Some people are born with the gift to speak well and sway an audience in their direction. As a result, they’re persuasive and their ideas tend to be well received. Is persuasion a good skill? Or is it something to be wary of? Inherently persuasion is benign, thus neither good nor bad. It’s how it’s used that determines if you should or shouldn’t be persuading someone else.
What is Persuasion?
Persuasion is defined as a method by which someone or an entity tries to change the beliefs or behaviours of another person or group. An important element of persuasion is allowing the person or group being persuaded to choose if they want to change. Persuasion without choice is coercion.
Persuasion is ideally like consent in that it allows choice. However, they differ in that consent is an expressed willingness that results in assent. Persuasion is based on convincing someone about something through reason or influence that results in assent, even if someone at some level doesn’t really want to agree.
Trying to persuade someone else can be verbal or non-verbal. Persuasion is a matter of modern life and takes place in personal, professional, and commercial arenas. For example, online advertising, news columns, op-eds, or billboards are all used to sway people’s opinions.
Types of Persuasion
There are two types of persuasion. You can convince someone based on reason or appeal to their emotions to change their minds or behaviour. There are three different modes of persuasion that make convincing or appealing effective: ethos, pathos, and logos. Without these, it is difficult, if not impossible, for an audience to be swayed.
Ethos relates to credibility and character. Pathos is how emotionally bonded you are with those being persuaded. Logos refers to the rationale and logic of the rhetoric or argument at hand.
Professor Alan H. Monrow, based at Purdue University, defined what is now known as Monroe’s Motivational Sequence in his book, Monroe’s Principles of Speech. These five steps are generally accepted as the basics of persuasion.
5 Steps of Successful Persuasion
- Gain the attention of listeners.
- Define the problem and establish the need for resolution.
- Introduce and outline a solution.
- Visualise two futures – one with the solution and one without it.
- Explain the actions that need to take place to implement the solution successfully.
Being able to persuade is a skill of effective communication. It therefore includes having a good rapport with others, listening to them, and addressing any needs or concerns they have. This means that it can be a time-consuming process requiring thinking through ahead of time. To be persuasive, it is also important to have a strong awareness and understanding of one’s audience.
When is Persuasion Bad?
Being persuasive is a skill that can be used to advance a worthy or harmful cause. True persuasion seeks to advantage all involved. In contrast, it is regarded as harmful when it has a negative impact on the audience or another group while being gainful for the persuader.
Generally, if the aim is to get an audience to make a poor decision, then it is regarded as manipulation, not persuasiveness. Especially if the accompanying information is deliberatively misleading or incomplete.
Persuasion becomes unethical when a persuader makes threats that will harm the wellbeing of someone. For example, non-compliance results in mental, emotional, or physical harm. This is called coercive persuasion. At its essence, coercion is about power as opposed to the understanding that’s required for a persuasive approach that has beneficial outcomes.
How to be Persuasive in a Good Way
True intention determines if you’re persuading someone in a positive or negative way. It also has a bearing on the success of trying to persuade someone else. For example, if the intention is to advance everyone’s position, then it is also easier to persuade people of a cause. It also means that the persuader is open to changing their own mind based on the positive influence of others. There are four factors that need to be considered when trying to persuade someone.
4 Factors of Persuasion
- Who the communicator is.
- What the message is.
- How the message is conveyed.
- Who the audience is.
Let’s briefly look at each of these factors. Generally, an audience is less inclined to listen to someone who has a dubious reputation. It’s also easier to convince someone to listen if you seem knowledgeable. Furthermore, sounding knowledgeable impacts the quality of information relayed. How likeable and approachable someone is impactpersuasion’s success. Therefore, it’s advisable to put your best foot forward, from attitude to presentation.
What a message contains and how it’s packaged will dictate how it is received. To succeed, what content is included and how it is conveyed should be determined by who the audience is. For example, reason vs emotion-focused, the inclusion of counterarguments, arousing fear or enhancing goodwill.
A key question to remember when trying to persuade is What is the audience thinking? To successfully persuade it’s necessary to present a message that summons positive thoughts. If, while you’re talking, someone is provoked to think of contrary arguments, persuasive efforts will be ineffective. Effective persuasion involves sharing sufficient information clearly, without overwhelming the audience, yet still comprehensively addressing the topic at hand.
Finally, consider the context you deliver your message. Ideally, there shouldn’t be distractions if you want someone to follow what you’re saying and remember it afterwards.
Learn more about persuasion with SACAP Global
Effective communication continues to be an in-demand skill in our growing and evolving society. Learn more about effective communication and enhancing your persuasive skills with one of these SACAP Global courses: