It is not an exaggeration to say that the shock
experienced by half of the world on November the 9th was
unprecedented. I do not think I’ve ever seen so many “wtf” fly across my
newsfeed, hear so many people declare that they are fleeing the country, or
smelt the scent of mass confusion so sharply. If you still have not figured out
what I’m talking about, I am referring to Donald Trump’s election for
president. I tried again and again to comprehend the results but to no avail.
Yet, there I was faced with the numbers 228 versus 279.[1]
What? How? Why? Is there any level on
which this presidential campaign could make sense? Any at all? Turns out there
is.
Trump might not be the most diplomatic character, but
he sure knows his persuasion methods. The ones that I am going to look at are:
his use of emotional appeal, repetition, fear, social proof and authority.
The first task of any leader to win and unite his
audience with a single compelling idea. While many of us would argue that Trump’s
ideology is based on shifting sands, his slogan clearly stated otherwise:
“Let’s Make America Great Again!” Wow! Really?
It serves trump in several ways. First of all, as an
idea to unite the audience. However, what makes it such a skilful tool for
persuasion is its emotional appeal. It is no secret that emotion influences
decision making (Loewenstein & Lerner, 2003). There are two types of
affective influences: expected emotions and immediate emotions. Expected
emotions are predictions about how a person would feel when he makes a
particular decision. Immediate emotions are direct and indirect. Immediate
direct emotions are how a person feels in the particular moment, whereas
indirect ones influence the route of processing one undertakes when
experiencing a particular emotion.
What do I mean by route of processing? I am referring
to the central and peripheral route in the elaboration likelihood model (Petty
and Cacioppo, 1986) or System 1 and System 2 if you prefer Tversky and Kahneman.
The central route or system 2 is associated with focused attention and the
subjective experience of agency choice and concentration. It is the one that we
use to think logically stated simply. The peripheral route or system 2 if often
automatic and quick, using little effort and often relying on heuristics and
schemas (Kahneman, 2011).
How is that related to Trump? There is quite of a bit of research to suggest
that happiness and positive affect is associated with more heuristic processing
(Bodenhausen, Kramer & Susser, 1994; Forgas, 1998). In other words, when
people are emotionally aroused and positively excited at the thought of America
being great again they are more likely to put less thought into who they are
voting for! Furthermore, other research suggests that when people tend to predict
how they might feel they often project current feeling into the future. (Loewenstein
et al., 2000). E.g. “If I am that excited about America now, I surely will be
if Trump becomes president! “
Another simple yet effective tool that Trump uses is
that of repetition. Cacioppo and Petty (1978) have found that “moderate
repetition of persuasive message lead to increased agreement with both the pro-
and counter attitudinal advocacies” Trump uses his words carefully so that they
are simple with strong positive connotations and repeats them over and over and
over again. In this video for example, he repeats the word “win” 20 times in a
single sentence- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHEEka-0mFA
In his new book Pre-suasion,
Cialdini emphasizes to never underestimate the power of a single word. The
simpler the words the better because “when people can process something with
cognitive ease, they experience increased neuronal activity in the muscles of
their face that produce a smile”. The sound of the words also tends to be quite
important as all mental activity arises associations through complex neural
networks (Cialdini, 2016). Attempts to persuade will be hence more effective if
they put people in a positive, “feel good about themselves” frame of mind.
It’s not all about positive emotions though. Another
weapon of persuasion that Trump uses is fear. - “You’re gonna have more World Trade Centres. It’s going to get worse
and worse, folks.”
Fear is a powerful tool for influence when used
effectively. Janis and Feshback (1953) have conducted experiments investigating
the effects of arousing fear or anxiety by depicting potential dangers to which
the audience might be exposed. They found that “when emotional tension is
aroused, the audience will become more highly motivated to accept the
reassuring beliefs or recommendations advocated by the communicator.” Arousing
moderate levels of fear does indeed lead to greater behavioural conformity.
Upon hearing Trump talk about a potential danger,
people experience authentic fear which makes them more likely to comply with
whatever he proposes as the solution to prevent it. In this unfortunate case –
to elect him as president.
Furthermore, a way that people respond to fear is
often by converting it to aggression (Janis & Feshback). Especially when it
is to statements like “China is taking our jobs, they are taking our money”. What
is important about aggression and anger is that it sets us in the peripheral
and heuristic type of processing yet again (Bodenhausen, Sheppard &
Krammer, 1994). Putting us into that state where we think less about who we
elect for president!
The last but not least persuasion tool used by Trump is
a combination of social proof and authority. He often refers to authority
figures in his statements who seemingly very much approve of his plans and
ideas. Statements such as “Larry Kudlow likes my tax plan”. In that way he demonstrates
social proof, not just by anyone but by prominent authority figures who are
experts in the field of economics such as Larry Kudlow. We, humans are species
who adhere to authority whatever the instruction as famous demonstrated by
Miligram’s experiments when participants were asked to give electric shocks to
participants for seemingly stupid reason such as using incorrect words
(Miligram, 1974).
I could probably include several more methods that
Trump used but I am going to stop here. I wish it was his persuasion methods
that will make him a good president in the next four years but it won’t be. I
think his election goes to show the ugly, inconvenient, sad truth- that such
big portion of the population would still vote for someone who’s campaign is
based on hatred, judgement and a sick ego. I know this is no longer related
with Trump’s influential methods, but if there is one thing I could try and
influence you with it would be to peace harder, be kinder, love harder. It’s on
us.
References:
Bodenhausen, G. V., Sheppard, L. A., & Kramer, G. P. (1994). Negative affect and social judgment: The differential impact of anger and sadness. European Journal of social psychology, 24(1), 45-62
Cacioppo, J. T., & Petty, R. E. (1979). Effects of message repetition and position on cognitive response, recall, and persuasion. Journal of personality and Social Psychology, 37(1), 97
Cacioppo, J. T., & Petty, R. E. (1979). Effects of message repetition and position on cognitive response, recall, and persuasion. Journal of personality and Social Psychology, 37(1), 97.
Cialdini, R. (2016). Pre-Suasion. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Forgas, J. P. (1998). On being happy and mistaken: mood effects on the fundamental attribution error. Journal of personality and social psychology, 75(2), 318
Frankish, K., & Evans, J. St. B. T. (2009). The duality of mind: an historical perspective. In J. St. B. T. Evans & K. Frankish (Eds.), In two minds: Dual processes and beyond (pp. 1-29). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Janis, I. L., & Feshbach, S. (1953). Effects of fear-arousing communications. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 48(1), 78
Kirk, Ashley. "US Election Results." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 11 Nov. 2016. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.
Loewenstein, G., & Lerner, J. S. (2003). The role of affect in decision making. Handbook of affective science, 619(642), 3
Loewenstein, G., O'Donoghue, T., & Rabin, M. (2000). Projection bias in predicting future utility.
Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In Communication and persuasion (pp. 1-24). Springer New York
Smith, Kyle. "The Persuasion Tactics Trump and Clinton Are Using to Manipulate Voters." New York Post. N.p., 10 Sept. 2016. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.
[1]
Kirk, Ashley. "US Election Results." The
Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 11 Nov. 2016. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.
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