Persuasion, Manipulation and Seduction

Persuasion is an art form use to persuade an audience to change their perception or views of a topic or situation. I call it an art form because not all people can achieve the ability to move a person’s attitude or belief from their current values or situation to what you want them to believe. It is a very difficult skill that one must learn in order to be able to achieve this level of success. But why do it at all? Tough question.

In today’s environment there are so many different communication tools available to people. There are also so many different audiences to tap. During the presidential election campaign they are targeting the voting audience. All those registered voters in the United States of America. They want to get their specific message across to the American people so that they will get elected. How do you do that? You must persuade your audience why you are better than the other guy. What makes you different and why? Why is what you are telling us in the media going to last longer than the vote itself? What is it that you value or need that will make you believe this guy as opposed to his opponent?

“Create a Need. One method of persuasion involves creating a need for an appealing a previously exiting need. This type of persuasion appeals to a person’s fundamental needs for shelter, love, self esteem and self-actualization.” Shockley-Zalabak, P.S (2009). In the last election there were so many needs. Health Care, the plummeting housing market, and the fact that a Black President would be earth shattering. Not to mention he was well educated and well spoken and looked good. These factors help enable a person to persuade their target audience that they are the right person for the job.

Manipulation, on the other hand is a sad but often used form of communication. I believe it is for those people who are so connected to their families that they can not break away for any reason. No amount of persuasive information will help these people. In some cases this leads to abusive relationships. In this paper I will keep the information a little lighter. According to (yes-to-me.com/2008 Dodging the may forms of psychological manipulation) there are several types of manipulation.

1. Pointing our potential problems – pointing out failure stories they heard somewhere. Sounds realistic, practical and uninspiring. It will point out only the negative aspects of a situation.
2. Direct put-down as a joke – They say something very unnice and when you are feelings are hurt they treat you as naïve. 
3. Count the Blessings you already have – Twisted logic. This I find particularly offensive. When I lost my first son at 7 ½ weeks old people used to try to easy my pain by saying I could have another child. What they didn’t understand is that no person how big or small can ever be replaced. 
4. What is the point? From these people’s perspective the glass is always half empty.

How does one cope with manipulation? I don’t think you can. Your best line of defense is to recognize it is happening and then make your own choice to follow it or not. In my case I chose to ignore it. People don’t always understand want they are saying. In those other cases where they are defiantly trying to manipulate the situation you can try to use your persuasive techniques on them or shut them down. Shutting down the situation can also have sever negative impacts. Especially with family members. The family unit is strong, loyal and won’t tolerate differences in opinions. The family hierarchy limits the views of what the members are allowed to express. If you want to express your own opinions in a family dynamic like this you run the risk of being cut off from the rest of the family. This is a very difficult thing to do.

The art of seductive persuasion. Sex sells and we all know it. People are all attracted to those qualities that we want to posses. For me it’s my teenage body. Yep, never going to happen!! I am truly hopeful that science will find a way! I get sucked into all the diets and beautiful clothes and hair, make-up styles that are advertised. Honestly, they really aren’t all that bad. Making the audience want to feel better about themselves is a good thing. How they go about persuading their audience is another. Those of us with “open eyes” know the reality of what the advertisement has to offer. It doesn’t always work. The flip side of that are those that believe everything you tell them. The creams that you massage into your leg that gets rid of cellulite. Sorry ladies, some of it’s genetic and the rest is age and physical activity. Nothing beautiful comes without some serious discomfort.

The target her are those that believe that the “magic pill” will work and work for them. They will then achieve the perfect man/woman or body or whatever they desire.

According to the ““Three-Types-of-Seduction-Techniques””, the Charm/Flattery/Technique is the most effective way to get a girl.” I believe this goes both ways. A person will flatter and compliment a person from the beginning to offer to take them places and spend a lot of money on them in hopes they will return their favors. As the author states “I believe this is the weakest and least effective seduction techniques that a person can try on another person”. I have to agree, but I have seen it in action on the weak, desperate and yes, I’ll say it, the drunk. Oh my gosh. Bars are a unique venue. Does the work “Cougar” come to mind? I actually didn’t know what that was until my husband told me about it. I’m a little out of touch. Now that I know, watching the shows on cable are pretty entertaining.

One of my friends recently sent me a YouTube clip where a guy was trying to pick up a girl in a bar. She gave him her phone number and he kept calling her and calling her stating what a great catch he was. This was the “Alpha Male” syndrome. His messages to her answering machine were unbelievable. Either she call him at once or he would drop her. Hello, she already dropped him.

Victoria Secret is a perfect example of seduction. They want women to feel good about themselves. Jenny Craig and NutriSystems also promote the seduction of having a great body and making one feel very good about them. The message is that if you feel good about yourself you will feel good about your relationship and want to do more fun things. You’ll meet new people and generally have a very happy life.

There are so many ways to communicate with the outside world now. The media has exploded with information. How we chose to use it and interpret it is up to us. We can get completely sucked in by the external message as they want us to or we can choose to research the topic more and make a more informed decision. For me I prefer the persuasion method. Delivering the true message and having educated people make an informed decision is priceless. I have delivered a successful message that is good for my audience.


References

http://psychology.about.com/od/socialpsychology/a/persuasiontech.htm

Shockley-Zalabak, P.S (2009). Fundamentals of organizational communication:
http://yes-to-me.com/2008/04/25/dodging-the-many-forms-of-psychological-manipulation/

http://ezinearticles.com/?Three-Types-of-Seduction-Techniques&id=237220