How to Be Persuasive infographic description

The infographic is titled, Thinking Critically About: How to be Persuasive. The learning objective question 13-4 reads, how can we share our views more effectively? A question reads, “Would you like to be persuasive with those whose views differ from yours?”

The infographic lists things to do and things not to do. The things not to do read as follows:

  1. Do not loudly argue your position before listening. Yelling backfires. A cartoon shows an angry man yelling loudly at another person.
  2. Do not humiliate people, or imply that they are ignorant. Insults breed defensiveness. A cartoon shows a woman checking a text on her phone which reads, Idiot. She replies: Stupid. There is an exchange of abusive words between the woman and the sender.
  3. Do not bore people with complex and forgettable information. Text below reads, therefore with that said, direct your attention to this very dull and wonky and boring statistic that you will never remember. Now, however, on the other hand, here are yet more data points that are even more dry and overly complicated than the last. Let us continue.

The things to do read as follows:

  1. Identify your shared values or goals, such as, “we all want to graduate, yes? Find a better job? Let’s study for the test before we take time off to hang out.” An illustration shows a pile of books, and a pair of glasses alongside. On the wall, through a two-panel window, a schematic shows three dancing people with a few musical notes in the air.
  2. Appeal to others’ admirable motives. Relate your aims to their yearnings (Lammers and Baldwin, 2018). For example: An illustration shows a set of equal weighing scales. A text on one scale reads, “I would like us to recover the good old days, when people owned hunting rifles and pistols, but not assault rifles.” The phrase, ‘recover the good old days’ is highlighted. An arrow from this scale points down toward a textbox that reads, “Political conservatives (highlighted) tend to respond to nostalgia. Those promoting gun safety legislation to this group should frame their message as an affirmation of yesteryear.” A text on another scale reads, “I would prefer to make a change, so that in the future people may own hunting rifles and pistols, but no one will have assault rifles.” The phrase, ‘make a change’ is highlighted. An arrow from this scale points down toward a textbox that reads, “Political liberals (highlighted) respond better to future-focused messages."
  3. Make your message vivid. People remember dramatic visual examples well. Pictures of unvaccinated children suffering from preventable diseases, or hungry children starving speak to the heart as well as the head. A cartoon shows a little girl hugging a soft toy.
  4. Repeat your message. People often come to believe repeated falsehoods, but they also tend to believe oft-repeated truths. The phrases, evidence-based science and consider alternatives are repeated below.
  5. Engage your audience in restating your message or, better yet, acting on it. Engage them in actively owning it—not just passively listening. An illustration depicts a sequence of information being passed from a man’s brain to another man’s brain.