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Social Proof
Persuasion is a form of social
interaction and therefore is going to
need to follow the social rules where it
is occurring. The subject is going to be
influenced by the people who are
around them; they are going to be more
likely to want to do what others are
doing rather than do their own thing.
The subject will base their beliefs and
action according to what others are
doing around them, how these same
people act, and how they believe. For
example, if the subject grows up in a
city, they are more likely to act like
others who are from that area; on the
other hand, those who grow up in a
community that is very religious may
spend a lot of their time praying,
learning, and helping others.
Under this belief the saying “the power
of the crowd,” can be very effective.
The subject is going to want to know
what other people around them are
doing at all times. It has become
almost an obsession in this country to
be able to do what others are doing in
order to fit in, despite the fact that
people will say how they want to be
different and be an individual.
An example that is given about how
people will do something because
others are doing it can be found with a
phone-a-thon. If the host says
something like “Operators are waiting,
please call now,” the subject may feel
like there are operators who are sitting
around with nothing to do because no
one is calling them. This will make the
subject less likely to call because they
figure if someone else isn’t calling
then they shouldn’t either. If the host
just changes up a few words and
instead says “If operators are busy,
please call again,” there can be a very
different result. The subject is now
going to assume that the operators are
busy with the calls of many others
subjects so the organization must be
good and legitimate. The subject will
be much more likely to call in whether
or not they get through right away or
have to be put on hold.
The persuasion technique of social
proof is the most effective in situations
where the subject is uncertain of what
they will do or when there seem to be
many similarities in the situations. In
ambiguous or uncertain situations that
have multiple choices or possibilities
to be made, the subject will often
choose to conform to what others
around them are doing. This is because
the choices are so similar that any of
them will work, but they will assume
that the choice the others are making is
the one that is right. The other way that
social proof can be used is when there
are some similarities occurring. For
example, the subject is much more
likely to conform and change around
those who are similar to them in some
way. If there is someone who is similar
to the subject that is in charge, the
subject is likely to listen and follow
them more than if the person in charge
is very different from the subject.
The agent will be able to use the idea
of social proof to help with their
process of persuasion. The first way
they can do this is watching the
wording that they are saying. With the
example given of the game show, both
of the quotes were saying the same
thing, but by switching up the wording
they came up with two different
meanings. Neither of them were a lie;
they were just effective at eliciting a
different kind of response. If the agent
is able to watch the way that they word
things, they can elicit the right
response out of their subjects and
convince the subject to follow the same
ideas and beliefs.
In addition, the agent will find that
there is more success if they are able to
get those who are similar to them to
share in the ideas. This is why
politicians will try to campaign to
groups with the similar ideas to them.
If they need to reach a larger group,
they will modify their ideas in order to
make them more appealing to these
new groups.
Liking
The agent is going to work very hard in
order to get the subject to like them.
There is a very simple reason or this; if
the subject likes the agent, they are
much more likely to say yes to them.
There are two main factors that will
contribute to how well the subject likes
the agent. The first one is physical
attractiveness and the second is
similarity.
For the first one, if the agent is more
attractive physically to the subject,
they are going to have the feeling of
being more persuasive since they are
able to get what they want more easily
while also changing the attitudes of
others. This attractiveness factor has
been proven effective in sending
favorable messages and impressions of
other traits that the agent may have
including intelligence, kindness, and
talent. This all works together to make
it more likely that an attractive person
will be able to more easily persuade the
subject.
The second factor, similarity, is a little
simpler. The idea states that if the
subject is similar to the agent, they are
much more likely to answer in the
affirmative to what the agent is asking.
This process is pretty natural and most
of the time the subject will not have to
think about whether it is the right thing
to do when they like and are similar to
the agent.
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