How to convince people on the net: seventeen little-known Jedi tricks

Want to learn how to convince people on the Internet and get what you want from them?

The power of persuasion is what usually distinguishes successful from everyone else. And there are a number of science-proven tricks that you may not have heard of yet, but which can radically increase your ability to convince.

This article will not say a word about mutual exchange, scarcity, social proof, and other well-known principles of persuasion. You probably already know everything about them (and if you don’t know, drop everything and urgently read this Chaldini book !).

1. Convincing skeptics, speak confidently and quickly

The best way to convince skeptical listeners is to increase the speed of speech . Quick speech scatters the interlocutor’s attention; it becomes difficult for people to look for flaws in your arguments. If the audience is of the same opinion with you (as in the case of a preacher and his flock) - speak more slowly, give people time to agree with you even more.

Want to talk more convincingly? Add confidence to the voice.

Don Moore, of Carnegie Mellon’s University of Decision Research, has published an article that proves that confidence easily breaks the accuracy of information in the fight for student confidence.

To such an extent, we love to receive advice from sources who are confident that they are right, that we are ready to forgive them even a dubious reputation. Moore claims that in a competitive environment, such public preferences can lead to the fact that the "advisers" will portray an increasingly exaggerated confidence in their words.

People tend to consider confidence a sign of knowledge. Know your product, know everything about its benefits and most importantly - sincerely believe in it. True confidence comes when you not only know what you are talking about, but also believe in your own words. And in order to convince a person of anything, it is necessary that your confidence be conveyed to him.

2. Swearing is convincing

I'm talking about light swearing. Having gone too far, you will lose all confidence!

Researchers divided 88 participants into three groups. Each group was allowed to watch almost the same speech. The only difference was a light curse inserted at the beginning of the first video:

“Reducing tuition fees is not just a good idea. This is the hell of the most reasonable decision for all concerned! ”

In the second video, “hell” was inserted at the end of the speech, in the third it wasn’t at all. When scientists compared the attitudes of the subjects to the listening, it turned out that people who got a speech with a curse reacted to it with great approval.

The phrase “hell” made the audience feel that the speaker was sincerely rooting for his cause, and this, in turn, increased the power of conviction. At the same time, the trust of listeners in the speaker remained unchanged in all three groups.

That’s the secret of Gary Vaynerchuk and Dave McClar ! I thought that they are just cool guys, and they, it turns out, use an effective persuasion technique - easy swearing.

3. Let them agree with you at the beginning

If you want people to be inspired by your idea, start with something that they cannot disagree with.

A study by Alison Jing Xu and Robert Vier showed that consent has a prolonged effect. Scientists suggested that the participants in the experiment first listen to the speech of John McCain, or Barack Obama, and then watch Toyota TV ads.

The Republicans seemed more convincing after McCain’s speech. Democrats showed a diametrically opposite result, responding better to advertising after Obama’s speech.

So, if you want to sell something, you should first say something that the potential buyer will necessarily agree with - even if in this case the beginning of your speech will have nothing to do with the product being sold.

4. Counter Arguments Help You

If your words cause (or may cause) objections, do not succumb to the temptation and ignore the weaknesses of your idea. Usually we fear that talking about them will weaken our position. In fact, he can strengthen it. Here's what the psi blog writes on this topic :

For many years, psychologists conducted experiments comparing the persuasiveness of texts containing only one point of view with texts mentioning arguments of the opposite side. In 1999, Daniel O'Keeffe of the University of Illinois put together the results of one hundred and seven similar studies conducted over fifty years and involving a total of 20111 participants (O'Keeffe, Communication Yearbook, No. 22, pp. 209-249, 1999)

The results of the O'Keefe meta-analysis are pretty convincing. He found that different audiences in different circumstances are more likely to believe bilateral arguments than their one-sided counterparts.

People are not idiots. If you want to become a master of persuasion, remember that they also know how to think. If you yourself in your speech “forget” about the reverse side of the coin, they will still remember about it, and you will lose confidence.

So, perhaps to mention the shortcomings of your product on the site is not a bad idea.

5. People more believe that they can "touch"

Ye Lee, Eric Johnson, and Lisa Zaval have explored the relationship between people's faith in global warming and local weather.

Experts in Australia and the United States evaluated their belief in global warming. They also noted how the temperature on the day of the study differs from the average for this time of year. In cases where the air temperature turned out to be warmer than usual, people more trusted the ideas about global warming. If the street was colder than usual at this time of year, the belief in global warming was weakening.



In a second study, scientists recreated the terms of the previous experiment and in addition asked participants to contribute to the climate change fund. Subjects donated four times more money on warm days than on cold days.

If you want people to pay you, the situation at the time of sale should support your words. On the Internet, it is worth using emotions , “ life stories ” and appropriate pictures to create such support for emotions .

6. Let the goods “on load” cost 60% less

The listeners finally believed you, convinced themselves that you can be trusted with your money and are now ready to buy. Now you can sell them more!

If you bought a shirt, a tie will be a good extra sale, but not a suit.

The time-tested principle of 60 to 60 states that in 60 percent of cases a client buys 60 percent more than he intended. So all the products you offer in the load should be commensurate with the main ones.

By the way, if you are not using the principle of additional sales in your business, it is worth a try. This is a great way to increase profits (“Would you like some more fried potatoes for a side dish?”)

7. Add positive

Positive aspects convince better than negative ones.

An analysis of 29 different studies in which 6378 subjects participated in the total complexity showed that phrases with a positive charge convince better than negative ones.

The above studies concerned the public’s attitude to the prevention of various diseases: they suggested using sunblock, touted a healthy diet, etc. The principle, however, can be used much more widely. Scientists believe that people don't like being scared.

Try to make your advertising slogan sound positive. Put “Win ​​an extra hour” instead of “Stop wasting time” and see what happens.

8. The paradox of choice

The more choices you offer, the less they will buy from you - psychologists say.

Scientists have equipped a counter in one fashionable supermarket in California that allows customers to try jam. Sometimes they offered 24 varieties of jam, and sometimes only 6. After tasting, potential buyers were given a discount coupon for the purchase of jam.

A wide selection attracted more visitors, but very few of them really bought something. The smaller assortment counter was clearly the leader in terms of sales. In truth, only three percent of people who tried jam at a stand with 24 types of it actually used their coupon - compare with 30 percent at a stand with 6 types of jam!

If you have a thousand and one kinds of products on your site, it’s worth the effort to create filters to help people choose. Further on the same topic, read this one.Great book , or watch the wonderful TED talk.

9. Repetition - the mother of persuasion

Repetition has a definite effect on us. Looking at the product, we involuntarily scroll through the previously seen ads in our heads. And imperceptibly for ourselves we learn by heart songs constantly sounding on the radio.

The repetition of words and images not only makes them settle in our heads (which is convincing in itself), but also makes us consider the regularly repeated truth.

This is what ChangingMinds writes about the work of Hugh Rank, who studied the power of persuasion (Teaching about public persuasion, 1976):

Our brains are very good at recognizing patterns and rewarding us for this useful skill. Repetition creates a pattern that naturally and inevitably attracts our attention.

Repetition creates a habit, but does the habit lead to neglect? Of course, this can happen, but, in truth, habit more often leads to sympathy than to rejection. Arriving at the store, we often buy goods from familiar companies, even if we have never encountered this particular product before.



Recall, for example, the last time you bought shoes for yourself. First, before you measure, you took them several times from the shelf and put them in place? Having measured, left, then came back and measured again? You are not alone! Many people need to repeat the action several times before making sure that it is correct. Usually three times.

Often list the main advantages of a product in advertising; do not hesitate to repeat the main points of a business proposal several times. This is done by all effective election campaigns, all successful advertisers (“Vest - no man is better!”). Repeat to create a habit and related sympathy.

By the way, according to another study , if at least one member of the group repeats a judgment several times, his opinion will most likely be considered universal.

10. Men respond better to e-mails than to live conversation

Guadagno and Cialdini (2002) found that men respond better to e-mails, as they “bypass” their craving for competition. Women, by contrast, generally respond better to personal conversations, because by their nature they are more focused on creating and maintaining relationships.

11. Limit the person in purchases - and he will buy more

Here is a quote from Brian Vansik ’s excellent book, “Thoughtless Food: Why We Eat More Than We Think.”

Some time ago, two other professors, Steve Hoch and Bob Kent, and I decided to check if the inclusion of an anchor affects the amount of food we buy. We found that customers who saw clear limits, such as “twelve pieces in one hand,” tend to buy more than those who see signs like “no quantity limits.”

To check what psychological patterns are behind this phenomenon, we repeated our research in different stores, changing numbers and applying different forms of advertising (2 pieces for two dollars or one for a dollar). At the end of the study, we knew for sure that almost any advertisement containing numbers makes us buy 30, or even 100 percent more than usual.

So put anchors - set limits on the quantity of goods!

12. Stories are stronger than facts

In 2007, Carnegie Mellon University staff (Deborah Small, George Lowenstein and Paul Slovik) decided to find out what affects us more - facts or stories.

The subjects were invited to donate funds to the hunger strike fund in Africa. The appeal to the first group contained statistics on food shortages in the Republic of Malawi, the drought in Zambia, and millions of homeless people in Angola.

The second version of the appeal contained the story of a specific starving Zambian girl, Rocky. People were shown a photo of the girl (shown on the right) and asked to help her personally.

On average, subjects who received statistics donated $ 1.14. Those who were given the opportunity to read the history of Rocky, on average donated $ 2.38 - more than twice as much!

The third group got the story of Rocky, along with information about drought, crop failures and millions of starving Africans. Remember, those who were only given the history of Rocky donated an average of 2.38? So: the history of Roxia plus statistics collected an average of 1.43!

The plight of Africa and the battle with poverty are too great. People think that their contribution to the fight against such global problems is a drop in the ocean and decide not to help at all.

Mother Teresa also said: “I see the crowd and can’t do anything. I see one thing and I do it. ”

13. Selling to men? Show female photos

A working experiment conducted in credit markets showed that photographs of women vied for credibility with a low interest rate.

A certain South African lender sent out letters offering existing clients short-term loans with a variety of interest rates. The letters also contained some randomly chosen “psychological” design. As expected, the interest rate significantly influenced the decision to take a loan. However, some "psychological" details that are not related to the economy, also significantly increased the popularity of the loan.

So, in the case of male clients, replacing male photographs at the beginning of a letter with a female one increased the success of writing to the same extent as lowering the rate by 4.5%. It was not possible to find a pattern in the behavior of female clients.

In general, the results indicate that female photographs in advertising have a big impact on male clients. True, the root-mean-square error does not allow explaining this effect by any specific mechanism. The effect could be caused by both a positive influence on women’s photos of men and a negative effect on men.

So next time add a female photo to the advertisement and sales will immediately creep up.

By the way, the above study did not use photographs of sexual women. Will a hot bikini feature help you?

Studies have shown that men get stupid from excitement, as their ability to make decisions drops dramatically. "Perspective" narrows if you understand what I mean. This effect is quite short-term, that is, it must be used directly at the time of sale in order to provoke spontaneous purchases.

Ideally, of course, a “hot bikini gadget” should personally sell your product to men. I think in the virtual it is possible when it comes to goods for men.

And also, according to research,Sexual advertising prevents men from remembering the product . We are so addicted to the sexual component of advertising that we stop paying attention to the company and its products.

14. Want to convince a leader? Take away some of his power

Do not try to convince the boss of the value of the new idea while he is fully aware of his power. According to some studies , he simply will not hear you.

“People in power are confident in their own opinions. Regardless of whether they agree with any idea or not, they are almost impossible to convince. ” Says Richard Petty, co-author of these studies, a professor at Ohio State University.

A leader, however, can listen to new ideas if he makes him feel less significant.
“Our research has shown that power makes people more self-confident. But power is just one source of confidence, ”says Petty. “Try to talk about something that the boss does not know, and his confidence will diminish.”

“Your arguments will fall on favorable ground when the boss ceases to think about his significance. After you are finally heard, it is useful to remind the boss of his authority. This will allow him to more confidently evaluate what you said. And if you manage to bring strong arguments, you are likely to convince the authorities, ”Petty said.

So, in a nutshell:
- make the boss feel less confident by starting a conversation on a topic in which he is incompetent and, if possible, do it outside his office (in neutral territory).
“Having stated your arguments, remind him who the boss is here, so that he can begin to implement your idea.”

15. Nod of Sullivan

Invented by restaurant consultant Jim Sullivan , the “nod of Sullivan” is this: you read the list of products and nod slightly, reaching the item that you think the buyer should choose. The nod should be the lightest, but noticeable, and works best when the client selects from five to six items. Sullivan claims that it works in almost 60% of cases.

When the waiter offers a drink, let him smile and slowly shake his head up and down. The language of our body is a powerful thing. According to studies, more than 60% of restaurant visitors nod in response and order a drink chosen by the waiter.

I am sure that this technique can be used on the Internet, in commercials. Talking about plans, or presenting service packages, nod when talking about which one you want to sell the most.

16. Clarity is the sister of persuasion

This is Dr. Flint McLaughlin's favorite saying from Marketing Experiments . Remember her.

Any persuasion technique works when used subtly and professionally. Overdo it - you lose the deal. It doesn’t matter if you write a proposal for a sale, or prepare a presentation, remember, the best way to convince people is clarity. Stop, giving people enough information to make their own decisions, do not become cunning in their eyes ... wicked, and annoying.

17. 87% of the audience believes everything in which there is interest.

So they told me;)

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Authorship of the translation: Ekaterina Rosenberg and Dmitry Shulyndin (@dmitry_ch)