The Six Principles Of Persuasion In Social Psychology

Persuasion is a process by which the persuader, through communication, gains the approval or support for the topic (Let's Compare Motivate and Persuade, 2013). The arguments to motivate this change in thinking comes through careful use of rhetoric, but one must also be able to define the six principles of persuasion in social psychology: “Reciprocity, Scarcity, Authority, Commitment and Consistency, Consensus, and Liking” (McLean, 2010, p. 521) and be able to recognize them as they are taking place. Then, one must carefully apply these concepts in order to find the means to effectively facilitate persuasion (p. 518).

The principle of reciprocity is when parties expect a “this for that” exchange on a social level. One can appeal to the principle

I used all 6 principles in my argument. The task was to persuade approximately 15 leaders of departments to support a company-wide switch of a database software. I believe I was able to successfully persuade the group to agree to the switch because I used all 6 principles. Here is how I employed them in order to persuade the

Obviously our competitors didn’t want to get testimonials, but I highlighted their decision to use the software and compared their business production and processes to that of our company to demonstrate that it worked for them.

6) The principle of liking was achieved by addressing the stakeholders individually and acknowledging the importance of their role in the decision-making process.

Conclusion

The six principles of persuasion are easy to identify and implement when working to persuade someone. These powerful tools in the field of social psychology help to make a message truly and successfully persuasive. They appeal to people universally, and are “scientifically validated principles […] that provide for small practical, often costless changes that can lead to big differences in [one’s] ability to influence and persuade others” (“Principles of Persuasion”, 2017).

References

Let's Compare Motivate and Persuade (2013). The Difference Between. Retrieved July 25, 2017 from