Cognition

Ever since we came down from the trees and started waving around our opposable thumbs, humans have been struggling with “ethics”. At its core, the idea is very simple – if I can make you do what I want, should I?

There are dozens of aphorisms around this theme:

• Might makes right
• The ends justify the means
• The meek shall inherit the Earth

And, of course, my personal favorite: The Golden Rule.

Now, there are a couple of problems with the Golden Rule – firstly, it’s often misquoted, which gives it an ugly twist. Before we dive into where things go wrong, here’s the version I prefer:

Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.

There are two tricky bits here – first, it’s as you would have them do, not what. If you’re a sado-masochist, that doesn’t make it alright to beat your neighbors – unless that’s how they like it. Treat people with the same set of values and principles as you would like to enjoy – not necessarily the same actions.

The second bit is would – this is not guidance to do to others what has been done to you. (An eye for an eye, etc.) Get over that – this is a “turn the other cheek” moment.

With all that in mind, is it still possible to want people to do what you want, and sleep at night?

We’ll get back to that question in a bit. But first, let’s look at what “Doing what you want” really means.

• Marketing – I want you to buy this product.
• Conversion – I want you to believe in these things.
• Teaching – I want you to absorb these facts.
• Guiding – I want you to embrace and abide by these values.
• Manipulating – I want you to think you want to do, what I want you to do.

In the amazing soup of language that is English, we seem to have dozens of words that describe essentially the same thing – colored only by the relative rightness of what we want to motivate. Even with something as simple as marketing, the question of whether we’re identified a need, or manufactured a demand, may be impossible to answer.

Let’s pretend, just for the moment, that we’re all grown-ups. (It’s the lie that advertisers have used to assuage their conscience since the invention of advertising). Knowing that persuasion is, at the end of the day, simply a tool, I will leave my trust in the hope that you’ll use it for good, and not evil. (However we’re defining those things these days.)

Five Methods of Persuasion:

1. Let them decide on their own (and make sure they pick what you wanted them to). This is often known as the “long con”, although really there’s nothing very “confidence” about it. My favorite way to play this one is to argue passionately AGAINST the desired action, with a set of arguments that I know can be defeated. As they are, one by one, I gradually capitulate – taking the audience with me. Alternatively, this works well with divide and conquer / false choices, where you provide several seemingly different options -all of which suit your purpose. (In sales, this is typically described as “two yes’s”, or “six, or a half dozen?”) American Politics, anyone?

2. Subvert their existing behaviors or motivations. It took a full generation to culture the sense of civic responsibility combined with guilt, that made curbside recycling programs successful. Most marketing efforts (and certainly anything more we expect to do to combat global warming) don’t have the luxury of that sort of timeline. So we need to work with the motivations that we’ve already got – greed, fear (of being out of the loop, of being unloved, or of death), lust (hey, sex sells), etc. For the more astute among you, you’ll realize this is why BountyUp is completely modeled around simple financial transactions – people already understand spending, earning, and winning money.

3. Man on the inside. Let’s face it – nobody pays attention to advertising anymore, except for entertainment value. And especially not advertising for charities. Instead, we simply ask our professional advisors (or more likely, our friends) what they think we should do. As an example – suppose I want to sell a new PDA, and I specifically want to target dentists in town. Do I: a.) Cold call the Dentists? b.) Cold call the secretaries of the Dentists? c.) Find out who manages their IT, and take them to lunch?

4. Dare them. This is really a psychological bait-and-switch – the discussion is no longer about the desired action, it’s about not losing face. (This really only works if the dare is public – and if it involves their sweetheart, so much the better.) While this only works for people in certain circumstances, it’s amazingly effective with corporations – the larger, the better. Why do you think Walmart is installing solar panels?

5. Just Ask. By “ask”, I’m presuming a huge amount about your relationship to the “them” we’re talking about – that you have open and meaningful dialog, with an established level of implicit trust, and some sense of domain expertise. But hey – if putting all that together means that, when you want something to happen, all you have to do is ASK for it – maybe that’s the simplest approach?