Just imagine for example
that you were in a Lexus showroom listening to why you should buy one of their
vehicles, and at your elbow was a BMW salesperson, periodically objecting to
the Lexus pitch and then delivering her own. That’s the situation a lawyer must
deal with in a courtroom. Arguments
are presented by one side and will be directly (and often mercilessly) attacked
by the other side. So what’s
an effective way to make your point?
One trial-proven persuasion strategy is the use of stories.
Researchers Philip Mazzocco and Melanie Green draw a
contrast between rhetorical persuasion, in essence arguing with
facts and logic, and the use of narratives to influence decisions. They
concluded that stories are far more effective at changing those emotional
beliefs that logical arguments have difficulty reaching. There are also a number of other
relevant takeaways to make stories more persuasive including:
Delivery
Counts
For spoken narratives (as
one normally finds in a courtroom), a good storyteller is more persuasive than
a mediocre one. Dramatic pacing, use of imagery, and other factors affect the
impact the story has on the listener. (If your story will be told in written
form, it’s safe to assume that effective use of language and an appropirate
narrative style will have that same effect.) And when a story is told properly,
there’s a sort of mind-meld connection between the teller and listener.
Vivid
Imagery
Immersive images will
enable the audience to “see” the characters and scenes being described, and
will trump dry factual information that lacks that impact. (If you have any
doubts, brain scans show vivid action imagery lights up the readers or
listener’s brain as if he were performing those same actions. Even if you are painting a fictional
picture with the story, its elements need to relate to the reality that the
audience is familiar with, for example, basic human motivations. The audience
must be able to understand the story.
Shakespeare, for example, resonates with many readers because he was so
in tune with human nature. So it’s
clear that stories must be coherent (“narrative probability”) and consistent with
the listeners past experiences (“narrative fidelity”) to be effective.
Structure
Stories need to flow in a
logical manner, and therefore usually have a beginning, middle, and end.
Suspense can keep an audience tuned in.
Starting with a provocative question or curious situation is a good
example -as it makes listeners want to hear what comes next.
Context
and Surroundings
The same story may vary in
its persuasive impact depending on the context in which it is told. A story
told by a pushy salesperson will be less believable because listeners will
attribute ulterior motives to the person telling it. At a more basic level,
problematic surroundings (like a noisy environment, or, presumably, a web page
with distracting elements near the text) can also reduce the story’s
effectiveness.
Audience
This is one factor you may
not have direct control over: people vary in their ability to be transported by
stories. Stories will obviously be less likely to persuade audience members who
lack the imagination to visualize what they are hearing or reading. If you
could identify your less imaginative prospects, though, you could attempt to
persuade them with logic and argument rather than a narrative.
Rational
vs. Experiential
Researchers Mazzocco and
Green found evidence that human brains process information in two ways,
rational appraisal and “experiential.” The first includes digesting facts,
comparing new information to one’s knowledge and past experience, etc. The
second, in contrast, “involves the construction of an imaginary world filled
with quasi-experiences.” It’s the experiential processing – creating the
experience (that didn’t really happen) in the customer’s mind that can be
reached most effectively by stories.
The authors suggest that
we can only think in one mode at a time, so the persuader should shift
approaches depending on which style would be most effective in supporting each
phase of the argument. There’s
another way to look at this duality: We make our decision emotionally (and, to
varying degrees, unconsciously), and then let our rational processes justify
that decision with facts.
Takeaway
Even if you can persuade
at the emotional level with a story, you may still need to provide factual
persuasion elements to keep the customer’s entire brain happy.
[ Original article by Roger
Dooley. Roger writes and speaks
about marketing, and in particular the use of neuroscience and behavioral
research. ]
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