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Persuading Others: Use Pre-Suasion Tactics in an Honest Way, with Robert Cialdini, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing, Arizona State University, Author, Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade
You know, it’s very important when we think about these principles of influence, both those involved in persuading and those involved in pre-suading people in our direction, that we think about the ethics of it. And there’s a rationale for any organization for being scrupulous about making sure that they have an ethical culture so that these tactics are being used in an honest way.
The Cost of Dishonesty
We just completed some research that shows that in an organization that has an unethical culture, a sense that they approve of dishonesty, of cheating, of lying in order to gain their goals, those people who are uncomfortable with that kind of culture will leave. And one big consequence of that will be high turnover costs. That’s something we already are aware of. But here’s another consequence. Once those people who are uncomfortable with dishonesty leave what remains is a group of people who are comfortable with dishonesty and they will cheat the organization.
Our research shows that those people who lie for you will lie to you. Those people who cheat with you will cheat against you. They’re the ones who will pad their expense accounts. They’re the ones who will steal equipment. They’re the ones who will run under the table deals with vendors or customers. And so those costs of fraud, employee fraud will now have to be born by the organization that allows that sort of thing to be part of the culture of the organization.
Essential Questions for Crafting Pre-Suasive Messages with Care
We think that there’s a good reason for any leader to insist on only the most ethical implementation of these practices. A worthwhile question would be well how do I generate an ethical use of this practice of pre-suasion? How do I send people to a dimension of my message that will be especially beneficial, not just to me, not just that will create the largest profit margin for me, but will be of service to them? It is to decide before we send the message what is the element of my message that would make it most wise for people to say yes to my message? What is the strength of what I have to offer that will prove to be beneficial to anyone who accepts my offer? That’s the place I want to send to people, because that’s where I have the strongest evidence, the strongest argument in favor of what I am requesting people to do.