In Brief
- Some people are masters of “supersuasion,” but the skill is not inborn; their techniques can be taught to anyone.
- Humor is the key, especially if it catches your listeners off guard, leaving them laughing and open to suggestion.
- Make people believe you have their best interests at heart, and you can persuade them to do almost anything.
“Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero
This article was originally published with the title The Power to Persuade.
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20 Comments
Add CommentOK how about this: The World is flat.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJust look outside at any parking lot - flat.
Go to Texas and look at the plains - flat.
The planet is obviously flat.
Maybe when people sail near the edge of the world god mysteriously turns them around and points them to another place. Maybe the space program is myth that was all done on sound stages in Arizona - or maybe god, again, fools people's perception into thinking the world is roughly spherical.
These are the pseudo-logical arguments put forth by Climate Change deniers like Sen. Inhofe. It is amazing to think that a US Senator can be so utterly ignorant. Unfortunately many people believe him and other deniers. Not very persuasive, are they?
The east coast snows are completely consistent and were generally predicted by climate change. Warmer air holds MORE moisture and "what goes up must come down." The boundary areas between the arctic and temperate zones and the temperate and tropical zones are becoming less stable. This leads to extreme weather, which has been in abundance for the last decade especially.
Tipping points, latency and change on a longer time frame just do not seem to make sense to some people.
To Candide,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRight on. This is what happens when you allow kids to drop out of school.
How not to persuade:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUse a pejorative tone and call those who oppose you "ignorant". Those who already believe your assertion, however, will pat you on the back and make you feel like you are persuading, when all you are doing is making the walls higher.
And we have a WINNER!! Of what I don't know but this was the most persuasive thing I've seen so far...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSorry, Quasi/Candide, you have a lot to learn about persuasion..
The "arguments" I used are from other people, deniers. If they sound bad, like a pejorative, when echoed back then that shows the shallowness of the "logic."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen it comes to science and climate change Mr. Inhofe is woefully ignorant. I did not call ALL deniers ignorant, only one. Exaggerating something so you can knock it is also a tactic that builds walls.
You may also want to check your own tone...
So you linking Mr Inhofe to "many people believe him and other deniers" using emotionally charged words, is somehow persuasive? Go read some Richard Bandler, John Grinder, or even Tony Robbins, please. And please drop your agenda...we get it...you support a side of the story... Now try to stay on topic.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow, are you ever the example of persuasion and consistency!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo emotionally charged words in your posts, no agenda for you, and jumping in on someone else's conversation thread to tell THEM to stay on topic ... PRICELESS!
P.S. You have no idea what I have or haven't read.
Topic = persuasion! Nuff said.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisP.S. Now I know why everyone says this site is politically charged...so don't worry about any responses as I'm removing this from my RSS reader, I have better things to do than tangle with the clueless....no, that's not persuasive, just fact.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAh, yes -- subjective facts by those that cannot keep up.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe last refuge of the feeble minded?
Also, just to explain what you apparently missed. The point of my original post was not so much to persuade, but to illustrate how un-persuasive some denier arguments can be.
Misleading /ignorant or diceptive/ persuation can be checked only post-factum so... it CAN BE discouraged by promissed punishment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMisleading /ignorant or deceptive/ persuasion can be checked only post-factum so... it CAN BE discouraged by promised punishment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe power to persuade is really a matter of great concern in the development and history of modern science. As we are getting more scientific and wealthy living and more and more less curious to study the true spirit of life about our universe and love for logic and honesty in our approach. Scientific world engaged in politics and ego just like politicians and as a result we have to face a situation that our entire knowledge in science has come to a very big renovation. Dr Roger Penrose has openly described wrong physics without going into much details. But we have to trace back the path of modern science during last century and find out for introspection. I retired from power sector in year 2001 as engineer without much scientific studies and the first think that struck me that Einstein is wrong in his many theories and I was surprised to note that no body questioned his postulates and assumptions where evidence is lacking and manipulation to create a theory of so vast implication in our universe. This is a standard model of power of persuation or fear of ignorance. Are we affraid of being lebelled as ignorant . I published my ether-gravity-dark energy theory and proved where Einstein got confused without knowing the exact nature of ether and Michelsonson thought it dragable. But Dr.Miller was thinking ether is not dragable but his experiment results were stolen and he died without any proof to challenge Einstein. But casimiri effect was known and it was obvious that this is the effect of ether or vacuum energy . Then subsequently it was observed that our universe is expanding faster and faster and the question of energy inflow to cause this expansion and casimir effect was not a subject of our serious research and instead we were mesmerized by relativity with a few local observation to satisfy relativity theory but vast universe was ignored. Then in year 2002 I published in ASTRONOMY.NET , my revolutionery theories connecting all terms of the same flower namely ether-gravity-dark energy -vacuum energy-cosmology constant-WIMPS- STRING THEORY all in one name gravitoethertons which is an exotic energy ,non dragable due to very high frequency and few times light speed produced at the common spherical boundary of our matter universe and outer antimatter universe by annihilation of matter and antimatter at a speed greater than light. So this exotic energy is flowing in our universe as ether and causing expansion of our universe, gravity of matter, all laws we apply, casimiri effect, even space .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo the GRAND THEORY OF GRAVITOETHERTONS was born in ASTRONOMY.NET in the year 2002 and I SENT A COPY to all scientists and institutions,universities to take a note and do further research . But nobody replied and my POWER OF PERSUATION did not catch any attention. I was sure that ether is not dragable and as such relativity theory is based on wrong assumption. But EISTEINS ideas of space-time curvature is also half correct as time is entropical phenomena not dimension and correct because ether whirls cause planets to rotate . But again cosmology constant is half correct because it is vacuum energy but varying in field and very strong near neutron stars but NOT CONSTANT. sO I proposed a physics of the universe and I understand that my theories will be discussed in WASHINGTON DC . in july this year 2010. Many people asking me any mathematical proof ,but I say that mathematics do not dictate reality always and be careful. Our earth core is hot molten due to focus of gravitoethertons and due to flow of electrons in molten iron core we get earths magnetism caused by gravitoethertons. CASIMIRI EFFECT is due to vacuum energy caused by gravitoethertons. Our space is a solid gravitoethertons in my unparticled gravitethertons theory which even propose un particled quantum physics where entanglement is nothing to be strange as all are instantly connected in the GREAT FABRIC OF CONTINUUM VARYING FIELD EXOTIC ENERGY WE CALL SPACE WHERE DANCE OF FABRIC CAUSE PARTICLE REAL AND VIRTUAL ON LAWS CREATED BY THE FABRIC ON ENTROPICAL TIME UNREAL BUT CHANGING MAY BE EVEN NOT SO ABSOLUTE AS NEWTON THOUGHT BUT NOT EQUALLY FLOWING AS RATE OF ENTROPY CHANGE DEPEND ON LEVEL OF ENERGY POWER MARK GIVEN BY GRAND MASTER AVAILABILITY AND AS EINSTEIN CALLED IT DILATION MAGIC BY APPLYING LORENTZ TRANSFORM ON MICHELSONS EQUATION WRONGLY AND MAY BE HIS YOUNG AGE LOVE FOR MATHEMATICS . But Einstein first taught us time can be dilated and space can warp and gravity may not be force etc etc. So our MODERN PHYSICS is not absolutely wrong and Einstein provided us to think differently and continuously question and correct our selves where POWER OF PERSUATION IS VERY DEMANDING provided We learn frOm our smaLL MISTAKES in the next Conference of Physics of the Universe. I have sent my thinking and papers based on common sense not much of mathematics TO ALL SCIENTISTS taking part in the PHYSICS OF THE UNIVERSE conference and I hope they will work together not isolatedly to get NOBEL PRIZE.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisQuestion: Has the world been hotter than today?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnswer: Yes.
Question: has the world been colder than today?
Answer: yes.
In fact, the cycles of warming, glaciation, warming, glaciation have been repeated many, many times...absent any human influences. In fact, right now...one seismic spot in California pumps out 1000 tons of CO2 per day (and it's nowhere near LA).
The world will get warmer..at least, for awhile.
Debu: wow. I think you are on to something.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJust try persuading me that world democracy works for the starving billion and the other billion living below the poverty line.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHOW can these people above get SO worked up about an article that is about persuading others. Gees get a life folks.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI read SA all the time and enjoy the articles. If you think SA is "politically charged" don't read it!
Damned folks, lighten up!!
Regarding 'supersuasion': again, after 2300 years of reflections on the willingness of the some to follow the few, we rehash the Gorgian approach that defines rhetoric as a neutral event, as long as your persuasion is successful superficially, you're a star. Welcome to American marketing...repeat a lie often enough and it'll get believed. The decptions practised by salespeople are legendary...if Scientific American desired to provide a service instead of 'soso' then it would exam rather the defenses that one can use to ward off the hyperclaims of marketing and political players; in particular, it would use fMRIs to exam the movements towards skepticism, a mindset of health. We've come far enough to exam America's eating addictions in this fashion, now let's exam the most important frontier...the huiman Mind, rhetoric, and the capacity to evole as an individual in a hy7percompetitive society.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisnope, his mind is clearly superior to even an environmentalist like me. All e's points are spot on, you on the other hand, hide your inability to persuade behind name calling.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou waste everyone's time and degrade the value of this blog.