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Commitment and Consistency
The next weapon of influence that is to
be discussed is that of commitment and
consistency. The agent is going to need
to use both of these if they wish to
persuade anyone to change to their
point of view. When things are
consistent, they are easier to
understand and can help the subject to
make their decisions better. It does not
do well for the agent to always change
the facts that they are using or to
change other information that is needed
in order to help the subject process the
information. Rather than helping with
the process of persuading, constantly
keeping away from consistency is
going to make the agent look like a liar
and someone who cannot be trusted,
resulting in the failure of the
persuasion process.
Consistency is one of the most
important aspects of the persuasion
process. This is because:
Consistency is valued highly
in society: people like to
have things stay a certain
way most of the time. While
there is a lot of variety in
daily life, people feel safe
knowing that overall things
will stay pretty consistent. It
allows them to remember
what has gone on, know
what to expect, and be
prepared if any changes do
happen to occur. If
consistency were not
available, things would be
very difficult to plan and
there would always be issues
of chaos going around. If
you wish to persuade a
subject of a particular thing,
then you must make sure
that your facts are consistent
and make sense to them.
Consistency results in
benefiting the daily life
approach of most people.
Have you ever tried to plan a
day out when something
unexpected comes up? It can
make things almost
impossible to do and will
end up feeling like a
disaster. People like
consistency because it
allows them to know what to
expect and what to do. They
know when it is time to eat,
when it is time for work, and
when other things will
happen throughout the day.
Consistency provides a
shortcut that is very
valuable through the
complications present in
modern existence. Life is
difficult enough without
having to add in other things
that do not make since.
When people are able to
have consistent lives, it
makes things a whole lot
easier.
Consistency is a great tool because it
allows the subject the ability to make
the right decisions and to process
information. If the agent wants to be
successful in their endeavors of
persuading the subject, they need to
make sure that their message is
consistent. There is no room for false
evidence that can show up later and
ruin the whole process. Keep the facts
truthful and concise and it is much
better for persuading the subject.
Something that ties in with consistency
is the act of commitment. In order to
know that the subject is actually
persuaded and that the effort has paid
off, it is important to have some kind
of commitment in place. In advertising,
this can mean that the subject is going
to purchase the product or in politics it
can mean that the subject will vote for
a particular candidate. The
commitment that is made will vary
depending on the nature of the
persuasion. According to the concept of
consistency, if a person commits,
either in writing or orally, they are
much more likely to honor the
commitment that they have made.
It has been found that this is even more
true in terms of written commitments
since the subject will be more concrete
psychologically and there is some hard
proof that they agreed to the
commitment. This makes a lot of
sense; many people will promise orally
that they will fix something or do
something, just to turn around and not
do it. Sure, some people will do what
they said, and they are more likely to
do it if promising orally than not
promising at all, but often it is still
difficult to get the results that you want
in this way. In addition, there is no way
to back it up since an oral agreement
will just become a he said she said
disagreement and no one will win. On
the other hand, if the agent is able to
produce a written commitment from
the subject, they have the proof they
need that the thing has been done.
The reason that it is so important for
the agent to get the subject to agree to a
commitment is because once the
subject has committed to the new
stance, they have more of a tendency to
act in a way that is fitting to that
commitment. After that point, the
subject will continue on and begin to
engage in self-persuasion for the cause.
They will provide themselves along
with others with various justifications
and reasons to support the commitment
in order to avoid any issues with the
agent. If the agent is able to get the
subject to that point, the agent will
have a lot less work to deal with.
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