Conversation Infographic

Here's an interesting infographic: 9 Simple Conversation Hacks: How to Turn Any Interaction in Your Favor, sent to me by Sarah Johnson. Thank you, Sarah. It's sure to spark some interesting class discussion on the uses of communication skills or with the section on conversation or persuasion.

Public speaking, persuasion, leadership

 

The current issue of Inc. (October 2013) has a wealth of information on public speaking, persuasion, and leadership that I think students will relate to easily. Among the articles are How to make people believe, How I conquered public speaking anxiety, The pose that’s worth 1,000 words (on rhetorical gestures), Rallying the troops (on motivation), Secrets of a great TED talk, Give the audience more of what it wants: less (on PechaKucha), Both simple and true (on storytelling), What kind of leader are you?

Persuasion, Persuasion, Persuasion

 

 

The current issue of Harvard Business Review (July/August, 2013) is devoted to “Influence: How to get it, How to use it.” One of the best articles is an interview with persuasion expert, psychologist Robert Cialdini who offers six principles of persuasion (as he has in his other excellent works, Influence: Science and Practice and Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive, with Noah Goldstein and Steve Martin):

1.      Liking. You’ll be more persuasive if people like you.

2.      Reciprocity: If you help others, they will help you.

3.      Social Proof: If you tell people that others are doing what you want them to do, they’ll be more apt to do it as well.

4.      Commitment and consistency: If you get people to make a commitment, they will try to follow through.

5.      Authority: People are persuaded by experts even though they may deny it.

6.      Scarcity: People place a high value on items that are scarce.

Other useful articles emphasize the importance of communicating warmth if you want to influence others and the ways in which experts gain influence.

Guns on Campus

While we all grieve for the students at Northern Illinois University and their families and friends, we need to see an even greater catastrophe in the making. And that is the pro-firearm bills proposed after the Virginia Tech shootings and that are now gaining strength (12 states are currently considering such bills) as a result of the NIU killings. This is total insanity. The idea that if students, faculty, and staff were allowed to carry firearms on campus that they would be able to protect themselves from another attack is absolutely crazy! This is a position that seems to have no valid argument in its support. It is a position that can only lead to more campus killings.
There is no evidence to support the idea that more guns equal greater safety. In fact, the very idea is absurd. Homes that have guns experience a greater number of killings than homes without guns. Schools would be no different.
The argument that gun permits would be required which would then lead to only the peace-loving students, faculty, and staff having guns is equally absurd. There is no way that any reliable test can be administered to people requesting permits that would effectively distinguish those who would kill others as at VT and NIU and those who would only defend themselves and others.
If I were teaching argumentation and debate or persuasion I would ask students to construct a speech in support of the pro-firearm position. I would hope that if they learned anything in the course, they would not be able to construct such a speech—at least not one with valid arguments, evidence, and even a semblance of logic.

Mimicry, persuasion, and pro-social behavior

This article reports on the persuasiveness of simple mimicry; if you mimic another individual's nonverbal behavior, you're likely to be more persuasive than if you didn't mimic. In addition, mimicry seems to increase pro-social behavior even for those not involved in the mimicry interaction; that is, if someone mimics you, you're more likely to engage in some pro-social behavior. As you can imagine, an understanding of mimicry can be useful for the person attempting to persuade as well as for the critical listener. And, of course, recognize that mimicry when taken to the extreme can backfire and be perceived as insulting. There's a great deal of research on this; just search for "mimicry" or "behavioral contagion" or "communication accommodation."

Persuasion book

If you want a book on persuasion that's practical for today’s world and at the same time discusses the roots of rhetoric (Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian—the entire group is here), take a look at Jay Heinrichs’ Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion (Three Rivers Press, 2007). The subtitles of just a few of the chapters will give you an idea of the book’s perspective and range: Cicero’s Lightbulb, Eminem’s Rules of Decorum, The Belushi Paradigm, Quintilian’s Useful Doubt, Aristotle’s Favorite Topic, Monty Python’s Treasury of Wit, The Brad Pitt Factor. It’s definitely a book worth looking into.