Picasso claimed that "art is a lie that tells the truth", the writer Ursula Le Guin admitted that "deception is the bread of the novelist", and Marlon Brando once said: "If you can lie, you can be an actor". The job of any storyteller, marketer, or copywriter is largely about persuasion. Their goal is to convince us of their words, no matter how plausible they sound, and ours, in turn, is to believe them.
As author and renowned artist Hugh MacLeod put it, "The market for things you want to believe in is limitless".
Whether you're writing articles, making deals, or designing websites, persuasion always pays off. Do you want to learn? Watch the people who make you do unthinkable things. In this article, we'll show you how the world's most notorious scammers, politicians, and salespeople use your emotions to push you to take a certain action.
Sellers
Let's start with the most extensive group of people who use persuasion techniques: salespeople. By definition, their main task is to separate you from your hard-earned money. Peter Drucker, one of the most influential management theorists of the twentieth century, claimed that the goal of marketing is to make sales redundant:
"The goal of marketing is to make sales efforts unnecessary. You need to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service is exactly right for them and sells itself."
Yes, in essence, convincing someone who is already interested in buying the products you sell boils down to a simple description of the benefits that this product brings. But what's so interesting about it? Yes, at least that a good salesman is able to sell a venison steak to a vegetarian. How? And this is where all the fun begins. A recent study found that up to 95% of our decisions are made subconsciously, which means that people with the gift of persuasion can guide our choices in the right direction, even when we don't know it.
As Robert Cialdini, author of the best-selling book "The Psychology of Influence", puts it: The Psychology of Persuasion: "People have a surprisingly poor understanding of the factors that influence their behavior." You may not know why you're doing certain things, but a good salesperson can read the subtle subconscious signs you're sending, play on them, and lure you straight into their net.
Below are some effective techniques that experienced sales people use to get a customer to say "yes" even when they didn't intend to.
1. Take a ride on the "hill of persuasion"
In his Neuroscience Marketing blog, Roger Dooley describes what he calls "The Slide to Persuasion".
All people have a certain level of internal motivation, and masters of persuasion use it to their advantage. In the sliding model, Dooley is gravity. The potential client's current level of motivation determines how convincing you need to be:
"Without a sufficiently steep slope, the slide does not work. If the motivation turns out to be weak, the consumer will start to descend, and then stop. I distinguish two types of motivation: conscious and unconscious»
Most of all, marketers focus on conscious motivational factors: product features, advantages, prices, discounts. However, all these things only apply to the rational part of your brain — which, as we said, is responsible for only 5% of the decisions you make.
Unconscious factors can affect those who are not used to living with compromises. They help you make rational decisions more emotional and overcome the barrier of logical thinking by focusing on things like:
- Reciprocity - make the buyer feel a sense of duty towards you. In society, people tend to pay service for service, so free samples or an unexpected "upgrade" almost always encourages us to spend more.
- Scarcity - make your customers feel as if they have only one opportunity to get a product. We are more likely to ignore any logical arguments when we think that we will never have another chance to buy again.
- Use fundamental terms - every language has words. which have a greater cultural significance. The editors of the blog Changing Mind divided these words into three categories: Divine (benefits), Diabolical (disgust) and Charismatic (more intangible, but still powerful).
"Divine" words usually create some kind of emotional or basic need, whether it's security or belonging. Here's a list of words that salespeople often use to instigate loyalty:
1. Safety: guaranteed, proven
2. Control: powerful, strong
3. Understanding: because, because, so true, real
4. Greed: money, "cash", save, win, free, more
5. Health: safe, healthy, excellent
6. Belonging: owned, happy, good
7. Dignity: exclusive, only admired
8. Identity: you, (their names), we
9. Novelty: new, discover
However, you should keep in mind that the meaning of these words may change over time, as cultural associations change. Just take a look at the phrases that your email spam filter doesn't allow: "Act now!", "Free", "Affordable", "Cheap", "Limited time offer". All of these words were once "divine", but overuse has shaken their reputation.
2. Make them say no
Despite the fact that most sales training encourages you to" pull "the word" yes " out of customers as often as possible, research has shown that this repetition only weakens the significance of each positive response. If you get your prospects to say " no " first, they will be more likely to stick to their point of view when they eventually agree to your terms. Design your sales funnel in such a way that consumers can answer "no" at the beginning, and thus you will strengthen their confidence in subsequent positive answers.
3. Put yourself in a position of strength, literally
There are many studies that show how body language can affect negotiations, but it is the transition from a weak position to a strong one that helps in sales. The best salespeople start the conversation somewhat from below (both figuratively and literally).
How do scammers cheat?
A recent article in the New York Times drew attention to the suffering of 33-year-old Niall Rice, who gradually spent $718,000 on two psychics who promised to reunite him with his former lover. "I just got involved," he said. "That's what people don't understand."
The line between a good salesperson and a scammer is very thin, but the most significant difference is not only why the scammer pushes you to take certain actions, but how they do it. The success of a good scam depends on following one golden rule: know your worth.
In her book, The Confidence Game, Maria Konnikova spoke with scammers and their victims to understand how these people operate and why their methods work. She found that in this trade, as in a complex transaction, everyone relies on emotionality.
Step 1. Know who you're talking to. Know what they are sure of, and more importantly, what they doubt.
Step 2. Look for loopholes. Emotionally vulnerable situations give you a lot of opportunities for persuasion. When your life doesn't make sense anymore, you're more than willing to listen to someone who provides you with the answers you need.
Step 3. Create a cult of trust. The psychics in Niall's story used mysticism to convince him to pay further. Their services were based on faith, not reason. This means that you should not go against widespread belief systems. Instead, apply your knowledge to create your own belief systems.
Ferdinand Waldo Demara, also known as the "Great Impostor" who posed as a surgeon (performing real operations), lawyer, prison guard, cancer specialist and Benedictine monk, called this principle "expanding the power vacuum".):
"In this case, there is no competition, no past standards to compare you to. There are no laws, regulations, or precedents that hold you back or restrict you. Create your own rules and interpretations."
Persuading and influencing is much easier in industries where you can become an authority, because people are more likely to trust expert opinion. But as Paul J. Zak, a neuroeconomics at the University of Claremont, explains the secret of the scam is not only that consumers trust the fraudster, but also that he shows confidence in them:
"Social interactions, especially those where we feel a certain superiority over another person (for example, helping to solve a problem), trigger a powerful brain cycle that releases the neurochemical oxytocin. This hormone makes you want to reciprocate with people who trust you - even if you don't know them.
Oxytocin exposure is modulated by our large prefrontal cortex, which houses the "executive" areas of the brain. Oskitocin is responsible for emotions, while the prefrontal cortex is responsible for thinking".
So even if we think we're acting rationally, showing trust and vulnerability makes us think emotionally, which is the key to all beliefs.
Policies
At the top of our pyramid of persuasion are politicians. While scammers can convince one or more people of the truth of their story, politicians face millions of opponents, each with their own unique worldview and emotions. So how do you convince such a large group of people to follow your ideas?
In fact, by voting for a particular politician, you choose your lifestyle. This choice is dictated by your moral principles and considerations about what issues really matter. In addition, in their study "From Gulf to Bridge: When do Moral Arguments Facilitate Political Influence", Robb Willer and Matthew Feinberg also found that we perceive these moral beliefs as factual and universally applicable.
In this state, opposing beliefs may seem "wrong" to us for no logical reason. Trying to understand these third-party values, we fall into the so-called moral empathy gap-the inability to look at a problem from someone else's point of view.
The basic mistake of politicians and potential influencers is that they don't realize how deeply ingrained these moral beliefs are. You can't talk rationally about the merits of, say, same-sex marriage or increased military funding with someone who doesn't support such ideas on an emotional level.
Do you think this is a dead end? Not really. There is a technique called moral reframing, which allows you to rethink your arguments and align them with the audience's values. Focus on what they value, not what you do.
In his article "Mapping the Moral Domain", published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Professor Jesse Graham surveyed thousands of people around the world and found that our moral values can be divided into 5 main categories:
1. Harm/Concern
2. Fairness/Reciprocity
3. Loyalty
4. Authority/Respect
5. Purity/Sanctity
Looking at the politics of the United States as a prime example of rigid moral beliefs, Graham and other researchers found that liberals are most concerned with issues of care and justice, while conservatives focus on loyalty, respect, and integrity.
But how can good speakers and motivators use this knowledge to convince the opposition? Don Dreiper from Mad Men would say ,"If you don't like the conversation, just change the subject".
In their study, Wheeler and Feinberg presented liberals and conservatives with one of two messages in favor of same-sex marriage. The former emphasized the importance of equal rights for same - sex couples (and was aimed at those who are more attached to the moral values of justice), and the latter argued that "same - sex couples are proud and patriotic Americans" who "contribute to the development of the American economy and society".
Liberals supported same-sex marriage equally regardless of what statement they were shown, because they already believed in such a relationship and did not need to be convinced. But for conservatives, the idea of same-sex families seemed much more attractive if they read the patriotic message.
In another study, Wheeler and Feinberg found that conservatives reacted more loyally to environmental legislation when propaganda statements were presented with a focus on cleanliness, rather than in terms of liberal values of harm and control. In both cases, the respondents were told the same thing, but the wording of the messages changes everything.
As Professor Wheeler summed up in an article from The New York Times:
"To get inside the heads of the people you would like to convince, think about what they care about and provide arguments that hurt their principles. By doing this, you will show that you perceive those with whom you disagree not as enemies, but as people whose values are worthy of your attention".
Principles of persuasion
1. Know who's up against you
The first step of any scam or reasoned persuasion is to research the audience you want to influence. Market research, consumer feedback, data tracking-all this will allow you to get an idea of your opponent.
2. Understand their suffering and show them the benefits
Fraudsters can simply tell a person a story that will lead them to the necessary conclusion without significant instructions. But everyone else should conduct a full-fledged research to provide customers with a clear solution to their problems.
3. "Grease" the slide
Add a little scarcity and social proof to your offer to continue your "slide to persuasion".
4. The more complex a belief is, the more emotional it must be
Show emotion when faced with objections or rejections. Almost all modern scams and mass beliefs show that we are just emotional beings who are more than happy to make decisions without following the laws of logic.
5. Change the topic of conversation
Reverse the script. If what you say doesn't work, use your empathy to understand how the other person thinks and align their arguments with their values.
Instead of concluding
Remember that any con artist, crook, or politician succeeds only because we allow them to. A carefully planned scam will only work if it affects one of the most important aspects of your life. Motivation is already there, somewhere inside you, and no matter how small that spark is, with the right approach, someone will be able to ignite a bright flame from it.
In any case, you should not use the art of manipulation with bad intentions, because as Robert Cialdini warns:
"When these tools are used immorally as a tool of influence, any short-term gains are almost always accompanied by long-term losses".
