The Necessary Art of Persuasion - Case Study Example

Case study In the contemporary world, time for commanding and controlling people in order to drive an idea is over. Nowadays, you have to appeal to the people by helping them to see your ideas, by giving them some reasons, and establishing some credibility. In other words, in order to achieve a correct emotional match with your audience, you need to carefully plan, frame your arguments properly, and present brilliant supporting evidence. Thus, persuasion is now the language of success and it requires using logic, personal enthusiasm and persistence in order to convince others to buy your good idea (Cogner, 1998). Bettinghaus and Cody in Perloff, (2012) defines persuasion as a conscious individual’s attempt to change behaviour, attitudes and beliefs of another group of individuals or an individual by use of spoken or written words in order to convey information, reasoning, or feelings or a combination thereof. Seiter and Gass (2010) ascertain that communication is the most crucial tool employed in every type of persuasion. Without a proper strategy of communication, that is, the one that addresses the concerns of a person, offers solutions or does both in a concise and clear manner, it becomes difficult to win someone’s way of thinking such as intentions and beliefs among others. The problem in the case study is ineffective persuasion. Ros, a well-respected medical scientist wants to persuade people with different backgrounds to fund her project. Although she motivates her audience by warmly welcoming them, her message is very complicated. Her audience represents people from different backgrounds where most of them have very little or no knowledge in her field of research. Thus, due to lack of the ability to understand her message, the persuasion becomes ineffective. This essay identifies a suitable solution for Ros to persuade more audience. The inefficient persuasion in the case study is happening because Ros does not understand the audience. The audience represents the government officials and professionals from a range of different backgrounds. This means that many are not familiar with the research that she is undertaking but she provides them with documents that are filled with complex issues and jargon that are different from what they do. This negatively affects their understanding on the importance of the project since they are left alone to go and read the complex folders in order to understand the seriousness. Based on this complexity, it is likely that a few no audiences would take their time to understand such a complex document that does not directly affect them. This is supported by the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), a theory that views persuasion mainly as a cognitive event. That is, where the audience uses mental processes of reasoning and motivation to either accept or reject persuasive messages. According to this theory, it is important to understand the audience prior to the creation of a persuasive message (Dainton, & Zelley, 2004). The first solution is because an elaborative message as evidenced in the case, leads to ineffectiveness in persuasion because the audience are not interested with information. In this solution, Ros must overcome her own credibility in order to earn the trust of the audience and prove her capability as a medical scientist (Cogner, 1998). Then she needs to use the endorsements of a celebrity such as the famous medical scientist in the region in order to gain public support. This will increase the participation as the audience become involved due to credibility of persuader and other celebrities. In this way she will be able to change environment of others by focusing on the importance of the research (Gold, Arbor, & Douvan, 1997). This is supported by the Elaboration Likelihood Model which advocates for emotional involvement and persuasion of the audience by use of superficial means which include use of celebrities (Dainton, & Zelley, 2004). Given the complexity of the information, the second solution involve a situation where Ros (persuader) will use a strategy of convincing the audience to do the small things first, then once the audience agrees to the small things, it will be easier for the audience to accept the larger and complex request in order to main consistency. The small thing involves creating awareness to the audience that innocent children are dying due to lack of this vaccine. Such message may arouse fear in the audience due to safety of their children (Vaughan, & Hogg, 1995). Since the audience is already committed, they will be ready for the next big thing for persuading them to contribute financially through campaigns. In this case, she will be able to know what audience want as she converses and involves them (Forsyth, & Kaye, 1753). This is also supported by the ELM theory that supports a sequential procedure of persuasion where one begins with the simplest part and consistently adopts the bigger issue (Dainton, & Zelley, 2004). Based on this theory the best solution involves the combination of the two since they advocate for increased involvement and persuasion of the audience in different ways. Based on the first solution, if the audience will not be able to elaborate the message extensively, then other factors such as public involvement will persuade him or her (Wilcox et al., 2003, p.214). Based on the second solution, the change in attitudes due to persuasion will persist for a longer time leading to long-term benefits. Thus, the feelings achieved through persuasion tend to be permanent. For instance, once the persuader achieves the change of attitude while doing the small things this will benefit her from the beginning serving as short-term benefit and it is likely to stay that in future, thus generating long-term benefits. This is supported by the central route of persuasion which is a component of ELM theory that leads to more permanent change of attitude (Dainton, & Zelley, 2004). These solutions will be implemented by first using the media to create awareness to the people on the current dangers and future expectations of this disease if the action is not taken. This is done by the persuader through different media in order to establish her credibility. The based on the first solution, she needs to hold seminars that will incorporate the celebrities in the health sector. Based on the second solution, she needs to organise morning tea, this time starting with the simple task showing the need for the community to act then bring about the bigger seminars for bigger request. By using such approaches, the people will be unaware of the indirect influence of persuasion but they will find themselves already committed (Russo, & Chaxel, 2010). This is supported by the Fogg Behaviour Model which state that the change of behaviour by persuasion is automatically implemented based on the following factors; motivation, ability and triggering (Fogg, 2009). The problem in the case study is ineffective persuasion by Ros that has been attributed by the complexity of the message, as different types of audience do not understand the information. As a result, the audience fails to participate due to lack of the importance of the issue. The best solutions involve a combination. The first solution involves incorporation of a celebrity from the health sector in order to increase the involvement of the people. The other solution involves approaching the issue from the simplest part to the bigger issue in order to rule out the complexity as the main challenge. This solution will lead to achievement of the goal of the persuader as well as achievement of the role of the public in provision of better health. Reference list Conger, J 1998, ‘The necessary art of persuasion’, Harvard Business Review, May-June 1998, pp 84-95, Retrieved from: http://web.sau.edu/RichardsRandyL/art%20of%20persuasion%20conger.pdf Dainton, M., & Zelley, ED 2004, Applying Communication Theory for Professional Life: A Practical Introduction (Chapter 5: Explaining Theories of Persuasion), p. 103-130, http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/4985_Dainton_Chapter_5.pdf Fogg, BJ, 2009, A Behaviour Model for Persuasive Design, p. 1-7, http://bjfogg.com/fbm_files/page4_1.pdf Forsyth, P & Kaye, F 1753, The Art of Successful Business Communication. Retrieved from, The Art of Successful Business Communication-  Ch4 Being Persuasive Gold, M, Arbor, A, & Douvan, E 1997, A new outline of social psychology, Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association. xiii, 287 pp. Perloff, Richard M 2012, The Dynamics of Persuasion : Communication and Attitudes in the Twenty-First Century. Retrieved fromThe dynamics of persuasion: Communication and Attitudes in the 21st Century Russo, JE, & Chaxel, AS, 2010, “How persuasive messages can influence behaviour without awareness”, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 20, p. 338–342 Seiter, RH, Gass, JS 2010, Persuasion, social influence, and compliance gaining (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon, p. 33 Vaughan, G. and Hogg, M 1995, Introduction to social psychology (Chapter 5: Changing attitude); Sydney, p. 97-104 Wilcox, Dennis L, Cameron, Glent T, Ault, Philip H, & Agee, Warren K 2003, Public Relations Strategies and Tactics. Boston: Pearson Education. Read More