Persuasion in Interpersonal Contexts - Lecture 10

Lecture 10: Persuasion in Practice (Interpersonal Context)

• Persuasion in interpersonal contexts (family, relationships, friendships) can be challenging
• Common experiences include disagreements, arguments, and feeling unheard
• Difficulties often stem from impatience and self-centeredness on both sides
• Persuasion in the workplace presents similar challenges
• Factors like salary, employee turnover, and company resources influence workplace persuasion

Familiarity Bias & Assumed Familiarity

• When interacting with someone you know, preexisting notions and biases can hinder persuasion
• This can lead to dismissal of arguments and less open-mindedness
• The assumption of familiarity can lead to a lack of effort in effective communication

Emotional History & Unwillingness to Admit Mistakes

• Past conflicts and unresolved issues significantly impact interpersonal persuasion
• Resistance to persuasion arises from entrenched views or a desire to avoid admitting mistakes
• Admitting a change of mind or heart can be seen as a weakness, potentially hindering persuasion

Challenges of Persuasion

• Maintaining the relationship while attempting persuasion is key
• Disagreement without resentment and disappointment is challenging

Keys to Success

• Apply prior lecture materials to improve persuasion in interpersonal situations
• Value relationships within interactions; successfully maintaining a relationship is critical

Two Important Tips for Relationship Value Enhancement

• Identifying people's needs is crucial
• Recognizing personal power allows effective negotiation

Power in Relationships: Different Starting Points

• Strong needs: Successful persuasion depends on the needs of both parties
• Weak needs: Persuasion is more challenging when addressing weaker needs
• Mild needs: Moderate success when addressing needs that fall between strong or weak needs
• Power is relative and circumstantial

Importance of Relationship vs. Importance of Outcome

• Accommodating Strategy: Prioritizing the relationship, making concessions
• Competitive Strategy: Placing the desired outcome higher than the relationship

1/ Find People's Needs

• Asking "How can I improve the relationship?" is problematic; a better approach is discerning the other person's needs
• Identifying desires or needs through responses to actions is vital. Positive and negative responses reveal specific needs

Identifying Common Needs

• Common needs exist across relationships (co-workers, families, lovers, friends)

2/ Develop Your Power to Fill Needs

• Referent Power: Stems from charisma, likability, and the desire to associate with an individual. Leaders often utilize it
• Expert Power: Arises from specialized knowledge, skills, or expertise that others lack. An expert has significant influence
• Legitimate Power: Rooted in authority and accepted social roles
• Reward Power: Based on the ability to provide benefits (praise, promotions, emotional support) to encourage compliance
• Coercive Power: Based on the ability to impose punishments or take away privileges; involves fear

Principles of Power

• Situational Power: Power varies greatly based on the circumstances surrounding the interaction
• Relative Power: Power is judged relative against others. For example, a CEO's power differs with respect to company employees and the board of directors

Power Based on Perception

• Others' perceptions of an individual's power can affect the outcome of an interaction, irrespective of the factual reality.
• Factors like kids vs parents, salespeople vs customers, and employee vs employer contribute to perceptions of power.

Power Requires Dependency

• The more dependent another person is on the influencer, the more power the influencer has in the relationship

Power to Terminate a Relationship

• Ending a relationship often has significant power implications in interpersonal interactions (employer vs employees, and personal relationships)

Cautions

• Relational bargaining chips should be avoided
• Relationships' strengths should be leveraged in the persuasion process
• Emphasize shared goals.

Don't Forget...

• Persuasion is not guaranteed to influence everyone
• Persuaders must recognize when it is appropriate or necessary to back down and compromise
• Collaboration is effective and vital

Important Principles for Success in Persuasion

• Focus on collective goals and problems

• Reveal the motivations (underlying interests) behind desires

• Be fair, understanding and respectful of other parties and their needs

• Avoid a competitive and confrontational approach which can generate negative interactions and loss of rapport.

This quiz explores the intricacies of persuasion within interpersonal contexts, focusing on relationships, family, and workplace dynamics. It covers the challenges posed by familiarity bias, emotional history, and the impacts of past conflicts on effective communication. Understand how to navigate these hurdles to enhance persuasive skills.