If you are familiar with Aesop's fables,
you may have heard this quote,
"Persuasion is often more effectual than force."
While many of us consider persuasion to be a bad thing,
it can also be used effectively.
Aristotle suggested that in making a speech,
one must first study the means of producing persuasion.
And that's what we will do today.
We will drill down and focus on some
of the persuasive techniques that you might be able to use.
Specifically, we will cover a few reminders,
what we may have covered in other video lectures,
as well as the types of persuasive propositions
and potential outcomes of persuasive appeals.
And then two theories of motivation,
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
and the theory of cognitive dissonance.
In the sales speech, we discuss the differences
between informative and persuasive presentations.
Today we'll focus on persuasive presentations
in more detail, and how you might be able to urge a choice,
ask for commitment, and concentrate
on controlling your audience response.
Recall that we previously defined persuasion
as the process of changing or reinforcing a listener
or a receiver's attitudes, beliefs, values, or behaviors.
Now, let's consider another way to define persuasion.
As the use of verbal and non-verbal communication
to affect attitudes and or behaviors.
By specifying both verbal and nonverbaL,
we take into account that persuasion is not only
what you say, but how you say it.
The nonverbal aspect of persuasion is just as important.
And at times more important than the words you use.
One way to look at various types of persuasive speeches
is in terms of outcomes,
or what you want the audience to do or believe
at the end of the speech.
There are three basic outcomes.
The first, the speech to convince,
has the goal of changing your audience's beliefs.
Galileo had to do this when the prevailing wisdom
was that the world was flat.
And he persuaded people to change their beliefs
and accept that the world was round.
This is the most difficult outcome to achieve,
to change someone's mind.
The primary purpose of the second outcome,
a speech to actuate, is to motivate your audience
to take action.
In this case, the audience already believes something
to some extent, and you want to move them beyond
just believing something to actually doing something.
As an example, most of us believe
that global warming is probably an issue
that we need to address, and we will need to consider
alternative forms of transportation
rather than driving our single-occupant vehicles.
However, most of us are not doing that today.
A speech to actuate would build on this belief
and focus on motivating us to actually do something.
The third outcome, the speech to stimulate,
is when your audience already believes something
and you want to enhance that belief,
where they're already doing something
and you want them to continue doing it,
or to increase the frequency of them doing it.
An example could be a speech on recycling.
Statistics say that we are recycling to some degree,
but we need to and can do much more,
or be more effective at it.
Another way to look at persuasive speeches is in terms
of the propositions that are being advanced.
Sometimes they are called claims or questions.
There are three of these also,
questions or propositions of fact, value, and policy.
Let's look first at propositions of fact.
Here you argue or propose that something is true or false,
if something is the case or is not the case,
or if something exists or doesn't exist.
We can subdivide this into three types of questions of fact.
Past fact refers to something that happened in the past,
such as did it rain yesterday?
Or did NASA deceive us about Apollo astronauts landing
on the moon in the late 1960s and early 70s?
An example of present fact is,
does secondhand smoke cause cancer?
In future fact, will you earn an A on your next speech?
Another type of question or proposition focuses
on value, is something good or bad,
better than or worse than, justified or not,
right or wrong, and more important or less important.
Continuing with the example of smoking,
a question of value might be,
are non-smokers' rights more important than smokers' rights?
It's easy to move from questions of fact and value
to questions of policy.
A question of policy addresses what we should do,
what policies should we create or follow.
So let's say that you have made a strong argument
for the fact that secondhand smoke causes cancer.
And you've indicated that non-smokers' rights
are more important than smokers' rights.
Next step is to propose a solution or a policy
to solved for the problem of secondhand smoke.
If you say, "We should ban smoking from college campuses,"
you are proposing a policy.
An easy way to determine if a statement or question
is policy is, if it has the word should in it,
it's most likely a question of policy.
Thinking back to the sales speech video lecture,
you'll recall Monroe's motivated sequence
and it's five steps, attention, needs,
satisfaction, visualization, and action, or ANSVA.
Remember that the key word in this approach
is the word 'motivates.'
You might want to think of motivate as a motive for action.
Remember, to the extent that a person feels a need
for something, we say that person is motivated.
So let's focus on two theories of motivation,
one that you're probably familiar with,
Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs,
and one that you might be less familiar with,
cognitive dissonance.
What needs motivate us to do something?
In 1943, Abraham Maslow theorized that there are
five basic types of needs that can motivate humans.
You will usually see this visually depicted in a pyramid,
denoting, a hierarchy.
The needs on the bottom of the pyramid need to be met
before you can progress up and address the needs
on the higher levels of the pyramid.
According to Maslow, the most basic of all human needs
is physiological, which is on the very bottom
of the pyramid.
As humans, we have a physiological need to eat,
drink, breathe, eliminate our waste,
have shelter from the elements, et cetera.
Once you've had these basic physiological needs met,
you can move up to the next level to try to satisfy
or meet your safety and security needs,
such as personal security from crime, financial security,
health and wellbeing and having a safety net
against accidents and illnesses.
The third level in the hierarchy is the social needs,
also called the love and belonging needs.
It is part of human nature to want to feel
a sense of belonging and acceptance,
being a part of social groups.
This involves friendships, intimacy,
and having a supportive and communicative family.
All humans feel a need to be respected,
which relates to the fourth level
of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, self-esteem needs.
We need to feel valued and be recognized
for our contributions as well as recognized
for who we are.
At the very top of the hierarchy, the fifth need
is self actualization needs.
This is the need to make the most of our abilities,
and to be the best that we can
to reach our highest potential.
Perhaps the best example is an old army recruitment slogan
which claimed that if you joined the army,
you'd be able to be all that you can be.
Understanding these needs
and the order in which they emerge,
can help you target your appeal to your audience.
If, for example, you know that your audience is motivated
by physiological needs and social needs,
then targeting your speech to include appeals
to self-esteem needs might not be your best approach.
Now we can turn to the theory of cognitive dissonance,
first suggested by Leon Festinger in the early 1950s.
To better understand the theory, let's first consider
the word 'dissonance,' which is most often used in music
to describe a lack of harmony, or an inconsistency.
Consonance is the opposite.
It is consistency, congruent, everything lines up.
We like to be consistent, but unfortunately we are not.
Cognitive dissonance, then, can be defined as the discomfort
that you experience when you are simultaneously holding
two or more inflicting cognition, or beliefs, or behaviors.
How can you use this as a persuasive technique?
Well, if you want to create a motivation for change
in your audience, you play up or reinforce the dissonance,
so that we want to bring everything back into consonants.
Remember, we want to be consistent.
For example, you love animals, yet you eat meat,
which causes animals to be killed.
Those are two conflicting beliefs or cognitions
causing you to experience dissonance.
You can use this discomfort to your advantage
when you are using persuasion.
I want you to seriously consider not eating meat.
I would play up on your love for animals,
increasing the distance between these two beliefs,
and thus, increasing the dissonance you feel.
You feel uncomfortable because you are not consistent.
So you are more willing to consider a solution
that makes you feel consistent.
Conversely, I could help you justify
why your love of animals is not in conflict
with your behavior of eating meat,
perhaps providing a rationale that the animals use for food
are not the same animals you love.
Again, I would be providing a way to bring these two
conflicting cognitions into consonants.
Quiz time.
What are the three outcomes for persuasive speech?
What are two persuasive techniques
that help motivate people?
And what are the five basic types of needs
in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?
Once you understand what persuasion is,
you can use it more effectively in your persuasive appeals.