How To Persuade Someone To Do Something - People Will Believe Anything You Tell Them

Today we are going to learn about 12 psychological tricks to persuade someone to do something. These tricks can be used if you want something from someone.

Let’s begin with number 1:

Social proof

One of the most powerful tools to persuade other people is called social proof.

Social proof is when you support an argument by saying that everyone else supports it too. Take for example Donald Trump, he often defends himself by saying things like everyone agrees with me.
It doesn’t matter what your politics are for you to realize that he’s using a psychology trick and it actually works very well.
Why? Because people naturally want to feel like they are in the majority.
They want to be part of the in-group so if you’re able to convince someone that most other people believe something they are much more likely to agree with you.

Number 2:

Anchoring

When making decisions people make a lot of subconscious mistakes.
One of those mistakes is known in the psychology world as anchoring.
This means that people have a tendency to rely too much on the first piece of information that they have.
This first piece of information is then called the anchor because it shapes the range of thinking going forward.

Now that might be a little bit confusing.
So let’s consider a great example say that you’re negotiating a deal with a car dealer.
You really want the car but it looks expensive thus when you first speak with a car dealer you quickly provide a very low asking price after all you want to buy the car cheaply.

This initially low proposition for the price of the car anchors the negotiation to that value.
The dealer probably won’t agree to your suggested price but that doesn’t matter because the anchor is already set.
From that point on the negotiation will be based on a very low price so even if they get you to bump it up it’s still a cheap car.

Number 3:

The deep voice

Persuasion has a lot to do with subconscious evolutionary factors rather than day-to-day things that we often expect.
Deep voices command other people, they are intense, strong, and defining.

When someone has a deep voice he is perceived to be the alpha male. The person who everyone must look up to, as a result, he automatically is given a sense of authority in group situations.

Persuasion is really about emotion and the emotion that someone feels when spoken to in a deep voice is very different from that of a normal voice.

It’s a powerful mix of respect admiration and reverence.
Deep voices are the ultimate signal of command so if you want to persuade someone, learn to develop a deep voice.

Number 4:

Manipulating the source

Sometimes the source of a message matters a lot more than the message itself.

People will believe anything you say as long as you’re on television or featured in a magazine.
This can be dangerous especially when it comes to things like the media or other critical institutions.

However. you can also use this to your advantage if you’re trying to persuade someone.
I call this manipulating the source and it’s very powerful.

If the inherent logic of your argument isn’t doing the trick try making an argument about the source of the information.

So if you want to prove something to be true lookup someone famous or well-regarded who supports your side and if you want to prove something to be false do your best to undermine the source of their argument.

This will go a long way in the complex and intricate game of persuasion.

Number 5:

Appeal to sexuality

This persuasion technique is based on one very simple biological concept.
The motivation in every animal to reproduce thus appealing to sexuality in its purest form simply means using this animal motivation to get exactly what you want.

Since this is a natural motivation ingrained in the brain of every single animal it’s very hard to control and that is what makes it so effective.

Think of the advertisements that you see on a day-to-day basis.
Consider the last time you turned on a television and watched a commercial,
the chances are very high that you saw a beautiful woman promoting a certain brand.
Maybe it was a car commercial or a food commercial or a vacation commercial no matter what a business is selling the appeal to sexuality can be used to great effect and it can be just as powerful for you.

Number 6:

Brand yourself

Branding can be thought of as immediate connections that people make to certain symbols.

When you think of Nike you think of sports and action when you think of McDonald’s think of convenience and taste and warmth.
These are examples of very effective brands and they are extremely good at doing two simple things, being recognized and sending a clear message.

Perhaps my favorite example of branding has to do with colleges.

I personally know a guy who goes to Harvard University one of the best and most famous colleges in the entire world.
He told me something very interesting.
Being a student at Harvard is not just about getting a great education sure that’s a nice plus but the real benefit is the brand name behind Harvard.

When someone sees that on a resume or a job application you are automatically associated with knowledge talent and excellence. That is the true power of going to Harvard and it’s the perfect example of how persuasive branding can be.

Number 7:

Speak in simple language

Textbooks were not meant to persuade people, they were meant to be academic references created with two very simple things in mind, precision and accuracy.
But a lot of people seem to think that speaking in a complicated way is going to make them sound smart and persuasive.

In fact, it does the opposite. speaking like a textbook is going to make you sound confusing wordy and boring.
But if you want to be truly persuasive, you should focus on sounding as clear and simple as possible.

This reflects a different communication style, name business.
When it comes to business, clarity, speed, and efficiency is everything.
Why? Because money is on the line and no one gets rewarded for sounding smart you get rewarded for being effective.

So if you want to be effective as a speaker and more generally a communicator speaking in simple language should be your go-to strategy.

Number 8:

Use the extremes

When I say to use the extremes, it would be great if we had a formal definition of what that really means so you know what’s going on and I can be sure that my content is making sense.

So here it is, I define extremes as the top or bottom items in a meaningful list. Often described using words such as most, best or largest, this can also apply in a negative way with words like smallest, worst, and least.

Here is a simple example of using extremes:

Let’s say that you wanted to convince someone to go running with you in that case you could say something like, running is the healthiest thing you can do. Of course, this is just your opinion but saying that running is the healthiest thing you can do is going to be very convincing.

People have a natural tendency to believe in extremes, so if you want to sound convincing consider using them.

Number 9:

Appeal to authority

This is one of my favorite psychology tricks for persuading people, and it’s very simple.
The basic idea is this, support your argument by saying that a figure with authority also supports it.

Authority figures could be anyone, from celebrities to your favorite athlete or even highly qualified people, like famous scientists and engineers.

If someone like that supports your argument it makes it much stronger.

For example companies like Gatorade and Sprite often have notable athletes support their drinks in advertisements.
I’ve seen LeBron James who happens to be one of my favorite athletes endorsing Sprite and I’ve seen many other people with a similar status in a similar advertisement.

Why do companies do this? Because people trust celebrities, they trust authority figures, it’s a very persuasive psychology trick and you should also use it.

Number 10:

The power of repetition

Repetition works, let me say that again repetition works.

According to Lin Hasher a notable psychologist at the University of Toronto.
Repetition makes things seem much more plausible and the effect is likely more powerful when people are tired or distracted by other information.
And what does that sound like? It sounds like the modern world.

So how can this be used in real-world conversations to convince someone of something? Great question you see every argument has a thesis this is the main point of your argument it’s your view in the most basic form.
If you want to use repetition to your advantage all you have to do is repeat that thesis a lot.

For example, let’s say that you really want to have pizza for dinner but your friends want burgers and you keep on arguing about it.
All you have to do is simply repeat the thesis over and over we should get pizza for dinner. When people hear something, again and again, they start to believe it, it’s just human nature.

Number 11:

General acceptance

The power of general acceptance is huge but what exactly does it mean.
General acceptance refers to the norms of a certain society at a certain period of time.
These are the political and social pressures that shape how we interact with each other and the things we do in our lives on a day-to-day basis.

For example, in the United States, we have this thing called political correctness, it typically favors a more liberal view of social issues and frowns upon anything that could be deemed offensive.
Now the purpose of this article is not to convince you one way or another on this issue, it’s simply a demonstration of how powerful general acceptance can be.

So how can you use the power of general acceptance? Well, it’s actually pretty simple.
Let’s say that you’re having a disagreement with someone and they’re being very frustrating, so you want to win this argument quickly.
All you have to do is bend their argument so that it goes against a current social norm.
It’s very easy and very effective.

Number 12:

Create urgency

Urgency is the idea that something won’t last or that something will only be available for a limited period of time.
Urgency works because people don’t want to miss out on big opportunities.
However, most people won’t be proactive about pursuing big opportunities unless they’re gonna go away.
You see people want stuff but, they’re not going to go get it unless they have a deadline. Thus urgency is created through those deadlines.

Why do you think that limited-time offers are so effective? Yes, it’s true people like cheaper stuff especially if it’s normally very expensive. But cheap stuff exists and people still don’t always buy it right.
Well, that’s only true if it’s always gonna be cheap. but if your favorite pair of shoes go on sale for only a week a sense of urgency is created, people are drawn to it and thus they buy a lot more than they normally might.

Urgency is easy to create and extremely powerful.

Conclusion:

How to persuade someone to do something?