Persuasion

[wufwugy]

Why do you credit Scott Adams so much for persuasion? He writes dilbert.

Adams began blogging about persuasion after he saw an in on the topic due to Trump. He was my in to the topic. He was one of the first people (possibly the first) to publicly state that Trump was going to win the election due to his use of persuasion, and he spent the next year explaining Trump's behavior every step of the way in such a way that makes sense within the constraints of early persuaders like Cialdini and Carnegie.

You could maintain your position, get an even more inflammatory avatar, call everyone an idiot, and yet still be persuasive if you supported your position correctly.

In Cialdini's two persuasion books, he argues extensively (using psychology research) that people are emotionally persuaded by irrational things pretty much all the time.

[Poopadoop]

In Cialdini's two persuasion books, he argues extensively (using psychology research) that people are emotionally persuaded by irrational things pretty much all the time.

Not sure that's a particularly great insight, that emotions guide behavior more than reason.

[wufwugy]

Not sure that's a particularly great insight, that emotions guide behavior more than reason.

You're right, it's not, in an abstract sense. But when you ask people the things they think their decision making is mostly based in reason on, they tend to have an endless list; yet what persuaders argue is that the only kinds of things that reason plays a dominant role in decision making is things where emotion has no part whatsoever (like balancing a checkbook).

[Poopadoop]

You're right, it's not, in an abstract sense. But when you ask people the things they think their decision making is mostly based in reason on, they tend to have an endless list; yet what persuaders argue is that the only kinds of things that reason plays a dominant role in decision making is things where emotion has no part whatsoever (like balancing a checkbook).

Those reports should probably be taken with a grain of salt. There's probably a significant degree of lack of metaknowledge there, but there's also a significant degree of wanting to appear like a sensible person who thinks things over rather than a knee-jerk caveman.