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PERSUASION WIKI

Progress and Loss

Illustrating both progress and loss are two twin techniques of effort manipulation where you both:

  • Make something seem as if it’s already in progress, which makes it sound less effortful;
  • Illustrate negatively how it would be to actively stop this now, which makes it seem more effortful to stop;

In short, if the person is in the process of buying, for example, you don’t make the purchase seem like a big step that comes out of nowhere. You make this seem like a progress that is mostly done, and the purchase is just the natural continuation, requiring no effort.

The Persuasion Psychology Behind the Technique

This works because you are changing the perceived effort of both continuing and stopping:

  • You are making a purchase/doing your ask seem like less effort, because it’s not a manual action, starting, out of nowhere, it’s just a natural continuation, which is less effort;
  • You make stopping seem like something big, active, manual that the person must do, versus being something natural;

There are two types of biases that empower these principles:

  • Availability bias is the bias triggered by illustrating progress.
    • When you make it seem like the person has already progressed, it seems the purchase is more available. It’s closer to them. It’s just the next step, versus something big;
    • There’s also a small element of streamlining here. When you make a process more structured, it does seem simpler, so the person is more likely to buy (you’re reducing uncertainty – it’s 3 steps versus ??? steps);
  • Loss aversion is the bias triggered by illustrating loss (the person will be afraid to lose all they’ve achieved so far);
    • And to some extent, the sunk cost fallacy (“I started it, so I may as well finish it”) as well as the endowment effect (the person likes this relationship/progress more because they’ve already put effort into it);

You leverage this technique by simply illustrating both the progress already made and the consequences of losing this progress at this stage. Both work to guide the person towards doing your ask.

Usage

Sub-Techniques
(2 in Total)

Examples

"You'll lose progress"

Every time that you try to quit a videogame or document without saving, it will ask, “Are you sure you want to quit? You’ll lose progress”. It’s an example of both illustrating loss and removing exits.

"We're almost there"

What parents say to children to (hopefully) get them to calm down. Illustrating the progress done so far and the little that remains.

"Are you sure?"

Asking if the person wants to quit or leave using an accusatory tone is a great technique, known as inquisitorial confirmation.

  • Other examples:
  • Letting go of everything (In movies or TV shows, the protagonist will want to change their life at some point and leave it all behind. And someone, usually a family member or friend, will ask, “Are you sure that you want to leave this all behind?”)
  • "You won't find better" (Usually said by people during breakups in relationships. The technique itself is well used here, but in this case, there is usually so much baggage that the question itself doesn’t do much at this point)
  • "Not many get here" (Using the exclusivity angle to illustrate loss. Not just illustrating what they lose, but them being removed from an exclusive group. “Not a lot of people make it to this stage. Are you sure that you want to quit?”)
  • Gym reps (Intelligent training programs (and videogames like Ring Fit Adventure) will illustrate progress differently. There’s 40 reps to do: Until you reach 20, you will hear, “You’ve done 1/2/3”. After you’ve reached 20, you will hear, “Just 20/10/5 left”)

Use Cases For the Four Quadrants

Key Takeaways
(7 Total)

How to Stack This Technique