Did it ever occur to you that in spite of your best efforts, you jump on the bandwagon causing you to purchase fast food, designer goods, books, and other media whenever you are feeling under the weather? Marketers link, for example, happiness to a product and this way when you are feeling down, they can make you want the item.
Pre-suasion is the ability of marketers to be able to impact your mood while benefiting themselves at the same time. However, this method cant be used by anyone. Continue reading to learn how this can be accomplished and how you can be conscious of when it is occurring to you.
By taking advantage of a human tendency, certain questions elicit desired answers and influence decisions.
Should a stranger ask you a question pertaining to your happiness, beware because nine times out of ten, the question is not an innocent one. As a matter of fact, this is the type of question that a cult recruiter would most likely ask you.
Created to exploit our natural habit to focus on what is there instead of what isnt, these questions are pieces from the positive test strategy.
In other words, we look for hits instead of misses. As a result, if a person asks you, Are you unhappy? it causes us to look for the existence of unhappiness instead of the lack thereof.
However, cult recruiters are not the only ones guilty of this manipulation; telemarketers, pollsters and sales people also use it to their benefit. These simple questions, also known as single-chute questions, can be used to force us into believing that what they are trying to prove true is right.
A study taken in 1993 demonstrates this principle in action. Average Canadian college students were separated into two groups and were asked related questions. The first group was asked if they were unhappy with their social lives while the other one was asked if they were happy with their social lives. The result was astounding. In fact, the students from the first group ended up being 375 percent more likely to be unhappy than the students from the second group.
When a similar question is asked, often times they are used to impact the way a person sees themselves prior to getting them to make a decision which is why theyre called pre-suasive questions. Additionally, they can make a slight impact on whether potential customers will buy which makes these questions great tools for marketers.
Not long ago, San Bolkan and Peter Andersen who are communication scientists, got marketers to make an attempt to persuade test subjects to try a new soft drink and give their email address. Prior to the pitch, a few test subjects were qu
estioned about whether they thought of themselves as adventurous people who enjoy trying out new things. 75 percent of them tried the drink and provided their email. The test subjects that were not asked that pre-suasive lead in question had much less of a percentage of subjects who complied with the marketers. Only 33 percent actually gave the drink a taste and gave their email.
We give relevance to what catches our attention, so be wary of intentionally enticing things.
Another question that you could possibly get asked is, How dangerous is the threat of right-wing extremism? Prior to answering, you will go through all of the various accounts of recent as well as irrelevant acts of violence and threats that you have seen on the media through your head and then use them in your answer. This is because we give importance to the things that we can relate to or are interesting to us. As a result, because of this tendency, our reply will be different in relation to the events unravelling around us as we are being asked this question.
For example, people were asked, Name the two most important events in the past 70 years, in three separate situations. A couple of weeks prior to the tenth anniversary of 9/11, people named this tragedy only 30 percent of the time whereas a few days before its anniversary, the percentage rose up to 65 percent. Then it fell two weeks after with a 30 percent rate once again. This difference was caused by the ample media attention leading up to the anniversary.
It is important to be mindful as to why your attention is being diverted towards something. For example, suppose a person makes a remark about the countless dangers around the world prior to asking you to make an important choice. This person may or may not be making an attempt to either talk you into or out of something. In fact, directing your attention elsewhere is precisely what a successful pre-suader would do. On occasion, their tactic isnt to be a threat but to try to make their product, service, event, or even concept appear more attractive. Take, for example, a person that is trying to sell intruder alarms. That person will most likely begin their pitch with crime statistics. Thus, consider that the next time that either an extremist group or anything else for that matter is all of sudden is a hot topic in the media, know that in a month, it will most likely no longer be important.
We overestimate the influence of things that are apparent while ignoring less obvious influencers.
Why do people do the things that they do? This questions is key for people who to make you behave in a particular way. Additionally, any adequate pre-suader will say that the actual motivations behind our actions are usually not as obvious as we would think.
Financial self-interest is what classical economics say is the primary motivation for human behavior. The economist Felix Oberholzer-Gee tested this theory by giving people money and in return asked them to let him cut in front of them in the line. Just as assumed, the more money that he had offered, the more likely people let him go in front of them in the line.
Are people really that simple, though? Most likely, there are less apparent factors that we must take into consideration in order to understand our behavior and motivations.
Money is easy to use since it is tangible. However, that does not make it the primary factor. On the other hand, though, if something is less obvious or even invisible, that does not mean that its impact on our motivation is not as important.
In Oberholzer-Gees experiment, it should be taken into consideration that there is no actual exchange of money. This shows that something close to social responsibility also influenced their decisions. For example, suppose that he promised to pay more and more to allow him to cut in line, people could make the assumption that he actually really needed to go in front and thus felt obligated to help. However, our sense of moral and social obligation can become slightly obscured from money. This is because unlike hard cold cash, the feelings are intangible.
Any person can manipulate this human tendency to give an advantage to the apparent rather than the less apparent. Intentionally or not, CEOs do this very often. Since they are the literal face of the brand, they are credited towards the success of the business despite the fact that it may actually depend on the less visible worker doing all of the hard work. As a result, they get all of the promotions and bonuses whereas everyone else has to work much more to get the attention that they deserve.
Our decisions are influenced by word choice- a fact that certain people exploit.
Have you ever went to go see a movie after having read a review or because your friend had talked about it? If you have, your decision had been most likely based on the critical insight from the critic or your friend as well as by having heard words that are associated with things you like. That is one out of the many reasons that you shouldnt underestimate the capacity of carefully selected words. If chosen correctly, they can definitely make you do things.
A good pre-suader is very much aware of every word that they use as well as the mental connection that those words provoke in their interlocutor. Many of us believe that language is used to reveal a thought. However, this is not the only use that language has. Another way is to impact people.
A study made not too long ago by Gn Semin came to the conclusion that the main purpose of speech is to manage a listeners attention to specific aspects in reality. As soon as this has been done, those new aspects are linked to things that the listener already identified with in this reality. This mixture of things that they identify with and the new information governs the listeners final reaction. As a result, in order to impact the reaction of other people, you must carefully take into consideration the words that you use and how they will link to the listeners associations.
For example, take aggressive words. In one experiment, there were two groups that had to move around mixed up words to form sentences. The first group had aggressive or violent words. One of those words were kills, which needed to be arranged. The other group did not have any violent words.
Upon finishing making the sentences, the subjects had to do another test. They were supposed to choose a level of intensity for twenty electric shocks that an unknown person was going to get. Dreadfully, the subjects that had been exposed to the violent words chose levels that were 48 percent higher than second group.
To conclude, just slight exposure to particular words can impact peoples choices.
When it comes to pre-suasion, both our external and internal geographies play a part.
Almost everyone would more likely want an office with an ocean view instead of one with a brick wall for a view. However, this choice isnt only about the comfort view. It also deals with the fact that a good environment leads to better work. The environment or our external geography will probably initiate associations in our mind. This means that it can additionally be used to pre-suade either yourself or your employees.
There is a consultancy firm that specializes in designing incentive programs that award employees for reaching specific goals. They noticed that giving employees a workplace where they are exposed to their surroundings made them be able to work better. An example of such workplace is a conference room with glass walls.
They assumed that this induced a fixed association that allowed employees minds to be focused on the business at hand. In other words, a nice and open environment is a great incentive to do good work.
However, in addition to our external geography is our internal geography. That can also be used to impact performance.
Our attitude, expectations, prejudices and memories are all part of our internal geography. It consists of happy and sad factors. The way that we move our attention towards for example happy or sad memories, can also be used to move the attention of other people either towards or away as well.
A few studies on happiness have reflected how we feel better when we pay attention to the things that we have versus the things that we do not. This is seen in both stereotypes and prejudices that people use against one another. One example is the belief that boys are better than girls at math. As a result, girls lose their confidence in exams having heard this repetitively over the few years. This is especially prevalent when they are seated next to a boy. However, by dividing a class by the students gender, you will actually see a huge improvement in the same girls scores.
Toying with the environment and peoples mind can be done in many ways in order to get the result that you want. However, you first need to ask the important question. So, in order to confirm that you have the attention of your viewers, select a good location and set a stage that grasps their attention so that they see and link the way that you would like them to.
Final Summary
The art of preparing someone mentally to do something by doing a particular action or by making specific remarks prior to the actual moment when the person needs to make a decision is pre-suasion. In other words, it is when you set the stage and put the pieces into place so that you can encourage people to say or do the things that you would like them to.
Practical advice:
Get customers to give you advice instead of an opinion.
Lots of companies make an effort to make a bond with their consumers instead of asking for their opinion. However, this is a contemplative act. It ultimately moves their focus towards their own needs. As a result, ask for their advice instead. This will get them to put themselves in your shoes which creates a more honest bond between both the company and the customer. Also, this helps them identify with the item which is one way to pre-suade them into buying more.