Inspiring Essay About Persuasion

1. The main difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is that the first type originates from outside of the person’s aspiration, i.e. somebody perform the action just for the sake of pleasure to do it. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is explained by the aspiration to get a reward or to avoid punishment for an action.
2. Fear appeals to be effective in order to attract someone’s attention to something or someone suspicious or dangerous. From personal experience, I would say that the most effective examples of persuasion based on fear are warnings regarding health and personal safety.
3. The most important factors of fear appeals are fear itself (negative emotion obtained by a threat that is considered as personally significant), threat (the feeling of danger), efficacy (the expectation that the person will change his or her behavior in order to get rid of the problem in the proposed way), consequences (an acceptance of proposition to avoid negative outcomes or defensive avoidance of the problem or threat).
4. Humor is really effective in persuasion as it creates a good mood that contributes to acceptance of a proposition, so a person accepts a message more willing. Also humor gives additional good qualities to the person.
5. Sex appeal in advertising has a lot of negative effects, especially on children and teenagers, whose self-esteem becomes reduced. When there are too many advertisements with a sexual portrayal, then not only products but even human bodies become only a commodity.
6. Ingratiation is a powerful method of persuasion because with its help we can make others feel their importance and individual significance. Also, thanks to flattery we can request kindness, esteem, and favors in return.
1. Our visual perception of the world around is very powerful and subjective, as it is based on individual interpretation of the image’s meaning. The picture is called powerful when it causes intense emotions and associations.
2. Images should be understood clearly to convince the customer in buying the product; it should be attractive to excite the average customer, and ideal as possible. Also, an image may illustrate the way clients can use the product, or show some impressive scenery or beautiful people.
3. In some cases, art idealizes or romanticizes the reality and show the world as a better place to live in. In additional, pictures can have significant symbols inside the image, e.g. those that influence our ethical values, points of view or political preferences.
4. There are the main factors of films power to persuade: the probability of mass suggestion, total immersion in the story, the perception of film as entertainment only, and thorough planning of the movie.
5. Cinematograph’s mission is to not only entertain the masses but to influence people’s behavior, attitudes, and opinions. The effects become brighter and more realistic and that fact causes the development of propaganda and persuasion techniques. So, a lot of movies show a definite course of conduct or lifestyle which is desired by masses to follow or to avoid.
1. It is well-known that visual appearance of the product greatly impacts the willingness of a customer to buy it. A color sets the mood that may be successful in promoting the product among the specific audience: yellow is considered to be optimistic, blue means safeness, green is associated with relaxation, pink is feminine etc.
2. In different cultures the meanings of colors can vary, for example, in Western cultures yellow is considered as the color of cowardice, and means courage in Japan. So, in Japan yellow is often used in martial arts school advertisement. And in Russia yellow means separation and lie, so Russians present yellow flowers if they seek for separation or even divorce.
3. We receive subliminal messages when we notice something unconsciously, and it is widely and successfully used in advertisements. However, the marketers claim that they don’t use such a hidden way of persuasion, I think the bottom line is that the public scandal would arise if we found out all the details of using subliminal messages in cinematograph, art, publishing, and advertisement.
1. To persuade somebody in the ethical way, it is always needed to explore opponent’s point of view, to explain your own viewpoint, and to create the resolution. Therefore, an ethical conversation should include such components: factual honesty, completeness of the message, appropriate context, and respect for the opponent.
2. Pure and borderline persuasion should aim for achieving accuracy and reliability of the message, it is needed to take into account opponent’s opinion, and persuasion should be authentic and honest too.
3. Persuasion can be a really effective tool of manipulation, so we need to use it only in the ethical way to show the respect to other’s dignity. Therefore, we should avoid becoming a bungler, smuggler or sleuth, and follow only such motives in the persuasion, that won’t do any harm to other people.
4. In some cases, where it is needed to use credibility to strengthen the persuasiveness of the statement, we should provide a reliable source or apply to the competent person, and this method is considered to be suitable.
5. According to Interpersonal Deception Theory of deception, lies can be good if it was said in order to make another person feel better. In such cases, the deception can be absolutely harmless and ethical. Unfortunately, we don’t have absolutely ideal and tolerant relationships in our society, so honesty is not always better than lies.