Friday
Mar302012
Principle of Contrast
March 30, 2012 Post a Comment Here’s the second article for the column Into the Mind. Let’s talk about persuasion. But what is and how does it work?
According to Robert Cialdini, well-known internationally as being one of the main studious of social psychology of persuasion.
The rules of persuasive communication can be grouped into six “heuristics,” or fundamental cognitive strategies, which are implemented in interpersonal communication oriented to change the attitude/behavior or the conative aptitude of the opposite party.
Reciprocity, Commitment and Consistency, Social proof, Authority, Liking, Scarcity.
These key strategies set up some of our behavior automatic processes, which often lead us to say yes although it is not what we wish, to make unreasonable choices, to carry unfair exchanges.
We will see examples of these heuristics in the course during the column, but before let’s start from the principle of contrast.
Our estimation of an asset or a situation is determined by what happened before or what will happen next. Or rather , according to the contrast that the two things implicated possess between them.
For example, the more negative will be the impression on the first shown element, the more positive will be the perception on the second, so if the second point is what we want to show, it will be perceived better than what it actually is.
Seemingly foregone, this principle can be really very powerful.
For example, a property dealer proposed to the customers before an apartment completely unacceptable at a price that was similar to the customer demand, and then he showed at the same price the apartment that he was disposed to sell. This fact made the
second apartment much more desirable and the request much more persuasive.
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