Re-iteration
A point that I’ve stubbornly, almost anally, been insisting here, here and in other fora online and offline, is that Logic, Rational, Fact and the scientific are of no use to convince people. No amount of Logic works in convincing people of your viewpoint. Even if it happens to be the truth.
What really convinces or appeals to people is emotion, combined with a bit of obvious facts. People buy into a way of thinking first based on gut feel, and emotion, and then look for rational ways to justify it.
For example, you don’t buy a Porsche 911 
for it’s seating capacity or torque. All logic and rational says that a car that can seat only two, is terribly, unsafely fast, and costs a fortune wouldn’t be even considered worth buying. But everyone dreams of buying just that, or a similar car.
Sorry for that piece of logic/fact. But my point, and this bears repetition, is that when you wanna convince people, you take an emotional route to convince. Cold Logic and brilliant facts appeal only to those who already agree with you emotionally.
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July 9th, 2005 at 7:06 am
The problem is why we think the way we do. We always try to convince others that our point of view is right. We are happy when we are successful in doing so and we are angry when people do not agree to our views. This intolerance is the basis for many problems in this world. You have to bring them into your fold to make them agree to what you say.
This is the reason why, I guess, the Leaders over a period of time tried to convince the others by way of religion, region, race, caste, colour, family. Religion brings the strongest possible emotion in people and a big unifier and has been the cause of many wars in the past. The Politicians and the Terrorists understand this and exploit it to their advantage.
July 9th, 2005 at 11:09 pm
Chandroo, Porsche 911 is probably one of the safest cars out there.Couple of my friends own a Porsche and the auto mags reviews are “Unless you are insane and want to get killed, Porsche is a safe care to drive”.
Anyways, I do agree with your post from the politicians perspective. Didn’t Bernard Shaw say that a “politician shakes your hand before election and your faith after election”.
I will very wary to do business with people whom I have to convince emotionally…
July 10th, 2005 at 5:57 am
Venky: Is the Porsche safe? Did you or your friends know that before you bought it. Was safety a driving force in buying that car? Didn’t we all grow up dreaming of owning a fast, sexy car, not a safe, comfortable one?
July 10th, 2005 at 10:24 am
An aside: there are many ways of persuading people over to your point of view. Quite a few of them are explored in Cialdini’s book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”.
One that I liked best was the “Commitment and Consistency” principle. Basically what it says is that if you can get a person to give you a commitment in phase I, you can be sure they will try and act in consistency with that commitment in phase II. This holds true even if situation has changed between phase I and phase II.
Try this experiment: to a group of 10 friends give a slip with the question “What makes Indian cricket team invincible” and to another group give a question “Why is Indian cricket team the most pathetic?” Ask both groups to give at least 3 reasons.
Once they have done that, next ask them the question “In a match between India and England, what is the probability that India will win?”
Even without doing anything you have already influenced group 1 to give a higher rating. This is because by writing three reasons for Indian team being invincible they have committed to that cause. So when the question of probability comes up, they will certainly give a higher probability to act in consistency with that commitment.
My personal experience when I conduct presentations for corporates on this topic: Invincible group gives average probability of 80% and pathetic group gives average rating of just 50%.
There you go… no logic required!
Cheers,
D.
August 6th, 2005 at 5:18 am
Hey I am irregular visitor to blogs..happened to read this observation!
What you say is absolutely true..that too with women! emotion is the only way..