Since the beginning of time, human beings have tried to achieve their goals in the most optimal way possible by creating long-term plans and strategies for them. However, as social beings, our objectives often require that others act or think in a certain way.

Although in some cases the objectives of others coincide with our own, it is frequent to find that this is not normally the case, with incompatible objectives and conflicts that make it difficult to achieve our goals. How can we solve this problem? One of the methods that can be used is to try to change the behaviour, affection or opinion of others in a way that favours one’s own interests. That is, to make use of persuasion .

What is persuasion?

We understand persuasion as the process by which messages are used and arguments are provided to support them, with the purpose of changing a person’s attitude, causing him/her to do, believe or express an opinion on things that he/she would not originally do, create or express.

According to McGuire, this process of change depends mainly on the existence of the probability of reception of the message , that is to say, on whether the receiver of the message has the capacity to attend to and understand the message that is to be given, and on the acceptance of the receiver of the message.

Such acceptance will depend primarily on how the message is processed, as well as the level of involvement and familiarity we have with the subject matter being persuaded. Thus, someone who gives high importance to the topic being discussed and who feels challenged by it will pay special attention to the content of the message, evaluating it critically, while someone who does not consider the topic being discussed relevant will be less likely to even begin to analyze the content of the message may not be so analyzed, although he or she may be persuaded by elements external to the message itself.

For example, if someone tells us that this same text is going to be tested in a subject next week, those students who have the subject in question will be highly motivated to believe it, while the others will hardly change their attitude.

Persuasion is not based on slogans

Of course, it should be noted that the process of persuasion is not direct: that is, just because one person tells another that he should do more exercise or use X product with a convincing technique does not mean that the latter will obey him . Some elements that make it difficult to bring about real change are the presentation of weak arguments that the receiver can counteract by further strengthening his or her initial point of view.

Furthermore, believing that we are being manipulated through deception or simplistic claims makes it more difficult to be persuaded, causing resistance and even action contrary to that intended by feeling our personal freedom is under attack. This phenomenon is called reactance .

Key elements of persuasion

To better understand the process by which one person or medium can influence another by changing his or her mind, it is necessary to take into account what the key elements of the process are, being the sending source, the receiver, the message itself and the technique used to transmit it .

1. Transmitter

With regard to who transmits the information, the source that tries to persuade, there are two characteristics that are very much taken into account when it comes to being persuaded or not: their attractiveness and their credibility . It has been demonstrated in multiple experiments that we generally consider more reliable those individuals that we perceive as more attractive (partly because of the halo effect, in which we assume that someone who has one good quality will surely have others). This is one of the reasons why men and women of great physical attractiveness, or well appreciated celebrities, often appear in advertising in order to sell us a product.

However, the most influential characteristic of the source when it comes to persuading us is credibility , which is given by the level of competence of the source in the subject in question and the perceived sincerity.

Let’s see it with a simple example. We’re told that in ten years’ time Halley’s comet will crash into the Earth. If the person who tells us this is someone we meet on the street, we probably won’t change our behaviour, but if the person who tells us this is a NASA expert, it is more likely that concern about it will increase. Another example can be found in the use of celebrities to advertise products in advertising pieces. In this case, most celebrities not only tend to be attractive, but are also associated with a good level of credibility based on their public image.

2. Receiver

With regard to the receiver of the message, the main characteristics that affect the time of being influenced are the level of intelligence, self-esteem and the level of involvement with the subject .

It should be borne in mind that the effect of the level of intelligence should not be taken as a direct measure. It is not that those who are more influential have less intelligence, but someone with greater intelligence will have more resources to question the arguments made in persuasion. By having a greater capacity to learn and use memorized information in real time, the dialogue of the most intelligent people becomes more fluid and consistent, something that is reflected in the results they obtain when it comes to persuasion.

As far as self-esteem is concerned, we generally find that the lower our self-esteem, the less likely we are to consider our own arguments as valid, more easily accepting those of others.

3. Message

Another of the main elements when it comes to persuading someone is the message itself . Several studies indicate that using a more rational or more emotional message will depend on the type of response you want to encourage. It also affects whether the message incorporates elements that provoke fear or a sense of threat: according to Rogers’ theory of protective motivation, we will tend to seek out and consider more certain messages that allow us to minimize or avoid harm.

The fact that persuasion occurs more often with a closed or open message has also been investigated, indicating that it is generally better to leave a conclusion open to interpretation, albeit guided in the direction of that which is to be persuaded. This may be due to the fact that in this way the listeners are more satisfied when reaching these conclusions , something they experience as if it were a discovery made by themselves, without anyone trying to impose an idea on them from outside.

Finally, it has been discussed whether it is appropriate to indicate only those arguments that favour one’s own position or whether the arguments of the opposite position should also be indicated. In this aspect it has been suggested that it is more persuasive to show both positions, since otherwise it is more perceptible that the intention of the message is to create publicity or propaganda rather than to provide data to decide rationally, and this ends up provoking a reaction.

A way to influence others

As we have seen, persuasion is partly about detecting those “cracks” in a person’s psychological defenses that can be influenced and made easier to convince them to make a decision. However, this process should not give the impression that the person being persuaded loses or gives in to the person being persuaded, since the simple fact of experiencing an exchange of ideas by perceiving them from this perspective generates resistance that is difficult to break down.

Therefore, persuasion does not act through rationality, but through heuristics and mental shortcuts in general. People who are persuaded hardly realize it, since in many cases they believe they are acting only through their rationality.

That’s why these strategies are so used; they allow a person to make a certain choice without him noticing the presence of a plan to persuade him.

Bibliographic references:

  • Cialdini, R. (1983, 1984). Influence. The Psychology of Persuasion. Revised Edition. HarperCollins.
  • McGuire, W.J. (1969). An information-processing model of advertising effectiveness. In H.L. Davis & A.J. Silk (Eds.), Behavioral and Management Sciences in Marketing. New York: Ronald.
  • Rivas, M. & López, M. (2012). Social and organizational psychology. Manual CEDE de Preparación PIR, 11. Madrid.
  • Rogers, R.W. (1985). Attitude change and information integration in fear appeals. Psychological Reports, 56, 179-182.