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Persuasion Is The Process By Which One Presents Information Essay

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The practice - or some might even say art - of persuasion is the process by which one presents information in an attempt to get an audience to consider and adopt new perspectives, or even change current behaviors. (McLean, 2010, p.535) Persuasion differs from motivation in that motivation is active and often involves some sort of reward, force, incentive or coercion. Presenting well thought arguments to an audience can result in measurable gain, or the shifting of your audience to be more aligned with the desired position. (McLean, 2010, p.536) There are a number of ways to persuade an audience, and in our text, we learn about 6 that have been put forth by social psychologist Robert Cialidini (McLean, 2010, p.538) 1. Reciprocity 2. Scarcity 3. Authority 4. Commitment and Consistency 5. Consensus 6. Liking Reciprocity is a natural human tendency - some might call it give and take. When someone provides something the individual who has received something is naturally more inclined to give something back. This might not be immediate or balanced and studies have shown, for example, that multiple small favors can result in a large reciprocal favor (Watkins, 2001, p.126). Scarcity is related to a natural human attraction to things that are rare or exclusive (McLean, 2010, p. 538). Limited time offers or the idea of something only being made available to a small group of people can be very compelling. At the opposite end of this idea, most people are very risk averse, so pointing

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