I generally write to figure things out, how they work, and most importantly, why. Sometimes it works better than others, particularly on things that are outside my experience. Such is the field of persuasion, something so far outside my normal range of experience so as to be the functional equivalent of another physical dimension.
Why look at persuasion? Because it is the sphere that President Trump operates in. It is his wheelhouse. It is his vehicle for getting things done. Even more importantly, the Other Side (democrats and whatever else they call themselves these days) has been playing there for a very long time. It is why they use class warfare and race-baiting (fear works and is powerful persuasion).
The only guy who was able to describe what Trump was doing, why he was doing it, how it worked, and most importantly, predict what he would do next during the 2016 election cycle was Dilbert cartoonist and author Scott Adams. Adams has training in persuasion, understands it and uses it in his business dealings and cartooning. For an intro, I would suggest that the reader start visiting the Dilbert Blog on a regular basis. http://blog.dilbert.com/
Adams has a reading list that he periodically updates on persuasion. http://blog.dilbert.com/2018/01/24/persuasion-reading-list-updated-1-18/
Adams worldview, which he refers to as his persuasion filter or movie, is that people are fundamentally irrational. We make decisions based on emotion and then use whatever tool stack we must to rationalize those decisions.
Persuasion works on the irrational part of who we are and what we do. This means that by definition, facts are overrated. Get the big stuff right, leave the implementation intentionally vague, and allow your audience to fill in the details by themselves. He does this with the way he writes the Dilbert comic strip.
The two most important concepts in the persuasion world are cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias. Cognitive dissonance is where people rationalize why their actions differ from their thoughts and beliefs. We are seeing this out of democrats since the election, for if Trump is everything he was called and accused of doing, how can he possibly be President? Confirmation bias is the human tendency to see evidence supporting your beliefs, whether it is there or not. We see this with charges during the latter stages of the election that Trump is indeed Hitler.
Adams refers to Trump as a Master Persuader, someone with weapons-grade persuasion skills. Others with these sorts of skills include Norman Vincent Peale, Tony Robbins, Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett.
One of the persuasion plays that Trump made over and over during the campaign (and is still doing as President) is the intentional wrongness persuasion play. Adams in Win Bigly, describes the play this way (partly paraphrased):
- Make a claim that is directionally accurate but has a big exaggeration or factual error in it.
- Wait for people to notice the error and spend endless hours talking about how wrong it is.
This works because when you dedicate energy and focus to an idea, you will remember it. Things that have the most mental impact on you will irrationally seem as though they are high priority even though they may not be. This is persuasion.
Win Bigly is stuffed with examples and descriptions of how and why persuasion works. Well worth the time and effort to acquire and read. https://www.amazon.com/Win-Bigly-Persuasion-World-Matter/dp/0735219710/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520984532&sr=8-1&keywords=win+bigly
If Our Side wants to be politically successful, we must, MUST, acquire persuasion skills.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He is a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
