Persuasion—and Resistance
Why are self-confident blowhards so often believed? Why are experts so often ignored?
The recent rise of populist politicians and social media celebrities has left many of us pondering those questions, and publishers are responding with a raft of titles on the art and science of persuasion. But their authors need to do some persuading of their own—and convince the knowledgeable reader that they have something novel to say on the topic. After all, Robert Cialdini, a psychology professor at Arizona State University, published the first edition of his definitive book Influence in 1984 and its comprehensive follow-up, Pre-Suasion, in 2016. And Dale Carnegie’s classic, How to Win Friends and Influence People, is now more than eight decades old.
The most robust of the new offerings is Messengers: Who We Listen To, Who We Don’t, and Why, by the consultant Stephen Martin and researcher Joseph Marks. Martin is a former coauthor of Cialdini’s, and the book covers much of the now-familiar academic work in this field—for example, how apparently irrelevant attributes such as an individual’s height, wealth, and attractiveness and whether he or she recently did a favor for you make that person more—or less—persuasive.
The contribution of Martin and Marks is laying out how context determines our response to different types of people. During periods of conflict and uncertainty, we’re receptive to so-called hard messengers, who demonstrate dominance or assert their status. During more stable times, soft messengers, who display warmth, vulnerability, and trustworthiness, are more likely to win us over. Thus, one secret of effective influencers is that they prime their audience to feel a certain way and then tailor their persuasion techniques to match the audience’s state of mind.
A portrait of what such an approach looks like in practice can be found in Showtime’s 2019 series, The Loudest Voice, which explores how Fox News executive Roger Ailes harnessed (and stoked) post-9/11 fear to build an enormous audience and amass power. “Listen to me,” Ailes, portrayed as a portly Mephistopheles by Russell Crowe, tells a young journalist in the show’s fourth episode. “You tell people what to think, you’ve lost them. But if you tell them how to feel, they are yours.” To which a reasonable viewer might respond, “Yikes!”
Messengers is useful in that it’s designed to help consumers and citizens understand when they’re being manipulated and take steps to resist. But like Cialdini’s writings, the book will probably generate the most interest among those looking to exploit its insights.
So is there any advice for the executive hoping to sway people without selling his or her soul?
Jason Harris, the CEO of the ad agency Mekanism, takes on that task in The Soulful Art of Persuasion: The 11 Habits That Will Make Anyone a Master Influencer. In this hopeful book he argues against using short-term tactics to gain agreement and instead promotes a long-term approach that focuses on character. Harris advises readers to work on strengthening four “personal dispositions”: originality, generosity, empathy, and soulfulness. Striving for these character traits will lead to a rewarding and fulfilling life, he claims. “That they will also make you more influential in a wide range of situations is largely a side benefit,” he adds.
Harris’s book explains how the psychological tactics uncovered by Cialdini and others can be integrated into an ethical life. For example, the principle of reciprocity holds that a gift puts strong social pressure on the receiver to give you something in return. But rather than looking to exploit “tit-for-tat exchanges,” Harris counsels, you should be constantly and effusively generous, particularly with your time. “Be the kind of person who naturally thinks about giving things away…a useful piece of information, some helpful advice…anything that might be valuable.” He also suggests that you shouldn’t compliment people to soften them up; instead you should “take others seriously by showing respect.” Though bluffing can be effective, don’t fool your audience with faux confidence but earn their trust by “seeking a high level of proficiency in everything you do.” And so on.
If Harris’s book has a weakness, it’s that it overlooks the unique challenges women face when trying to win the respect the author sees as the bedrock of persuasion. The dilemma is articulated engagingly in Alicia Menendez’s The Likeability Trap: How to Break Free and Succeed as You Are. Through her experiences as a TV journalist and in interviews with other accomplished women, Menendez documents what gender-studies researchers call the “competence-likeability trade-off”: As women succeed, they’re judged to be less likeable, which undermines their influence and ability to rise further. The penalty is particularly high if women attempt to assert their authority or—God forbid—lose their temper.
Menendez fails to offer a compelling prescription, which is forgivable—gender bias is deep-rooted, and best practices for mitigating it can be found in other, weightier books such as Iris Bohnet’s What Works. But one of the principles of persuasion is the “focusing illusion,” which holds that people ascribe extra importance to whatever they happen to be thinking about in a given moment. So simply by keeping the likeability trap top of mind, Menendez’s book does a service for female executives trying to win others’ support.
Two other books carve off a means of persuasion for special attention: storytelling. Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great, by the consultant Carmine Gallo, shares the best practices of gifted communicators throughout history, from Aristotle to Steve Jobs, as well as inspirational tidbits—such as how Hollywood’s preferred three-act storytelling structure works surprisingly well for business presentations. “Mastering the ancient art of persuasion…is no longer a soft skill. It is the fundamental skill…in the age of ideas,” Gallo says. In Stories That Stick: How Storytelling Can Captivate Customers, Influence Audiences, and Transform Your Business, Kindra Hall expertly dissects four story archetypes that can be used in organizational settings.
Harris’s optimism notwithstanding, there’s something depressing about this genre of self-help—perhaps because the research makes it clear how easy it is to influence people, whether by manufacturing rather than meeting consumer demand or by generating irrational political fervor among a democratic citizenry. A treatise on how to counterbalance the clear market and governance failures that arise from such underhanded tactics is the next book this reviewer would like to read.
Eben Harrell is a senior editor at Harvard Business Review.
Persuasion—and Resistance
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