A consistency trap is the act of making a person state something, usually in the first person, and then forcing them to act in accordance to what they stated. To a degree, they will already act in accordance to it. This is due to the principle of consistency. We are likely to continue doing what we already do, […]
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Persuading Logical vs. Emotional People
There are different incentives that you can provide at the closing stage to convince both logical and emotional people. The main differences are: Logical people will value more the numerical optimization of a proposal, while emotional people will value more the insertion of additional things into a bigger package; If you’re selling a car, you have to improve […]
Eliciting Multiple Reasons
Eliciting multiple reasons is a technique that can be used to make something more or less attractive. The goal here is that: When you ask for a small number of reasons for something, such as one, the person will succeed and their liking is reinforced; When you ask for a high number of reasons for something, such as ten, […]
Justifications
In terms of persuasion, a justification is always persuasive. Just saying “because” already convinces a person more. Naturally, the higher-quality the justification, the better, but it’s always persuasive to a degree. There was a persuasion psychology study done where a person would try to cut in line for a copying machine, giving different justifications. “I need […]
Future Lock-In
Future lock-in is a technique that consists of giving a short-term benefit in order for the target to commit in the long-term. The crux of the technique is that, in the long-term, the short-term advantage is useless, but to the target, in the moment, it does feel like a big element. The simplest example of future […]
Intent Labeling
Intent labeling is the name given to the group of techniques that consist of making a person crystalize their commitment in the first person. It includes techniques such as: First-person confirmation; Including active choice; Giving one reason for something; Or, in a more general sense, Initiative, if it’s in the first person (“This is what I like about […]
Salience
The effect of salience is very simple. What stands out more is remember more. Underlying Psychology/Biases This happens due to evolutionary reasons. The things that stood out, in the past, were usually predators or, at least, dangerous things. So, evolutionarily, we have a tendency to be very aware of things that stand out. Sub-Techniques There are four key ways […]
Option Set Change
Changing the option set where you/your offering is included is a way to manipulate the context. It’s very similar to perceived contrast, but in this you’re not changing what you highlight of you or others – you’re literally changing the “others” you compare yourself to. For example, I have a $50 book If I compare it […]
Framing
Framing is a very powerful tool to change how others perceive you. You change the point of view from which you analyze something. Framing can be done at multiple stages: Pre-Framing, which is all about defining the frame and positioning you want before anyone even comes to you; Reframing, which is all about changing the existing frame […]
Removing Exits
The set of techniques used to remove exits try to cut off a person’s options and licenses in order to prevent them from leaving. It overlaps with illustrating loss to a degree. Underlying Psychology/Biases This group of techniques works by both triggering loss aversion and the sunk cost bias (the same ones as for illustrating loss), but also manually removing […]
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 […]
Streamlining
Based on the principle that 2/3 of all effort we make is mental effort (The Effortless Experience), you can simply reduce the apparent mental effort associated with your offering to make the person adopt it more easily. Underlying Psychology/Biases Streamlining is the canonical example of mental effort manipulation. When something seems effortful, it is. And when it seems like […]
Implementation Intention
Implementation intention is a persuasion principle that defends that, when a person is forced to think about how they would implement something, they are more likely to do it, as the mental effort necessary to do it is reduced. Therefore the name. The person must think as if they have the intention of implementing this; In short, […]
Anchoring
Anchoring (also known as the primacy effect) is simply the effect that dictates that a person will use the first impression of something as the filter for every subsequent interaction. Underlying Psychology/Biases Sub-Techniques Anchoring itself can be used as tool to make yourself look better or change your positioning You anchor the person with the initial impression you want to […]