Persuasion in the Society - Research Paper Example

? Persuasion in the Society s Introduction In making various decisions, humans are influenced by different forces in their external environment. For instance, an advertisement is designed to persuade consumers to purchase a certain product although they may have never used the product previously. Persuasion is so powerful in the society that it makes one change their decisions. Washbush (2000) described persuasion as human communication which is intended to influence autonomous judgements and actions of others. It is a form of attempted influence that seeks to change the way other people think, act, or feel. It is usually different from other forms of influence used in the society as it does not impose iron hand conditions, stick-up, or any form of coercion. Moreover, in its purest form, persuasion does not involve exchange of money or any other material inducements for activities performed by individuals being influenced (Washbush, 2000). Furthermore, persuasion does not subject a person under pressure to conform to a certain group or authority (Murphy and Shleifer, 2004). This makes persuasion an important tool in the society since used in various sectors such as in marketing, politics and when giving evidence in court. This makes studying of persuasion in the society worth. This paper will explore effective communication in persuasion. Effective Persuasive Communication A person using persuasion focuses on advocating for a certain item or idea. The person involved in communication seeks to create, reinforce or modify behaviours and attitudes in the society and the audience evaluates the message to make a decision if they will accept the message or reject it. Persuasion can employ both verbal and nonverbal communication and makes use of ethical means to facilitate an open society and environment of free selection (Hyman, 2004). Since persuasion is usually intentional communication seeking to influence people’s behaviours, opinions and decisions; it uses both emotional and rational arguments that will help sway the views of the audience. Persuasion is closely related to social psychology which asserts that people do not have to be forcibly persuaded but should rather persuade themselves (Hyman, 2004). According to Aristotle, effective persuasion is likely to happen whenever the audience have a positive relationship and appreciate the speaker. The speaker must demonstrate three characteristics; credibility, charisma and control (Washbush, 2000). Credibility entails the power of the speaker to inspire trust among the audience and this comprises four aspects; expertise, status, competence and honesty. The audience assesses the expertise of the speaker in terms of position of the knowledge on the issue is discussing about. A person trying to persuade a ministerial convection on climate change to increase forest cover in their country must demonstrate that he can effectively link increased forest cover to the reduction of carbon dioxide in the environment. The audience looks at the status of the speaker in order to be persuaded by their message. It is therefore easy to persuade drug abusers to stop the vice if a former drug user speaks to them on what (s) he has gone through and the transformation observed after quitting drug abuse. Nevertheless, a market cannot effectively persuade consumers to buy a certain beauty product and yet they are not using that product. The speaker in persuasion must be competent in controlling his emotions and remain calm and versatile in delivering the message to the target audience (Lemanski and Hyung-Seok, 2012). In politics when a political party is trying to sell its ideas to the people, some will oppose it but to be persuasive to the crowd, the speaker must remain calm and use different strategies to deliver the message (Murphy and Shleifer, 2004). Persuasion must be backed by honesty; the audience must develop a perception that the speaker is trustworthy and sincere. Additionally, the audience must feel that the speaker is giving the message for their sake in contrast to selfish and biased motives. In persuasion, the speaker must demonstrate charisma which is defined as a magnetic appeal that the person seeking to persuade enjoys over others in the field. Charisma in persuasion is accomplished through a combination of familiarity, similarity, likability, and attractiveness. The crowd being persuaded must have a sense of being familiar with the person persuading. This is the reason why in politics, a person cannot move to a foreign country where they are not known and have ability to convince people to vote them in politics. Familiarity is used in marketing where companies having products already established in the market get it easy to introduce a new product (Funkhouser and Parker, 1999). For instance, a detergent company whose product has been doing well in the market could persuade consumers to buy their new product by claiming that they have come up with a new better product. Given that consumers are already accustomed to the products of the company, it will be easy to convince them to buy the new product. Charisma of the persuader is also boosted by their likability among the audience. Likability refers to extent to which the people admire the source of the message. According to Murphy and Shleifer (2004), the persuasion message must come from a source that closely resembles the audience. This implies that the values, beliefs and attributes of the audience should connect well with the audience. Lack of similarity in values and beliefs could be linked to the failure of some international agreements to yield the desired results. Taking an example of the Kyoto protocol where countries agree to cut their carbon emissions, failure of USA and Japan to ratify these agreements deals a blow to their success since they are the super powers and commitment to the agreement could influence other countries to cut their carbon emission. A person seeking to persuade a group must enjoy control over the group. To enjoy control, the speaker must have power over the crowd to dominate, punish or reward. An advertisement by a certain company claiming the effectiveness of a certain product is evaluated against their past repute in the developing superior products in the market (Washbush, 2000). Moreover, to capture control of the audience, the persuader must have authority over the audience. Authority may come from different areas such a person’s wisdom, age, level of education or awareness of a particular topic. In campaigns, politicians usually have higher information on political issues than the electorate and therefore the latter can listen to them and be influenced to vote them in (Murphy and Shleifer, 2004). Control also comes from the speaker’s ability to scrutinise the situation and make a rational decision. In persuasion, one must show to the crowd that they have examined or investigated a particular situation and can therefore attribute blame, declare innocence and grant forgiveness. This is evident in everyday situations for instance when a parent notes changes in the behaviour of their children and may investigate and note that ill behaviour of the child is attributed to the peers that the child spends time. Based on the evidence accrued, the parent can be able to persuade the child to stop associating with that group. He could point out various ills that members of that age group have been engaged in such as fights in school, poor performance or drug abuse. Based on this information, the child will be persuaded to leave that group. Conclusion Persuasion is an important tool in the society that is used to influence people to change their attitudes, behaviours and opinions. Persuasion is used to avert coercion and use of material inducement to influence people’s actions. For persuasion to be effective, the speaker must demonstrate that they are credible, charismatic and have full control of the issue. Persuasion operates within an avenue of logical propositions in order to ensure that the argument is rational. Despite the benefits that use of persuasion could bring into the society such as ensuring that people are influenced to uphold good behaviours and attitudes, its applicability remains to be low. Politicians continue to use material rewards to influence voters while most children have to be punished to uphold good behaviours and therefore there seems to be disconnect in application of persuasion in the society. Consequently, I recommend that more research be conducted in the use off persuasion in helping to change children behaviours thereby controlling vices in the society. I would apply persuasion in counselling and also developing positive attitudes to hard work at school. Moreover, at work place I would recommend use of persuasive messages in marketing campaigns. References Funkhouser, G. R., & Parker, R. (1999). An action-based theory of persuasion in marketing. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 7(3), 27-40. Hyman, J. D. (2004). Communicator attractiveness versus similarity in persuasion. University of Maryland, College Park). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 39 p. Lemanski, J. L., & Hyung-Seok, L. (2012). Attitude certainty and resistance to persuasion: Investigating the impact of source trustworthiness in advertising. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(1) Murphy, K. M., & Shleifer, A. (2004). Persuasion in politics. The American Economic Review, 94(2), 435-439. Washbush, J. B. (2000). Persuading aristotle: A master class in the timeless art of strategic persuasion in business. The Journal of Management Development, 19(3), 337-340. Read More