Using Authority In Persuasion

• Authority plays a big role in persuasion.
• People have a natural tendency to obey authority.
• The clothes you wear can give you power and authority over people.

Perceived authority plays a very big role in how persuasive you are. If someone thinks you have expertise in a subject (e.g. a doctor, lawyer, teacher etc...) they will be much more willing to listen to what you have to say, and do what you ask of them.

The importance of authority in persuasion was demonstrated by a famous experiment carried out by psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s.

In this experiment a volunteer was asked to administer an electric shock, for every wrong answer the test subject gave. For every wrong answer, the strength of the electric shock was increased.

Despite cries of pain and pleading for the experiment to stop, the researchers found that when the volunteer was told to continue they would continue shocking the test subject, even going so far as to shock them with lethal voltages of electricity.

The test subject of the experiment was an actor, and never received any electric shocks. The experiment was designed purely to see how far the volunteer would go when given instructions by another person in authority.

From this research it was concluded that the volunteers acted the way they did, due to a deep seated sense of duty to authority that we all have within us.

Despite the fact that many of the volunteers wanted to stop, they could not bring themselves to defy the wishes of the authority figures (the researchers).

It also showed just how easily a person could be ordered to kill someone, if an authority figure order them to do it.

This sense of needing to obey authority can be seen in all aspects of life. Without it, society would have little order and collapse.

This is why being seen as an authority figure can have such a powerful impact on your ability to persuade, and something everyone should work on creating for themselves.

The Power Of Uniform

One of the quickest ways to gain authority is through the clothes you wear. For example, police, military and legal uniforms are all signs of authority and tell us we should obey that persons orders.

The power of uniform was demonstrated by another famous experiment, this time in the 1970s, called the Stanford Prison experiments.

In this experiment, two groups of volunteers were dressed as either prisoners or guards. Both groups lived in a mock prison together for several days.

During the experiment the volunteers very quickly adapted to their role of either prisoner or guard.

The guards became very dominant, even going so far as to abuse the prisoners, who themselves became psychologically disturbed. Some of whom had to be removed from the experiment early.

The conclusions of this experiment were similar to those obtained a decade earlier from the Milgram experiments. Those being, that authority can cause a person to perform acts that are beyond what they would normally do.

In this case, dressing up in uniform rapidly created authority for the guards, ultimately causing them to dominate and abuse their prisoners.

Many people have compared the findings of this experiment to the torture that occurred at Abu Ghraib, this time by American military personal on Islamic men.

When applying these studies to persuasion, make sure to always establish yourself as an authority figure whenever possible. You can do this though qualifications and expertise you have in a particular area.

In addition to this, choose your dress style wisely. The correct clothes will help to reinforce your authority, and therefore your overall persuasiveness.