Principle Of Persuasion

Persuasion is the art of attempting to influence another’s actions or views by presenting your own arguments and ideas to them. Persuasion can have both positive and negative effects, however, used appropriately, persuasion can be an incredibly effective tool. There are six principles of persuasion that can be taken advantage of in order to do this. Those principles include the principle of reciprocity, scarcity, authority, the principle of commitment and consistency, consensus, and finally, the principle of liking (McLean, 2010). In the following paragraphs, I will endeavor to define and discuss these principles before giving a personal example of how I have used them to persuade several co-workers to volunteer for cross-training.

The first principle to discuss is the principle of Reciprocity. This refers to the notion that if you make someone feel that they owe you something, they are more likely to be persuaded. This principle has several applications, but in the business context, the best area to see this principle in action is in retail sales. Often, sales

I used the principle of Reciprocity by letting them know they would be getting perks in they decided to do what I was attempting to persuade them to do. Finally, I used the principle of Scarcity by letting them know that they would be missing an opportunity they would only receive if they decided to do what I was trying to persuade them to do. To be honest, we were all friendly with each other, so I suppose I could say that I used the principle of Liking as well. And I was asking them to make a larger commitment to the store, so the principle of Commitment and Consistency may have been applied. I was attempting to persuade them to go against what they were hired to do, so I don’t think that the principle of Consensus really came into play at