Introduction
The process of persuading people is a complicated one because people will tend to oppose anybody who tends to divert their thoughts. Determining the mode of thinking of people is challenging because it is only after realizing how people think that a person can influence them to behave in a particular manner.
Thus, to get the attention of other people it is good to apply mechanisms which are not noticeable. This process is important to leaders and other people who would like to divert the attention of their audiences without alerting them (Doyle-Portillo, & Pastorino, p. 77).
Definition of subliminal persuasion
Subliminal persuasion refers to the process of influencing other people without their conscience. As such a person can cause people to behave in a particular manner without their knowledge.
It is hard for people to resist being persuaded when subliminal persuasion is applied because there is no complete awareness about the efforts to persuade. A person realizes that they have been persuaded after the process has already taken place (Doyle-Portillo, & Pastorino, p. 77).
Difference between subliminal persuasion and other kinds of persuasion
Subliminal persuasion does not apply the knowledge of the other person to capture the awareness about persuasion for a particular aspect. It is out of the conscience of the influenced person that they get involved in a particular activity.
Other kinds of persuasion make use of the knowledge of the other person to influence their behavior. As such the influenced person has complete awareness of the entire process (Smith & Mackie, 283).
The person persuading others does not show outwardly that he/she intends to influence the behavior of others. The entire process is hidden and there is minimal knowledge about the influence.
This makes subliminal persuasion a silent but influential process. Other processes of persuading people are realizable when the approach starts and the people being influenced are able to detect that their attention is required (Smith & Mackie, 283).
Subliminal persuasion should be of concern to critical thinkers
Critical thinkers make great use of subliminal persuasion to influence their audience. The audiences do not recognize they are being influenced and by the end of the process they end up accepting the ideas of critical thinkers.
Designing subliminal persuasion ideas is a great challenge to critical thinkers because in most cases the audiences have the knowledge about the intentions of the people persuading them (Doyle-Portillo, & Pastorino, p. 77).
Leaders require subliminal persuasion because their work is to influence their leaders to contribute towards the success of certain goals. It is important for leaders to be silent in their approach because the subordinates require not noticing any intentions of motivating them to improve their performance.
Therefore, leaders must be critical thinkers so that they can develop strategies which will influence the subordinates to work towards achieving the goals which have been established (Doyle-Portillo, & Pastorino, p. 78).
Examples of subliminal persuasion
Mob activities are done out of the conscience of the participants. In most cases people find themselves doing mob activities without their knowledge. Another example of subliminal persuasion is observed in the consumer behavior towards certain products.
Consumers develop good or bad attitudes about products in the market depending on the location, mode of presentation or other aspects which they identify with the products.
Marketers have come up with strategies of capturing the attention of consumers by using bright colors, applying appealing images to associate with their brands among other strategies. These strategies are silent and consumers find themselves accepting products out of their conscience (Larson, p. 407).
Conclusion
Subliminal persuasion is applicable in many situations and people use this process to get the attention of other people without their conscience. Leaders have a great advantage of using subliminal persuasion because they are able to motivate their subordinates to work towards the achievement of the goals which have been set.
Works Cited
Doyle-Portillo, Susann M. and Pastorino, Ellen E. What Is Psychology? Essentials. New York;:NY. Cengage Learning. 2008.
Larson, Charles U. Persuasion: Reception and Responsibility. New York: NY. Cengage Learning. 2009.
Smith, Eliot R. and Mackie, Diane M. Social psychology. UK. Psychology Press, 2000