Advanced Persuasion Techniques
Polls and Statistics
Polls and statistics are used to persuade people all the time. After all, it combines the most convincing aspects of expert testimony and the bandwagon technique. Statistics usually imply some level of a scientific approach whereas polls usually gauge thoughts or beliefs of individuals or groups of people. And theoretically, it makes sense, people want to know what others think and they certainly want to know what scientists or experts think.
Nevertheless, there are few (if any) individuals with education in social sciences that lend much credence to typical statistics and polls. Anyone who has taken a statistics class knows that for something to be considered statistically significant requires only a minimal percentage difference. Such differences are very important under the right circumstances, but most of the statistics the average person will see may be complete fiction. That is not to say that the person doing the poll or evaluating the statistics is lying or is unethical; the reality is that an individual's response to any question will vary considerably based on the way the question is asked. The format of the question, the way the question is worded, the optional answers, the person asking the question, and so forth all effect how any respondent is likely to answer. Unfortunately, most of the so called statistics or polls that you see are essentially worthless. As the joke goes, "According to Abraham Lincoln, 67-percent of people believe what they read on the Internet."
Reverse Psychology
Over time, more and more people have become familiar with the persuasive technique commonly called reverse psychology. Reverse psychology is simply a technique that essentially tricks a person into doing what you want by pretending that it is not what you want, is what you do not want, or is something that you do not want as much as something else. This technique is used in movies and television a lot and typically is very easy to recognize. One such example might be a parent who wants their child to eat his broccoli. When the parent tries to put broccoli on the child's plate, the kid wrinkles his nose and says that he does not want it. The parent then says, "Great! I was hoping you would not want your broccoli tonight so I can eat it all!" Theoretically, the child now decides that he does want his broccoli since obviously it must be wonderful or else Dad would not want it all. With young children and very gullible people, this technique can be effective but if you attempt to use it on an astute individual, not only may you fail in your persuasion but you may come across looking foolish as well.Scapegoating
Scapegoating is such a simple idea that the youngest child knows how to do it. Every parent, teacher, or babysitter has caught a child breaking a rule or found something wrong and the child automatically points his finger (literally or figuratively) at his sibling, pet, parent, or somewhere else. For this reason, this simplistic persuasive concept is actually very challenging to execute effectively (depending on your target audience). Obviously, the most successful way to use scapegoating is when it is actually plausible that the person or thing you were blaming can be responsible and you are unlikely to get caught in the lie. For example, imagine that you are responsible for paying the bills but you forget to pay on your credit card. When a representative from the company calls you to ask about the missing payment, you quickly say, I'm so sorry; my wife pays the bills. I will make sure we put a check in the mail tonight." By not owning up to your mistake, you have just saved yourself an argument or a lecture from the credit card company. Scapegoating can be used on a small scale (such as this example) or on a large scale, such as one branch of the government always pointing the blame at another branch.
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