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7: Appealing to Values and Modeling

The author switches now to emotional engagement and two particular methods. There can be an appeal to values, convincing people that doing a certain thing is necessary to demonstrate or support certain philosophical ideals. The second, modeling, holds an individual up as a role model and attempts to convince others to imitate their behavior. Emotional appeals can be very powerful and are often used to whip up a lot of people at a single stroke (via an impassioned speech), but there are few instances in which they are appropriate or applicable.

Appealing to Values

An appeal to values bears some similarity to logical persuasion in that it proposes a causal relationship between a course of action and an ideal that is believed to be valued. However, the logic employed in the appeal is superficial and often quite fallacious. The value in question is treated as an end in itself and no argument can be made in its favor: "you should do this if you love your country" is not at all logical as there is often no objectively valid reason that the action is at all related to patriotism, and one may be patriotic without performing that action or even perform that action without being patriotic.

However, appealing to values is an emotional trick: it evokes the emotions and feelings of attachment to an idea, and a person in an emotional state is often quite impervious to logic and incapable of thinking logically. "Do this if you love your country" means that refusing means that one is not patriotic and may be a traitor or an enemy of their country, an idea that is so anathematic that people will fall in line without questioning whether there is a logical connection - simply stated, there never is: people value things for emotional reasons, though they may rationalize after.

Appealing to values can be very powerful, and are common in political and religious movements - particularly those responsible for some of the greatest tragedies in history. He specifically mentions Hitler, who was a master at playing on peoples' patriotism, love of their homeland, and fear of a common enemy to unite a fractured people, whip them into a frenzy, and set them on a disastrous course that was clearly devoid of any logic or morality. Many dictators, cult leaders, and other charismatic leaders use very similar tactics, and to great effect.

He provides a number of less dramatic examples of the appeal to values in a business setting - the common factor is that a demand is made based on a quality that is presumed to be desirable - "because we value diversity" or "we have an ethical obligation to our customers" or "if we want to show that we are honorable." The common factor is aligning a course of action with a desirable quality (or an undesirable quality if the persuader is attempting to discourage rather than encourage action), often without a clear indication of how the two are related.

A slight distinction is made between a quality and an outcome. To say "we must do X in order to achieve Y" is a logical argument because the speaker can describe the way in which the action will lead to the outcome through clear cause-and-effect relationship between actions and their consequences. To say "we must do X in order to be Y" is an appeal to a desired value and the cause-and-effect are seldom mentioned and are difficult to describe if anyone questions whether there is any connection between the two. The speaker's intent is that the audience simply accept his assertion.

(EN: This points to the way to identify this tactic and defeat those who attempt to use it. Simply ask how one thing leads to another and watch them dodge and squirm, belligerently declare "it just is," or toss out a highly fallacious argument that can be easily dissected.)

The author estimates that appealing to values is one of the more rarely used approaches in business. It is generally used in the same way as rousing speeches - which is to say only occasionally. This is likely because not everything requires a high degree of emotional engagement, and if it is used too often it becomes trite and maudlin. Moreover, many people are familiar with emotional appeals and become suspicious of anyone who uses them, to the degree that any emotional/values appeal seems disingenuous and causes offense.

He also suggests that emotional appeals have both the "highest and lowest ratings on effectiveness" largely because they tend to be used either very well or very poorly, and that many people are not at all skilled at delivering an emotional appeal. It requires a high degree of skill at communication to engage an audience, and most people simply aren't accomplished as inspirational speakers.

Another limitation of appealing to values is that it assumes a person shares your values. If the appeal does not resonate with the audience, it has no appeal and may even cause them to ignore the rest of the presentation - to suggest something must be done "to be a good parent" has no appeal to those who do not have children at home (or at all) and they "tune out" the rest of the message.

Conditions in which appealing to values can be effective:

Tips for success with emotional appeals:

Modeling

Modeling presents the audience with something to emulate, whether it is related to behavior or the goal. A common suggestion is for people to find "role models" and emulate their behavior in the expectation that doing so will enable them to achieve the same results. Companies will often look to more successful firms as role models (firms that want to innovate try to be "like Apple"), mimicking their policies and programs or simply adopting the same goals.

Established leaders and successful people have themselves to present as role models for others, and convince other people to do things simply by doing those same things themselves. People without celebrity status need to leverage other people as positive examples for others to imitate.

Modeling can be a very powerful form of influencing because it is human nature to imitate others. Even as infants, we learn to speak by mimicking the sounds that adults make; children can often be seen imitating the behavior of parents and older siblings; people who are seeking to learn a skill often mimic those who are more accomplished than themselves (apprenticeship formalizes this practice), etc.

The dark side of modeling is also mentioned, as there are negative role models. A child who grows up in a household with an alcoholic or abusive parent is more likely to become an alcoholic or an abusive parent. A young employee who works in a company where belligerent and dishonest people seem to be promoted quickly becomes belligerent and dishonest as a means to his own success - and even if he is aware it is bad behavior and means merely to imitate it, it becomes part of his character. The same is seen among teenage cliques, in which a popular teenager attracts a group of followers - and if he is a delinquent, they will mimic his delinquency.

A noted problem with modeling is that it is often done when a person does not understand the reasons another person is successful and merely imitates random behaviors. For example, part of Einstein's legend is that he wore the same outfit every day so that he didn't waste time thinking about what to wear. But wearing the same outfit every day will not make another person into a genius, nor enable them to apply their mind to important things.

(EN: There are many examples of this in the corporate world. When one successful software firm has a "bring your dog to work" day, dozens of others followed in its footsteps as if this was the means to their success. And even Fortune 500 firms began to adopt some of the sillier practices of small firms in hopes these things would make them more innovative and nimble.)

There is a high degree of correlation between modeling and success at using every other influence technique. In general, a person who is admired enough to be a model has more credibility and others will pay greater attention to what they have to say. It is not that they are particularly better at presenting a logical, social, or emotional appeal, merely that others are more likely to listen and give them the benefit of the doubt.

Sometimes, being successful is all that is necessary to become a model - and one does not necessarily have to be successful at the specific thing that they are modeling. People buy medical products from actors who have no experience in medicine, adopt the political opinions of actors and musicians who have no political credentials, and so on. There is a halo effect that causes people to regard successful people as successful in general. People who are wealthy or elderly are also considered to be minor-league celebrities with a broad range of influence - their wealth and longevity are a kind of success.

In other instances, the power of persuasion comes from the role itself or the trappings of that role, but the halo effect is somewhat diminished. A physician is respected as an authority on medicine simply because he is a physical (or someone posing in a lab coat and stethoscope is assumed to be a physician), and this extends to other matters of health such as diet, exercise, and personal habits - but his authority does not extend into other domains of knowledge. In genral, people who have expertise are regarded as models within their field of knowledge and closely related ones, even if they do not have a formal role (if your neighbor is a good sports fisherman, you seek his counsel or imitate his behavior if you want to be good at fishing).

In most cases, it takes considerable time to gain the respect and admiration of others that is needed to be a model, and this is a very delicate thing because being held up as a "good" person draws scrutiny. It's like parenting, in that a parent has to be careful about his behavior in front of the children - not only to avoid modeling bad behavior, but to keep their faith and admiration intact. We also live in a very cynical culture that seems to enjoy degrading people - those less popular are always seeking opportunities to disgrace people more popular than themselves. Hence any scandal in the private life of a politician or celebrity is used to publicly shame or discredit them. In office politics, the "rumor mill" can be used to degrade the character of a successful person, detracting from their charisma.

Modeling can be a way to encourage a specific behavior. An executive may make it public that he volunteers with a given charity in order to get others in his firm to donate or volunteer. Company newsletters show the behavior of successful employees in hopes others will emulate those behaviors.

It can also be a way to develop people in general, to help them form positive personality traits or habits (or desist from negative traits and bad habits). In most instances, modeling is accidental - it is seldom contrived to a specific purpose.

Tips for modeling effectively:

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