Healthy Influence Blog

Sure, She Can Sing, But Is She Pretty?

It’s over and Susan Boyle lost, yet a persuasion lesson remains.  Consider two Persuasion Toolbox elements: arguments and cues.  When Miss Boyle first ambled onto the “Britain’s Got Talent” stage, the audience observed a frumpy, middle aged woman and began to snicker.  They saw the unAttractiveness cue in her and immediately formed an attitude about her “talent.”  But, then Boyle sang and gave them a powerful Argument and the audience changed immediately.

This interplay of cue and argument in the same event is what makes persuasion so complicated.  Susan Boyle possesses both an outstanding voice and a dowdy style.  As a persuasion “object” Boyle is at once a strong argument and a negative cue.  And, in her first performance we see the multifunctional nature of a persuasion object.  The same person, Susan Boyle, showed both cues and arguments for her talent.

This complexity is also instructive to all of us who present both strong arguments and negative cues in our personalities and behaviors.  Sure, we have obvious weaknesses that other people will cue off from, but people are also fully able to switch immediately and dramatically when you bring out your strong arguments.

It doesn’t hurt to have both strong arguments and positive cues.  But, if you think about it, most people seem to work on developing their “cues,” most notably, their appearance, rather than their “arguments,” for example, their skills and experiences, values and virtues.

Inventing Strong Green Arguments!

Green is a flag, a slogan, fighting words, the bloody shirt.  Green exemplifies a polarized issue of “for me or agin me,” of “I’d rather fight than switch,” of “tastes great versus less filling.”  In other words, Green operates as a WATTage switch that moves high WATT processors from objective to biased processing of persuasive information.  If you’re a wild eyed environmental apostle, you’d rather be Green than Machine and will fight all opponents until last coal mine operator is dead.

But, that’s no way to run a government and President Obama knows this.  The Washington Post outlines how Mr. Obama took this polarized issue and figured out how to govern with it by providing a novel set of arguments on the issue.  The article examines Obama’s thinking about how to make Green serene, mainstream, and supreme.  In other words, what’s the strong argument that generates that long, favorable conversation in your head.  Obama’s solution:  Green Is Jobs.

He’s decided to fight for Green issues as a means of helping the economy generate new, good paying jobs during a downturn.  Thus, Obama won’t have to fight over global warming, CAFE standards, or anything from an Al Gore slide show.  He’ll get Green change with the oldest strong argument an American politician can make:  Good Jobs!

Stayed tuned and see if Green Is Jobs actually gets legislation passed.

Be Afraid – the Science of Persuasion Is on the Web!

The hardest part of persuasion is not the motivation, imagination, or planning.  It’s the execution, the exact sights and sounds you deliver to provoke the change you desire.  Execution requires and permits nothing less than trial and error until you find the correct message.  That ensures many failures along the way.  But, now we have a new communication technology that speeds up this trial and error process and also minimizes the harms of failed attempts.

The Internet is the dream communication tool for persuasion.  Smart persuaders enjoy unparalleled message testing possibilities.  As described in this New York Times article, web marketers employ a constant cycle of trial and error for their Web based persuasion plays.  The scientific advantage from Internet messages is the tidal wave of data you get.  Consider old media plays:  You design an ad then place it in a print magazine or newspaper.  It can be weeks or months before you understand whether the ad worked and without more testing you may never understand why the ad worked (or, more likely, didn’t work).  With the Internet, the feedback loop closes faster and generates more of that “process” data – why it did or did not work along with whether is worked at all.

Now, if you are a consumer, you’re probably of two minds with this news.  First, hey, They are getting better at targeting and hunting me!  But, second, hey, that means they are getting better at offering me what I want and wasting less of my time.  Remember persuasion is always a voluntary communication.  Both the sender and the receiver are free to select or reject.  You do choose.  Just remember, when you’re on a computer They have a better sense of who you are, what you want, and how you think than when you are reading a print magazine or watching TV.

Why should you be worried?