Resisting the Hard Sell

Owen Davey The nefarious side of persuasion has been a subject of philosophical inquiry since Aristotle, who warned his fellow Greeks about the dangers of being blinded by a person’s charisma and character. He implored his listeners to focus solely on the facts of an argument to avoid being emotionally manipulated. More than 2,000 years later, that advice is still sound. But let’s be honest: We’re terrible pupils. No matter how hard we try to remain objective, we get seduced by clever advertising campaigns, flashy presentations, high-powered promises, and gregarious sales reps, colleagues, partners, and job candidates who make bad ideas sound great. There is hope, however. Although most books and research on persuasion are geared toward helping people become better advocates, they can also serve the reverse purpose: teaching readers how to avoid being manipulated. If we take the time to understand the tricks of the trade and why we’re so susceptible to them, we can learn to better protect ourselves. The first step is to admit our weaknesses, which is easier said than done. Jonah Berger, a marketing professor at Wharton and the author of Invisible Influence, a popular business read this past summer, claims that most of us are in denial about our own shortcomings, particularly when it comes to social influence. We’re keenly aware when our colleagues and friends are led by others, but we still believe that we’re shepherds in crowds of sheep. This is due to what Berger calls the illusion of difference. We don’t see that we’re wearing the same Brooks Brothers button-down as a coworker because the shirts are different colors. We don’t recognize that we’re following our boss’s lead because our ideas seem slightly more nuanced. In other words, minor differences can blind us to glaring similarities and lead us to think that our ideas are wholly our own when they’re not. Berger offers advice on avoiding the groupthink that plagues so many organizations. Individuals should speak up with challenges and questions—and, we can infer, managers should be open to such pushback. Better yet, he suggests collecting employee input via secret ballot since we can’t be influenced by things that we can’t see or hear. Although most of his ideas and examples aren’t revelatory, his book is an entertaining reminder that the fight against bad persuasion must start from within. Literary theorist Stanley Fish takes a similar stance in his recent book, Winning Arguments. He concedes that none of us will ever become completely rational beings, free of weaknesses and biases. And the world will always be full of skilled persuaders who use their talents for less than honorable purposes. (The stories he cites range from the fall of Adam and Eve to the rise of Donald Trump.) Yet he also seems to suggest that more humility might help us more readily recognize when we’re being sheep. The next step, of course, is to learn how the other side operates. Robert Cialdini is perhaps the foremost expert on effective persuasion, and the advice outlined in his 2001 HBR article, “Harnessing the Science of Persuasion”—which called on readers to boost their influence by employing the principles of liking, reciprocity, social proof, consistency, authority, and scarcity—has become foundational in the field. Cialdini’s latest book, Pre-Suasion, builds on that work, arguing that the best persuaders aren’t merely eloquent charmers with well- crafted, finely tuned arguments; they’re also creative preparers who focus on finding the best ways to launch their offers and ideas. He calls this pre-suasion: the ability to convince us of the importance and desirability of something before we even hear the facts. The book provides a vast catalogue of research and techniques, many of them marketing related: Hearing German music can make us more apt to buy expensive German wine; being asked if we’re adventurous can increase our willingness to try new soft drinks; seeing an embedded photo of clouds can persuade us to prefer “softness” and “comfort” over price when browsing a website for high-end furniture. Those examples may make pre-suasion seem a bit like hypnosis. But again, awareness is key. If we recognize the mind games being used to ensnare us, perhaps we can avoid the trap. And there’s something to be learned from the more granular examples. For instance, Cialdini recalls a story about a consultant who was having a tough time persuading clients to agree to his prices. In the past, he had tried to explain the cost of each line item during negotiations, but that never worked. Then during one presentation, he decided to try a new approach. Right before mentioning his $75,000 fee, he joked, “As you can tell, I’m not going to be able to charge you a million dollars for this.” Everyone in the room laughed. But no one pushed back on his actual offer. Why? He had conditioned his audience to believe that his services weren’t exorbitantly priced by taking advantage of what psychologists call the focusing illusion—our habit of concentrating on a single aspect of an argument or experience (in this case, the million dollars). Smarter clients would have seen through the trick and followed up with their normal price-negotiation process. More generally, Cialdini warns that when confronted with any persuasive argument—even one with which we instinctively agree—we must spend as much time considering the possibility of failure as we do dreaming of the odds for success. He also sounds a reassuring note when he acknowledges that persuasion is more art than science. We’re not likely to be conned by someone who tries to follow a manual or a list of bullet points. In fact, he says, we can usually spot peddlers of bad ideas who use pre-suasive techniques because they draw outsize attention to their weaknesses. Of course, there’s no fail-safe way to prevent ourselves from getting duped, manipulated, and persuaded to do things that we later regret; on that, all three authors agree. But if we remind ourselves of how flawed and fallible we are as thinkers, while also better attuning ourselves to the artful techniques used by master manipulators, then we have a chance of increasing our good-decision percentage (if only by a few points) without closing ourselves off to new ideas and views.

Resisting the Hard Sell

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