How To Communicate Convincingly And With Authority
- People best remember the beginning and end of your speech.
- Use evidence to increase the persuasiveness of your message.
- Present a balanced argument and you will appear more trustworthy.
Whilst the content of your message is an extremely important part of successful persuasion, how that content is presented can effect how information is received and processed by the listener.
So in this article, we are going to be taking a closer look at some different ways information can be structured, with the aim of making it more persuasive.
Primary And Recency Effects
Various tests into memory and recall have shown that when presented with a list of information, people are best able to remember the items at the beginning and end of the list.
This is known as the primacy and recency effect, and something you can exploit to make sure people remember the most important parts of your message.
Primacy EffectÂ
The primacy effect occurs when the information you present first has the greater impact. This can be useful if you have some good and bad news to present.
In this case, delivering the good news first will produce more of an attitude change than if you presented the bad news first.
This means that the good news can make the bad news seem better than it actually is, thereby lessening the effect of that negative news.
Recency Effect
The recency effect occurs when the information presented last has the greater impact. This can be useful when presenting information to someone who will immediately decide upon your proposal.
In this case, presenting your key points at the end of your speech will keep those points fresh in the listeners mind.
However if the listener will take several days to decide on your proposal, then the primacy effect will occur, meaning they will best remember the very beginning of your speech.
Remember The Beginnings And Ends!
When communicating to other people try to ensure that your most important information is presented at the start and end of your speech, as this is what people will most remember and be influenced by.
At the end of your speech make sure you clearly state your conclusions, otherwise people will draw their own conclusions.
A good example of primacy and recency effects can be seen in court. Lawyers know that the very start of a court case can win or loose them the case.
This is why they make great effort to “implant” their most important points into the jury’s minds at the very start of the case.
At the end of the case they then clearly conclude their main points, to ensure there is no confusion about the information they presented.
Get To The Point
People today are very busy, and rarely have much time or attention to give you. If you want to persuade someone who is busy, you have to get straight to the point and gain their interest.
This can be done by making a bold or shocking statement that will make the listener look at you and pay attention.
In advertising this is known as the “hook”. And once you have someone hooked, you can then reel them in for a more detailed discussion.
Use Evidence
Using evidence to support claims or statements can vastly increase the persuasiveness of a message.
However bad evidence from untrustworthy or unreliable sources can have the opposite effect, and decrease the persuasiveness of a message. These effects occur due to something called negative or positive association.
Positive association occurs when something is perceived to be positive, simply because it is associated with something else which is positive.
Likewise, negative association occurs when you perceive something to be negative, because it is associated with something else that is negative.
So choose your evidence carefully when using evidence to support your argument. Here are some important points on how to choose good evidence:
Choosing Good Evidence
- Choose evidence from sources which are widely recognized as being trustworthy, accurate and reliable.
- Evidence supported by an independent expert, or another person, is more convincing than just presenting the evidence alone.
- Evidence supported by statistics, or peoples past experiences (testimonials), are perceived as more credible that just the evidence alone.
- Specific facts are more persuasive than general facts.
- Evidence consistent with a persons pre-existing belief systems is much more convincing than evidence which conflicts with their belief systems.
- Use examples or case studies as evidence.
Two Sided Messages
If you are trying to persuade someone to your point of view, it means they currently hold views which may be contrary to your own.
If this is the case, giving both sides of an argument will increase your perceived credibility, as you will be presenting an unbiased and balanced viewpoint. This will make the rest of your information seem more believable and more persuasive.
One Sided MessagesÂ
On the other hand, if someone is a firm believer in you and your message, you stand little to gain by balancing your argument, or acknowledging other points of view.
Your supporter doesn’t want to hear about someone else’s point of view, they want you to reinforce their own values and beliefs.
This means they won’t be looking to pick apart your argument, which allows you to bias information in your favor.
However in the real world this situation is quite rare, and you will most commonly encounter people who have a mixed viewpoint. So generally, it is best to use two sided messages.
Inoculate Yourself Against Attack
In ancient times, doctors discovered that by injecting a mild dose of a disease into a patient, they could inoculate that patient against an attack by a more virulent form of the disease. A similar principle can be used in persuasion.
For example, if you are trying to persuade someone but you know someone else is likely to say bad things about you to that person, you can inoculate yourself from that attack by anticipating the negative things that are likely to be said.
This could involve bringing up possible attacks that person is likely to hear about you, and then disputing them and stating why they are not true.
In the future when they hear those attacks, they will be much less likely to believe or be influenced by them as you have already prepared them for it and explained why they are not true.
If the information they are likely to hear is shocking, then by exposing them to it once, the next time they hear the information it will appear less shocking. This is known as desensitization.
An important point to remember when using this tactic, is that you should only use it when you know someone is going to say bad things about you to a person you are trying to persuade/influence.
Otherwise you may appear insecure and worried about what other people think of you, which suggests you may have something to hide.
This tactic is most useful when speaking to large groups of people, such as during a debate. However it is also useful when protecting yourself from rumors or lies that are being spread about you.
Comparisons
Comparisons can be used to make something seem better than it actually is. To do this, you simply compare what you want to promote (i.e. a product or idea) against something similar, although not necessarily related, which makes your promotion look better.
For example, when the Nintendo 64 games console was released it was promoted as having more sophisticated electronic components that the first space shuttle.
This certainly sounds impressive, until you discover that a modern day calculator also has more sophisticated electronics than the first space shuttle.
Today comparisons are frequently used by companies that wish to promote the purchase of a new product, to replace an old product.
You can see this when new video game consoles are released, as they will often tell you how much more powerful they are over the last generation console.
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