Principles of Persuasion
Homo Sapiens is cursed by being an idiot, but blessed by being smart enough to know it.
The levers of persuasion share common principles. If you learn and understand these common threads, you can better apply the tools and influence others.
Principle #1: Evolution
The levers of persuasion come from deep, evolutionary habits. Your ancestors’ brains evolved to survive in a world different than yours.
Don’t think you can out-maneuver evolution. You’ve only been around, what, several decades? Evolution has been working for millennia.
Your evolutionary tendencies have immense power over you. More importantly, you can use them to have immense influence over others.
Principle #2: You Are Not Rational
Doesn’t matter if you have a PhD in logic. You may think you’re rational. You’re not (see Principle #4).
Principle #3: Your Brain Is Lazy
Your brain is sooooooo lazy.
Thanks to evolution (see Principle #1), your brain prefers the path of least resistance. This is because your ancestors evolved in a world where they didn’t know when they would get their next meal. And their brains picked up on that lesson.
So the human brain wants to conserve energy. Your brain doesn’t like weighing the pros and cons of going to the gym or ordering dessert. If it can make the decision in a lazy way, it totally will.
This is expertly described in Thinking Fast and Slow, where Daniel Kahneman outlines your brain’s “fast” and “slow” modes. The “fast” brain is automatic and emotional; the “slow” one is logical and effortful.
But your brain prefers the fast mode because it takes less effort; it has to be intentionally kicked into the slow mode.
Your brain has to be consciously flipped into the slow mode; it prefers the fast.
Principle #4: Words and Intentions Are Not Reliable
Never trust how you think humans work. Base your beliefs only on their actual behavior.
As Richard Feynman famously said: “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”
Humans are notorious self-deceivers. Never trust how someone says they would act in a situation. Look only to their actual actions.
Principle #5: Facts Don’t Matter
Facts can lend authority if they’re from reliable sources. But, generally, your psychology is easily overpowered by emotions and mental shortcuts. Don’t believe for a second that facts determine outcomes. Anyone who watched the 2016 presidential election knows this.
As Scott Adams writes in Win Bigly: “A good general rule is that people are more influenced by visual persuasion, emotion, repetition, and simplicity than they are by details and facts.”
Takeaway
In sum, your brain evolved to be an irrational, lazy, and unreliable organic computer.
It’s a wonder you could put your socks on this morning, isn’t it?
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