Persuasion
By Crystal Tsui
Persuasion is the action or fact of convincing someone to do or believe something. It is used every day by individuals and even big corporations, whether it’s big adverts or a friend trying to get you to go see a concert with them. Persuasion and deception are often blurred; however, deception is the intent to “trick” someone into doing or believing something.
Some ways people persuade others are:
- The authority bias: influenced by opinion or actions of people in a position of power.
- Social proof: decide on how to behave by looking to what others are doing
- Door-in-the-face technique: persuader begins with a large request and they will expect to be rejected. The persuader will ask for a smaller request (their intended goal) and rely on guilt for the victim to accept
Persuasion is used daily even if you are not aware of it. Adverts and sales people use persuasion for their job. However, you are the one doing the persuading and want to improve your skills; all you have to do is listen. Listening to the other person and always be on their side is the most important aspect of persuasion. Here are other ways to improve your persuading techniques:
- Be open to the recipient of the person you are trying to persuade. You want them to be relaxed
- Mirror their response. This gives the impression that their viewpoint has been fully received
- Understand their viewpoint on the subject
- Like the previous step, be more agreeable. People like agreeable people and they will be more willing to be accepting.
- Don’t use the word “but.” It negates all the previous effort on trying to be agreeable and open to their viewpoint.
Sources:
CounselingRx 
