Friday, February 24, 2006
Help Others to See Your Side
Here are four phenomena by which people are motivated to change their beliefs and behavior. Understanding them enables you to encourage others to see it your way.
Elliot Aronson, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Oregon and Richard E. Petty, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Ohio State University, provided the research and related ideas for this section and reviewed my description for accuracy.
1. Remember the Numbers or Images?
The Reader's Digest is full of dramatic personal stories that follow certain formulas to evoke an emotional response in readers.
One story might follow this structure:
Marie Beckinger (not her real name), a thirty-two year old mother of two, was driving home from grocery shopping when a dented pickup truck streaked through a red light.
The truck was driven by a would-be bank robber, trying to escape the police.
He struck the passengers’ side of Mary's car where her infant was buckled into his red car seat in front and her toddler was belted to his car seat in back.
The side and front car safety airbags car inflated within 20 milliseconds, lifting and displaying her children like jewels on display in cushioned boxes.
You would learn about the effectiveness of car airbags through comparative charts and factual summaries if you opened another magazine, say, Consumer Reports.
Which approach is more deeply felt and memorable? Stories and examples are more persuasive than statistics. They are usually easier to comprehend and require less effort to consider. People will have an emotional response to examples and consider them longer than they will statistics, which they simply try to remember. They react more fully to examples, as they recollect their own similar personal experiences.
But for information to be memorable and credible, start with the story and continue with the statistics, like a one-two set-up to appeal to their heart, mind and memory.
2. What’s the Pay-off or Penality?
Consequences influence behavior. People are more likely to do things when they like what will follow. Thus people are reinforced to repeat certain ways of acting, reduce other ways and stop still others. When you wish someone to act differently, how are you supporting or preventing that desired change? Consider the three Rules of Consequences and Reinforcements:
1. Consequences which give rewards increase a behavior.
2. Consequences which give punishments decrease a behavior.
3. Consequences which give neither rewards nor punishments extinguish a behavior.
If you want to increase a behavior (make it more frequent, more intense and/or more likely), then provide a consequence of reward.
If you want to decrease a behavior (make it less frequent, less intense and/or less likely), then provide a Consequence of Punishment.
If you want a behavior to disappear, then provide no Consequence (ignore the behavior).
3. Shoot to Save
How do you get people to feel more supportive of your idea, cause or product?
You “innoculate” them.
For example, most American youth get shots to innoculate them against deseases such as polio and diphtheria. The shot actually gives one a weak dose of the virus that activates the body's immune system. As one’s immune system fights off this weak attack it becomes stronger so it can withstand a larger assault of the desease.
If, however, the shot contains too strong a dose, it would overwhelm the immune system, causing a strongly adverse reaction or even death.
Deepening beliefs happens in a similar way. If you want to strengthen someone’s existing attitude or behavior, then create a situation where that person experiences a “weak” attack on that belief.
Here’s how:
1. Warn a person or people of an impending “attack”.
2. Make a weak attack or watch an attack happen.
3. Inspire the person(s) to actively defend the attitude.
1. Warn of the Attack.
When people are threatened in this way they immediately begin to generate possible defenses against the coming attack. In fact, people will consider multiple actions, many that may never be useful or necessary during the coming attack.
This is akin to a group of soldiers who have some time to prepare for an enemy’s approach. They may not know exactly what the enemy will do, so the soldiers get every weapon and construct every barrier they can. Maybe they won't use everything, but they want it available, if needed. Thus they become more mentally and physically prepared and motivated to defend.
2. Make a weak attack or watch an attack happen
An attack is, in fact, a form of “persuasion,” an attempt to change the thoughts, feelings, or actions of others.
Advertisers "attack" our existing attitudes when they try to get us to prefer their product over a competitor. The attack must be strong enough to force the receivers to defend. It must not be so strong as to overcome the defense.
3. Inspire the person(s) to actively defend the attitude.
The more actively someone defends an “attack” or opinion, the more intensely that person will believe in and act on that view. An active defense occurs when the receiver does more than merely think, but rather acts.
Example: Political campaign strategists often try to influence votes through “innoculation.” The Republican party might mail flyers to registered Republicans voters warning them that the Democrats are likely to attack Republican candidate on certain hot issues. The flyers provide a weak version of the attacks that they predict will come. Thus, when the real Democratic attack ads hit, the Republicans are “innoculated” again the arguments, and more likely to fight them off.
4. That Seems Reasonable
A stranger approaches you at the shopping mall one day and politely asks if you would spend just one or two minutes hearing about how you can help fellow Americans remain more safe in these times of greater risk to bio-terrorism. You say you have only a few minutes.
The stranger briefly describes the importance of the local blood bank. You nod your head in polite agreement, but you know there's a gimmick coming. Then the stranger asks, "Would you be willing to be a blood bank volunteer? You'd have to give ten hours a week for the next year and solicit blood donations from the people of our community by contacting them over the phone or face-to-face.”
You politely tell the stranger, "No."
The stranger looks a little disappointed and follows up: "Well, if you can't give your time, could you at least give a unit of blood right now? We have a station set up right down this hall in the mall."
People do this Two Step dance in two different ways. The first way, as illustrated by the blood bank story, is called the “door-in-the-face” (DITF) and the second is the foot-in-the-door (FITD). With DITF, a would-be influencer’s first request is aimed solely at getting the receiver to say no very quickly. The influencer’s second, much less extreme request is then much more likely to be accepted.
In the other foot-in-the-door tactic, the influencer starts with a small request that almost no one would refuse. After getting a "Yes!" response to this little request, the influencer makes a bigger request.
Because the listener has already “invested” in the idea, they are often more likely to increase that investment, and agree to the second request.
Example, you are first asked to sign a petition, then asked for a donation of time or money.
Elliot Aronson, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Oregon and Richard E. Petty, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Ohio State University, provided the research and related ideas for this section and reviewed my description for accuracy.
1. Remember the Numbers or Images?
The Reader's Digest is full of dramatic personal stories that follow certain formulas to evoke an emotional response in readers.
One story might follow this structure:
Marie Beckinger (not her real name), a thirty-two year old mother of two, was driving home from grocery shopping when a dented pickup truck streaked through a red light.
The truck was driven by a would-be bank robber, trying to escape the police.
He struck the passengers’ side of Mary's car where her infant was buckled into his red car seat in front and her toddler was belted to his car seat in back.
The side and front car safety airbags car inflated within 20 milliseconds, lifting and displaying her children like jewels on display in cushioned boxes.
You would learn about the effectiveness of car airbags through comparative charts and factual summaries if you opened another magazine, say, Consumer Reports.
Which approach is more deeply felt and memorable? Stories and examples are more persuasive than statistics. They are usually easier to comprehend and require less effort to consider. People will have an emotional response to examples and consider them longer than they will statistics, which they simply try to remember. They react more fully to examples, as they recollect their own similar personal experiences.
But for information to be memorable and credible, start with the story and continue with the statistics, like a one-two set-up to appeal to their heart, mind and memory.
2. What’s the Pay-off or Penality?
Consequences influence behavior. People are more likely to do things when they like what will follow. Thus people are reinforced to repeat certain ways of acting, reduce other ways and stop still others. When you wish someone to act differently, how are you supporting or preventing that desired change? Consider the three Rules of Consequences and Reinforcements:
1. Consequences which give rewards increase a behavior.
2. Consequences which give punishments decrease a behavior.
3. Consequences which give neither rewards nor punishments extinguish a behavior.
If you want to increase a behavior (make it more frequent, more intense and/or more likely), then provide a consequence of reward.
If you want to decrease a behavior (make it less frequent, less intense and/or less likely), then provide a Consequence of Punishment.
If you want a behavior to disappear, then provide no Consequence (ignore the behavior).
3. Shoot to Save
How do you get people to feel more supportive of your idea, cause or product?
You “innoculate” them.
For example, most American youth get shots to innoculate them against deseases such as polio and diphtheria. The shot actually gives one a weak dose of the virus that activates the body's immune system. As one’s immune system fights off this weak attack it becomes stronger so it can withstand a larger assault of the desease.
If, however, the shot contains too strong a dose, it would overwhelm the immune system, causing a strongly adverse reaction or even death.
Deepening beliefs happens in a similar way. If you want to strengthen someone’s existing attitude or behavior, then create a situation where that person experiences a “weak” attack on that belief.
Here’s how:
1. Warn a person or people of an impending “attack”.
2. Make a weak attack or watch an attack happen.
3. Inspire the person(s) to actively defend the attitude.
1. Warn of the Attack.
When people are threatened in this way they immediately begin to generate possible defenses against the coming attack. In fact, people will consider multiple actions, many that may never be useful or necessary during the coming attack.
This is akin to a group of soldiers who have some time to prepare for an enemy’s approach. They may not know exactly what the enemy will do, so the soldiers get every weapon and construct every barrier they can. Maybe they won't use everything, but they want it available, if needed. Thus they become more mentally and physically prepared and motivated to defend.
2. Make a weak attack or watch an attack happen
An attack is, in fact, a form of “persuasion,” an attempt to change the thoughts, feelings, or actions of others.
Advertisers "attack" our existing attitudes when they try to get us to prefer their product over a competitor. The attack must be strong enough to force the receivers to defend. It must not be so strong as to overcome the defense.
3. Inspire the person(s) to actively defend the attitude.
The more actively someone defends an “attack” or opinion, the more intensely that person will believe in and act on that view. An active defense occurs when the receiver does more than merely think, but rather acts.
Example: Political campaign strategists often try to influence votes through “innoculation.” The Republican party might mail flyers to registered Republicans voters warning them that the Democrats are likely to attack Republican candidate on certain hot issues. The flyers provide a weak version of the attacks that they predict will come. Thus, when the real Democratic attack ads hit, the Republicans are “innoculated” again the arguments, and more likely to fight them off.
4. That Seems Reasonable
A stranger approaches you at the shopping mall one day and politely asks if you would spend just one or two minutes hearing about how you can help fellow Americans remain more safe in these times of greater risk to bio-terrorism. You say you have only a few minutes.
The stranger briefly describes the importance of the local blood bank. You nod your head in polite agreement, but you know there's a gimmick coming. Then the stranger asks, "Would you be willing to be a blood bank volunteer? You'd have to give ten hours a week for the next year and solicit blood donations from the people of our community by contacting them over the phone or face-to-face.”
You politely tell the stranger, "No."
The stranger looks a little disappointed and follows up: "Well, if you can't give your time, could you at least give a unit of blood right now? We have a station set up right down this hall in the mall."
People do this Two Step dance in two different ways. The first way, as illustrated by the blood bank story, is called the “door-in-the-face” (DITF) and the second is the foot-in-the-door (FITD). With DITF, a would-be influencer’s first request is aimed solely at getting the receiver to say no very quickly. The influencer’s second, much less extreme request is then much more likely to be accepted.
In the other foot-in-the-door tactic, the influencer starts with a small request that almost no one would refuse. After getting a "Yes!" response to this little request, the influencer makes a bigger request.
Because the listener has already “invested” in the idea, they are often more likely to increase that investment, and agree to the second request.
Example, you are first asked to sign a petition, then asked for a donation of time or money.
