Persuasion Techniques and Scams Quiz

Lecture 2: Audience Analysis

• Understanding persuasion involves analyzing the audience
• Online romance scams demonstrate persuasive strategies
• From 2016 to 2020, reported losses from romance scams increased more than fourfold, and the number of reports nearly tripled.
• In 2016, losses were $75M with 11,235 reports
• In 2017, losses were $87M with 16,902 reports
• In 2018, losses were $145M with 22,264 reports
• In 2019, losses were $202M with 25,113 reports
• In 2020, losses reached $304M with 32,792 reports
• Scammers use well-planned strategies and organized support
• Hong Kong police arrested 58 individuals involved in online fraud, with HK$10 million being lost in a love scam
• Bogus online job advertisements tricked 200 Hongkongers out of HK$40 million
• Scammers stole HK$100 million from residents using fake investment platforms
• Elderly women in Hong Kong lost over HK$14 million to separate phone scams
• Email scammers targeted a German tech company's Hong Kong branch, stealing HK$11.36 million
• Persuasion is based on understanding and connecting with people.

Laws of Persuasion

• Persuasion relies on proven psychological principles.
• Law of Connectivity: The more connected you feel to someone, the more persuasive they are. This includes aspects like attraction (being kind, better looking), similarity (sharing common background, lifestyle), and people skills (using humor, respect and eye contact).
• Law of Involvement: Involving the individual mentally and physically makes persuasion more effective. Examples include product trials, asking for advice, and inviting questions from the audience.
• Law of Social Validation: People tend to act like those around them; use the people around your target to reinforce the message or idea.
• Law of Expectations: When someone expects something from us, we will try to satisfy them for mutual respect and likability. This includes expectations based on self-fulfilling prophecies and social labeling.
• Law of Esteem: People want to be valued and respected. Validation of one's compliments, and sincere praise.
• Persuasion is not simply about chance occurrences, it is planned and strategic.

Knowing Your Audience

• Knowing your audience is key to effective persuasion
• Understanding demographics, values, attitudes, and needs.
• Understanding stakeholders, influencers, and gatekeepers of decision-making
• Understanding existing beliefs and attitudes, and people's unique experiences
• Analyzing attitudes towards the topic and the persuader
• Importance of topic, level of engagement/motivation, and knowledge of the subject matter to the audience.
• Varying people have different processes for persuasion; some are easily persuaded and can have short-term changes; others need more personal interaction and deep-rooted change through a central route rather than a peripheral route for persuasion.

Attitude and Behavior

• Cognitive dissonance is a mismatch between existing attitudes/beliefs and new information, leading to discomfort.
• Reducing cognitive dissonance involves altering attitudes or behaviors.
• Persuasion is about understanding why people do what they do, not just convincing them; sometimes, no matter the persuasion, people do not change their behaviors. Persuasion is about understanding the motivation behind the behavior.