Persuasion is a useful skill to have in everyday life. Maybe you work in sales and need to improve your performance. Maybe you would like to convince other people of your opinions in conversations and debates. Or maybe you would like to increase your chances of getting a promotion. Whatever your situation, this lesson will help you improve your capability to convince others. I will teach you 12 persuasive devices: empathy, shock, twist, emotive, guilt, flattery, threat, the rule of three, rhetorical question, repetition, deal, and statistics. You can choose which device works best for you depending on what you hope to achieve. After watching, go test your new skills by convincing someone to do something... be good! TRANSCRIPT
Hi. Welcome back to engVid. Today's lesson we are looking at persuasive devices; such a useful skill for so many different things in life. Maybe it's at the... at work, maybe it's doing a presentation at work, maybe you're persuading a friend of a point of view - this lesson could come in handy, whoever you are. We're looking at twelve persuasive devices.
Today's situation: So, I'm flying to India on Saturday and I want to get an upgrade from normal economy class up to first class. So, let's see how we can use these persuasive techniques to achieve that goal.
First off: Empathy. Empathy is getting someone to see your point of view; getting someone to understand where you are coming from; get them to see your POV. (short for point of view). So, my example that I have come up with:
"You must understand, our baby won't sleep if we are in the economy section."
I'm getting the person to try and see things from my side.
Next technique: Shock - suddenly get their attention; surprise them.
"He's smashing the door! He's going to go mental! He's going to cause chaos! There will be a crash! We will all die!"
Okay? Surprise them.
Twist: Get them to suddenly see things from a new point of view; get them to rethink. For example:
"Do you want your passengers to be screamed at for 10 hours?"
Okay? Flip it over.
Emotive. So, we can see in here the word... well, the word "emotion" - this is obviously going to be about feeling. Okay? Get them to feel sorry for you. Sell a bit of a sub-story; use those emotive words, those feelings that have strong emotions. Okay? Get them to feel sorry for you.
"My tired, sleep-deprived family."
Okay? So I'm laying on the description to try and get them feel sorry.
It kinds of leads into this next point of: Get them to feel guilty if they don't help.
"I'm just asking for a chance of calming this baby down."
Okay? "I'm just", so: "Poor, old me, just asking for a little bit of help." Okay?
So, we're getting them on our side; maybe shock, maybe twisting it around, and then really laying on the emotion so they're really understanding this point. I'm not saying that all of these persuasive devices have equal merit. Okay? There are some that are better to use; there are some you use more in an extreme situation. Okay? Obviously the strongest thing when you're being persuasive is to make sure that your... your ideas, your reasons are really strong; the device is kind of the cream on the cake.
Flattery - another quite naughty technique. This is where you are paying compliments. You may wish after this video to watch a couple of my other videos, which I've made on compliments and criticism. So, flattery. An example, here:
"A professional person like you, understanding... a professional, understanding person like you must see that it's clearly the right thing to do to put us in the first-class section of the plane."
If they don't do that, maybe you can threaten them. So, threat is where you say something, and if they don't do that, it's going to be trouble. Threat. Example:
"Let me talk to your boss."
Okay? "Let me talk to your boss." If they don't do something, there's going to be a consequence.
Rule of 3 - now, we saw this in the Shakespeare, I think it was the insults lesson where we have... actually, no, it was the Shakespeare compliments, the Shakespeare chat-up lines where we have three things in a row. The rule of 3, it's a list of three reasons or qualities. Okay? I don't just say it once; I say it twice, and then three times: "I came, I saw, I conquered." Or the French motto: "Equality, liberty, fraternity", but in French, obviously. Okay, so the rule of 3. My example in this situation:
"It would provide reassurance, comfort, and support."
So, when we reassure, we are putting that good feeling back into someone. Yeah? "Re" - back in; when you assure, you're telling someone it's okay. When we feel reassured, we're feeling okay again. Comfort, support. Okay? They're all three quite similar words, but the rule of 3, I'm just saying it in a slightly different way each time.
A rhetorical question. A rhetorical question is a question that does not expect an answer. […]
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