’s expertise and were persuaded primarily by the speaker’s arguments.
  • thx for that post. I've never heard about that before.
  • The business of persuasion sounds like a very interesting career. Seems like it can be used in so many different situations, which makes this skill very useful. Great post.
  • The great thing about that book, is that it applies to social settings as well.

    Some of those persuasion techniques in the book apply directly to seduction.
  • That book is one of my favorite books on business/marketing. The fun thing is that he writes it from each and ever perspective (the customer/target and the marketer). I haven't experienced the example you wrote of though...
  • nice
  • I can confirm Firefox on the Mac has a spell checker - it rocks! Maybe Safari 3 is better, but Firefox has so many extensions I would never go back.

    Anyway, interesting post. I love Cialdini, his book is on my 'Desert Island' list (although if ever I was stuck on a desert island, I doubt there would anyone around to persuade to do anything).

    But I think there must be more to this than just using a finer sieve. There must be a way of leveraging that personal stake in any debate, and using it for persuasion. After all, any kind of compliance professional (love that term) is likely to be trying to persuade someone who has a personal stake in the outcome - be it buying something, selling something, or whatever.
  • No problem, Mike.

    About the Mac:

    I'm using Firefox as my web browser. Even Mac fans I know like Firefox in the Mac. Maybe Firefox would give you the spell checker in this Wordpress window.

    Cheers,

    Luigi
  • Hey Luigi;

    I wish this thing had a spell checker! I am on a Mac and Safari has a built in spell checker, but Wordpress does not.

    Anyhow, great comments!

    Mike
  • About the common thread - make me think here, will you Michael?
    Grumble, grumble, #%^#@$^@%^

    OK, here goes:

    In his book, Gilbert gives numerous examples of how human nature itself subverts what we might like to call "objective decision making" (By the way, the spell check on this blog is nice! Too bad it didn't stop me from misspelling my own name in a previous post.)

    The book is chock full of studies and research that suggest any focus on perceived expertise, arguments and details is far too narrow when you seek to persuade those who would disagree with you.

    Of all things, a movie drives this point home more effectively than any book I've ever read. It's probably out on DVD by now as well. Look for "Thank You For Smoking." It's very entertaining and explains A LOT about what works and what doesn't when you're trying to persuade.

    Cheers,

    Luigi
  • Luigi - Share a bit about the common thread? - Mike
  • Hi Mike,

    I'm reading a book that touches on a lot of what your sources speak of. It's called Stumbling on Happiness, by Damiel Gilbert. Might provide some interesting follow-up posts.

    Cheers,

    Luigi
  • Now I got it. Thanks Mike.

    The more targeted the audience, the finer the sieve.
  • Mike;

    I think the angle is this.

    When you are targeting a group that does not have a personal stake in the solution (i.e.; it will not directly impact their jobs, life, wellbeing, etc.), you can hang your messaging on being a reliable source. Thus, being an expert will buy you persuasion points with these folks. They will rely on your expertise first, rather than the substance of your message.

    However, if you are trying to persuade someone who is likely to be personally impacted by your message, you had better have real strong arguments and support your claims.

    Think of it this way. If I was a border safety expert and was arguing that a bigger fence needed to be placed between the borders of San Diego and Mexico, many businesses would support the idea. However, farmers in Southern California that rely on migrant workers are going to be extra-critical of such a proposal because it will directly impact them. Thus, if targeting farmers, I should have all my arguments carefully crafted with details. But if targeting other businesses, I may not need as much detail. My expert status alone might get me the persuasion I need. Not the best example, but hopefully you get the idea.

    Mike
  • Can you give me an example of how to NOT trigger a detailed analysis ?

    Sorry, I'm not disagreeing, just having trouble figuring out how to avoid it.
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