Introduction
This paper discusses examples of persuasion tactics used in media resources, technologies, and during the interaction between people. The paper can be used in research on persuasion tactics, psychological research, and works on the impact of technology on people. The examples of persuasion strategies are taken from the books Persuasion: Social Influence and Compliance Gaining by Gass and Seiter, and The SAGE Handbook of Persuasion edited by Dillard and Shen. These examples show how people become more persuasive using certain psychological techniques, usually getting others to do some actions or make a purchase.
The first tactic to be discussed in this paper is called giving. Gass and Seiter (2013) describe giving using the idiom “I will scratch your back if you scratch mine” (Gass & Seiter, 2013, p. 217). With the help of this strategy, a person becomes more convincing and tries to “get someone to comply by acting nice or doing favors for him or her in advance” (Gass & Seiter, 2013, p. 217). The simplest example of this tactic is when a person is allowed to try some product for free. In many cases, a person feels that he or she needs to return a favor.
Main body
The strategy of giving works mostly because of the emotions that people experience in response to the favor. When people get something for free, without feeling that they are being manipulated, they are overcome by a feeling of gratitude and other positive emotions. In addition, a person who does a favor also looks more attractive, kind, and benevolent and becomes more persuasive. Gass and Seiter (2013) note that giving can also work thanks to social norms. According to them, people feel they are doing the right thing repaying the favor and do not want to look like ungrateful freeloaders (Gass & Seiter, 2013). Thus, the strategy of giving can be considered a strong psychological instrument usually influencing a person’s emotional state.
Another strategy of persuasion to be discussed is called the foot-in-the-door strategy. For this tactic, Gass and Seiter use the idiom “Give me an inch, and I will take a mile” (Gass & Seiter, 2013, p. 219). According to the authors, “the tactic involves making a small request first and then making a second, larger request” (Gass & Seiter, 2013, p. 220). The persuader uses a small request as a setup being, of course, interested in a larger proposal. The effectiveness of this strategy is based on psychological processes. Gass and Seiter (2013) identify several criteria that influence the effectiveness of the tactic. These criteria include the request size, its prosocialness, external incentives, a person who makes the request, labeling, preference for consistency, and self-concept clarity (Gass & Seiter, 2013).
According to the first criteria, the persuader should keep a balance, and the initial request should not be too large or too small. The strategy also works better being used for prosocial causes rather than self-serving purposes. However, the authors claim that the tactic becomes less effective when people are “offered external incentives for complying with the first request” (Gass & Seiter, 2013, p. 222). The researchers also note that for the effectiveness of the strategy, the same person does not need to make both requests. The criterion of labeling implies the situation when a person in some way is being marked as kind or helpful and becomes more willing to comply. As for the preference for consistency, people are often motivated to do the second request feeling that they need to behave consistently. Self-concept clarity also affects the strategy; researchers note that people with high self-concept clarity more often see themselves as helpful in completing the request (Gass & Seiter, 2013). Thus, several conditions are influencing the strategy, but in many cases, the tactic remains effective.
The next concept is connected to technologies that can influence persuasive processes. Sundar, Oh, Kang, and Sreenivasan (2013) suggest that technology can persuade through specific strategies. One of these strategies includes “constructing alternative realities with enhanced vividness, self-representation, self-presence, spatial presence, and transportation” (Sundar et al., 2013, p. 389). The listed constructs make the virtual world more realistic for users increasing its persuasion ability. Researchers define vividness as “the representational richness of a mediated environment” which affects the perception of media space (Sundar et al., 2013, p. 395). The simplest example of self-representation in the virtual world is an avatar that, according to the researchers, can influence both the online and offline life of the user. Self-presence is possible through VR technologies, allowing a user to plunge into the virtual world. Spatial presence is achieved through virtual design and elements of user navigation in the virtual world. The so-called transportation allows integrating the real and virtual worlds, for example, through interactive video games. Thus, certain constructs can increase the realism of the virtual world, thereby affecting the persuasion process.
Listed concepts are often applied in the real world. The strategy of giving is widely used by different companies in their websites and applications where they suggest a free trial before purchasing or subscription. For instance, Apple Music gives a three-month free trial allowing the user to test drive a platform (Plesa, 2019). It is possible to agree that a person is likely more willing to continue using the services of a company that offers something for free.
The foot-in-the-door strategy is successfully used by WWF (The World Wide Fund for Nature) on their website (“Find your inner animal,” 2020). They suggest taking a quiz and determine a person’s inner animal. A person needs to answer a few simple questions about his or her personality to determine which animal he or she relates to. At the end of the quiz, WWF describes the respondent’s features that correspond to the features of the resulting inner animal. On the same page, they ask for support and donation, suggesting protecting a person’s inner animal and adopt one of them. In this case, such conditions as the size of the request and prosocialness are met. Taking a quiz is not a large request but requires some time to complete, a balance of request size is maintained; besides, the main request is directed to charity. In addition, a person who starts associating him or herself with a particular animal can be more willing to help this animal. So one may note that the strategy can work effectively in this case.
Persuasive technologies are also quite successfully used in the real world. For instance, many phobias and mental health problems are worked out by immersion in an alternative reality. Pious VR Therapy uses VR technologies to help people overcome such fears as aerophobia, arachnophobia, agoraphobia, and others (“Overcoming fears,” 2015). The application Mindscape from Viscira helps doctors understand the state of people with serious mental disorders (Helgadottir, 2015). Through self-presence in the virtual world, people can treat mental health problems and confront their fears without real potentially traumatic experiences.
Conclusion
In this paper, several tactics of persuasion were discussed, including the giving strategy, foot-in-the-door strategy, and technology technique of construction of an alternative world. One may conclude that certain psychological methods help to increase the effectiveness of persuasive processes making people more compliant. The tactics discussed in this paper are successfully applied in real life, including both everyday activities and professional spheres, and serving different purposes.
References
Find your inner animal. (2020). Web.
Gass, R. H., & Seiter, J. H. (2013). Sequential Persuasion. In Persuasion: social influence and compliance gaining (pp. 216-233). New York, NY: Pearson.
Helgadottir, F. (2015). What is it like to have schizophrenia? Web.
Overcoming fears and anxiety disorders through VR exposure therapy with Psious. (2015). Web.
Plesa, A. (2019). The Apple Music free trial lets you test-drive the platform for three months. Web.
Sundar, S. S., Oh, J., Kang, H., & Sreenivasan, A. (2013). Chapter 23: How does technology persuade? Theoretical mechanisms for persuasive technologies. In J. P. Dillard & L. Shen (Eds.), SAGE handbook of persuasion: Developments in theory and practice (pp. 388-404). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.