Strategies of persuasion

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Moscow State Linguistic University

I.S. Lebedeva,

PhD (Philology), Assistant professor, department of grammar and history of English, faculty of the English language

Abstract

The article discusses some common strategies used by authors to enhance the persuasive effect of their texts. Over the past few decades the volume of persuasive communication has grown considerably, it has penetrated the framework of society and has become highly institutionalized. Persuasion is defined as a process of convincing the audience to change their attitudes or behavior concerning an issue in an atmosphere of free choice. The aim of this article is to raise students' awareness of strategies used to enhance persuasive communication.

Key words: logos; ethos; pathos; cognitive dissonance; motivation; appeal to needs; tripling.

Аннотация

Московский государственный лингвистический университет

И.С. Лебедева,

кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры грамматики и истории английского языка факультета английского языка

В статье рассматриваются инструменты воздействия, используемые для усиления персуазивности текстов. Персуазивное воздействие представляет собой процесс, при котором коммуниканты посредством организованных определенным образом сообщений оказывают воздействие на других людей с целью изменения их установок и пост-коммуникативного поведения в отношении предмета убеждения, при этом не лишая их свободы выбора. Цель данной статьи - повышение осведомленности обучающихся о способах повышения эффективности персуазивного воздействия.

Ключевые слова: логос; этос; пафос; когнитивный диссонанс; мотивация; апелляция к нуждам; триплет.

Introduction

persuasive influence communicant

R. Perloff defines persuasion as «a symbolic process in which communicators try to convince other people to change their attitudes or behavior regarding an issue through the transmission of a message, in an atmosphere of free choice. A key aspect of persuasion is self-persuasion.

Communicators do not change people's minds; people decide to alter their own attitudes or to resist persuasion» [Perloff 2003, p. 34]. Amongst the features of today's persuasive communication R. Perloff emphasizes its highly institutionalized character. Persuasive communication is found in advertising and marketing, it is on the Internet and is key to success in business negotiating. It is not superfluous; it underlies most ofthe processes taking place in society and brings about change. Nowadays persuasive communication is becoming subtler, more devious and complex. To be successful, communicators need to understand the rules of persuasive communication and employ strategies which allow to effectively put the message through to the audience.

Main part

Most people aren't easily swayed to change their minds about something. Persuasion is not easy because the necessity to change attitudes often makes people feel as if they have been ill-informed, which also means they have done something wrong. The most commonly cited persuasive strategies that can effectively influence the audience's attitudes, beliefs, and values are logos, ethos, pathos (Aristotle's three forms of rhetorical proof [Aristotle 1926]), positive motivation, negative motivation, cognitive dissonance and appeal to needs (safety needs, social needs and self-esteem needs).

Logos refers to logical reasoning and argumentative speech. Speakers employ logos by presenting carefully chosen credible information, verifiable and unbiased supporting materials, by verbally citing reliable sources of information. According to J.B. Stiff and P.A. Mongeau, messages are more persuasive when arguments are made explicit [Stiff & Mongeau 2003]. M.D. Cooper and W.L. Nothstine [Cooper & Nothstine 1996] also discuss the crucial role of counterarguments which can be brought in and refuted. Effective persuasive messages present two sides of an argument, then refute the opposing side by giving counterarguments. The overall purpose of these efforts is to clearly show the audience why one position is superior to the other. Here is an example obtained from Mary Fisher's Republican National Convention Address delivered 19 August 1992, Houston, TX:

The reality of AIDS is brutally clear. Two hundred thousand Americans are dead or dying. A million more are infected. Worldwide, forty million, sixty million, or a hundred million infections will be counted in the coming few years. But despite science and research, White House meetings, and congressional hearings, despite good intentions and bold initiatives, campaign slogans, and hopeful promises \ it is - despite it all - the epidemic which is winning tonight (https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ maryfisher1992rnc.html).

Ethos pertains to the speaker's «positive-face» [Brown & Levinson 2014] and credibility which includes three dimensions: competence, trustworthiness, and dynamism [Stiff & Mongeau 2003, p. 105]. Competence refers to the perception of the speaker's expertise in relation to the topic discussed (competent speakers must be knowledgeable of the topic of their speech and be able to deliver the contents in a most effective way possible. Here is Aveda's story description:

Aveda: Our relationship with Ayurveda began in 1976, thanks to two renowned Ayurvedic physicians and scholars, Drs. Vinod and Kusum Upadhyay. Globally sought for their expertise in Ayurvedic medicine, pharmacology, botanical research and aromatherapy, they brought 1,000s of years of Vedic and Ayurvedic tradition to bear on Aveda's work. Their guidance first helped us identify botanical actives for our products, allowed us to pioneer «functional aromas» (with our chakra™ balancing aroma blends), and helped us launch innovative, powerful naturally derived formulas such as invati™ solutions for thinning hair (https://www.aveda.com).

Trustworthiness pertains to the audience members' perceptions of the speaker as a person presenting credible information in a non-manipulative way. Trustworthy speakers are considerate to the audience, they present information in a balanced way, do not coerce and follow the general principles of ethics. The two aspects of dynamism are charisma and energy. Although charisma is difficult to be intentionally developed, the other aspect is something everyone can master. The contents should be communicated with a lot of enthusiasm. The following company missions serve as classic examples of enhancing the company's positive image.

Aveda: our mission at Aveda is to care for the world we live in, from the products we make to the ways in which we give back to society. at Aveda, we strive to set an example for environmental leadership and responsibility, not just in the world of beauty, but around the world (https://www.aveda.com).

¹ These are cases of tripling, a powerful tool to enhance persuasion.

Pathos refers to the emotional appeal. Stirring emotions can get the audience involved, and involvement creates more opportunities for persuasion. The emotional response of a stay-at-home mother to an article describing the problems of stay-at-home mothers is higher than that of a business lady. For this reason, presentation of the propositional content often contains items aimed at developing the emotional appeal in the audience. Advertisers take advantage of people's emotions to get them to buy products they might not look at, if they were given the chance to see the faulty logic of the message. However, appeals to emotions are effective only if the audience are prompted to take immediate action. Emotions lose their persuasive effect more quickly than other types of persuasive appeals [Stiff & Mongeau 2003, p. 146].

Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort experienced by the audience when received information comes into clash with their currently held attitudes, beliefs, and values. Perception of the cognitive dissonance as a persuasive tool is predicated upon the following assumptions: (1) people seek consistency in their thinking; (2) when inconsistency exists, people experience psychological discomfort; and (3) this discomfort motivates people to address the inconsistency to restore balance [Stiff & Mongeau 2003, p. 80]. There exist strategies to resolve cognitive dissonance, they include discrediting the speaker or source of information, viewing yourself as an exception, seeking selective information that supports your originally held belief, or intentionally avoiding or ignoring sources of cognitive dissonance [Cooper & Nothstine 1996, p. 72]. None of these actually result in modification of thinking, which means persuasive goals are not met.

Increasing the audience's motivation is key to the process ofpersuasion. Every speaker should be aware of the importance ofmotivating the audience to listen to the message by making the content relevant and showing how it relates to their lives. Persuasive texts usually follow organizational patterns based on theories of motivation, for example Monroe's Motivated Sequence [Monroe 1951]. Positive and negative motivation are persuasive strategies used by many people, especially parents, teachers and public speakers. Reward can be used for increasing positive motivation, and threat of punishment - for negative motivation. To increase positive motivation speakers should either explicitly or implicitly convey to the audience that listening to their message and following their advice will be beneficial and lead to positive results. Conversely, negative motivation is built through stating that failure to follow the speaker's advice will result in negative consequences.

Appeal to needs is a strategy which underlies the process of persuasion. According to Maslow's (1943) hierarchy of needs [Maslow 1943], there are several layers of needs pursued by human beings in communication. They include biological and physiological, safety, social (belongingness and love), self-esteem, and self-actualization needs. These needs are fundamental to human survival and happiness for this reason appeal to them sounds persuasive to any human being.

Figure 1. Maslow's (1943) Hierarchy of Needs

Physiological needs lie in the base of Maslow's (1943) hierarchy. The closer the needs are to the base, the more important they are for human survival. Speakers rarely appeal to biological and physiological needs in the process of persuasion. After all, a person who doesn't have food, air, or water is unlikely to engage in persuasion, moreover, it wouldn't be ethical to either deny or promise these things to someone for persuasive gain. At the top of the scheme lie self-actualization needs which refer to people's sense of achievement and realization of «self». These needs are individual, protected from outsiders and are unlikely to be pursued for the purpose of persuasion. Appeals to safety, social, and self-esteem needs prove to be most successful in the process of persuasion.

Safety needs are satisfied when human beings work to preserve their safety and the safety of their nearest and dearest. Appeals to safety needs as strategies of persuasion are often combined with positive or negative motivation, which increases the persuasive effect of the message, for example appeal to safety can be paired with positive motivation to put through to the audience that following the speaker's message will result in increased safety and security. If safety needs are paired with negative motivation, the speaker conveys to the audience that their safety and security will be put at risk if the message is not followed.

Figure 2. Anti-vaccine billboard advertising Vaccine Choice Canada

This anti-vaccine billboard advertising Vaccine Choice Canada appeared near 142 Street and 167 Avenue during October 2019. The ad depicted a young woman holding a child in her arms along with text reading «The science is NOT settled» (https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/anti - vaccine-billboard-played-upon-the-fear-of-parents-violated-ad-accuracy - rules_1.4797226). An investigation began after the billboard was the subject of several complaints. The council ruled the ad broke three clauses of the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards and was unanimous in finding the ad violated the code's rules against misleading consumers through fear as the ad played upon the fear of parents in making the wrong choice for their child in the context of `unsettled' science.

In literature on persuasion this strategy is often called appeal to fear [Tannenbaum 2015]. M.B. Tannenbaum et al. (2015) in the study of multiple dimensions of fear appeals proved that they were successful at influencing attitudes, intentions and behaviors across nearly all conditions that were analyzed in the article; fear appeals were particularly effective when the communication depicted relatively high amounts of fear, included an efficacy message, stressed severity and susceptibility, recommended one-time only behaviors, and targeted audiences that include a large percentage of female message recipients [Tannenbaum 2015, p. 1198]. As a persuasive strategy appeal to fear is common in marketing and advertising. B.A. Huhmann and T.P. Brotherton (1997) have conducted a content analysis of popular magazine advertisements. They found that of 2,769 magazine ads examined, 131 contained fear appeals (4.8 %). The only worrying dimension of appeal to fear as a persuasive strategy is ethical.

Social needs are met through building and maintaining interpersonal and in-group relationships. People tend to become part of interest groups, social groups or political parties, which is an essential component of the process of self-identification, even if they could regret the in-group membership later. Advertisers often rely on appeal to people's social needs, for example:

Social appeals can also be combined with positive and negative motivation. Combinations of appeal to social needs with positive motivation are found in messages that promise the recipient «in-group» membership, for example:

Figure 3. E-mail on YouTube

This email sent by YouTube (https://www. tidio.com/blog/advertising - appeals/) depicts a group of creative people. It targets photographers, artists, signers and all others who share their works online via their YouTube channel. This advertisement appeals to people who build their identity around their social roles as artists and performers.

Combinations of appeal to social needs with negative motivation can be seen in messages that rely heavily on people's insecurities linked to being out of the group.

The need to be praised by others («positive-face wants») [Brown & Levinson 2014] is prime with most individuals. People want to think well of themselves and get others to think well of them, which forms the basis for self-esteem needs. To enhance the degree of persuasion combinations of appeal to self-esteem needs and positive motivation are found in messages that promise an increase in respect and status. Social advertising on television persuades the audience to donate money by highlighting their potential contribution to society, for example:

Aveda: Aveda salons are independent small businesses. Please consider supporting them during this difficult time. SUPPORT A SMALL BUSINESS SALON IN YOUR COMMUNITY (https://www. aveda.com).

Health and beauty advertisements persuade consumers to buy their products by promising increased attractiveness, for example:

Aveda: Everything you need for the ultimate red-carpet look. Even if you're just chilling on the couch (https://www.aveda.com).

Aveda: Beauty and wellness resolutions to make this new year that you will actually keep (https://www.aveda.com).

Unfortunately, some sources of persuasive messages are more concerned with their own financial gain rather than the well-being of their clients and take advantage of people's insecurities linked to the satisfaction of self-esteem needs.

Conclusion

Persuading is difficult due to several reasons, the most salient of which involves changing people's attitudes which could have been shared by them for years. There has been much research into strategies of effective persuasive communication striving to find a secret to persuasion. This research has produced a great diversity of findings, however the question How to persuade? remains open. Further research should focus on the cognitive aspect of persuasion and its ethical component.