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Most people who are
involved in business, building a practice or selling will tell you that men and
women think (process information) very differently. Different approaches do
better with men than with women.
I thought you would be excited to see some of the latest research about how strong women and men resist various messages. I've picked two that are clear and make the point. There are several others. I think the results will...surprise you...and all the research points in the same direction! Resistance with Distraction Want to lower a man's resistance to your message? How about women? Observe: College men and women are divided into five groups. A short written proposal that says exit exams will be starting in one year to graduate is made to each group. Various denomination gift certificates attached to the bad news sheet....good for cash value at local merchant. The gift certificates are 50 cents, $1, $2, $2.50, $5.00. The gift certificate is used as a distraction from the message which is in no way related to the gift certificate. The study is trying to assess the distractability and emotional response to a message once a distraction is introduced...and then find the differences between the men and women. The people are told that the gift certificates were attached to the proposals because they were left over from a previous group. The people have no idea that the gift certificates are relevant to their response to the proposal. The people are asked to respond to the proposal by evaluating how opposed they are to the proposal. A 1-5 scale is used where "one" is no opposition and "five" is high opposition and they are very upset about it. Survey says... AMONG MEN AND WOMEN THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE! Men: Want men to accept your bad news idea? Reduce their resistance? Giving them $5 however caused their opposition to be increased when compared to the group who had no gift certificate paper clipped to their proposal. EXTREMELY Important note: Attaching 2.50 did more to reduce resistance than either 1.00 or 5.00. I will come back to this later. Women: The differences between men and women are stark. Women let down all of their defenses when they saw the gift certificates. Want a woman to accept your bad news proposal? Attach a $5 gift certificate!!!! Women were more resistant than men to the proposal in the control group and as the gift certificate denominations increased the resistance in the various groups decreased. Paul McCartney was wrong. At least with women...money CAN buy you love...The bigger the distraction, the less resistance from them. Look at another interesting study. 100 students presented with one of four positive proposals summarized below. Freeze tuition hikes for five years Then the groups were given one of three statements as deterrents, divided into three "strength of deterrent levels." Weak: "a few faculty members are opposed to this idea but the rest are
neutral." How did the people respond when they were told the varying opinions of the faculty? RESULTS DIFFER BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN!!!! Men: Men didn't care much what the faculty thought. They liked the proposals and basically were ready to tell the faculty to stick it. Important note: The men were very resistant to the moderate message. They gave in a bit on the weak and strong deterrents. Women: As in the previous study, the more intense the pressure, the greater the argument, the more likely they are to resist. Women who loved the ideas almost as much as the men in the control groups, completely caved and showed almost no resistance when faced with strong oppositional arguments. (In this case seen as being agreeable perhaps to the faculty opinions as they got stronger.) Do women process more cognitively/logically? do they cave? Because the other research in the area mirrors the above, with a few important exceptions, I'll save it for later. Here are the key points you take home today:
Better: Frame your communication gently, off-handedly to men and save your best arguments for women. KEY: With men, contrary to old ideas where persuasion has been found to be stronger with stronger arguments it now appears that stronger arguments will actually increase resistance/reactance making persuasion more difficult. Fewer/weaker might just be better. Here's a bonus: Research also reveals that even strongly held attitudes will shrink in the face of weaker arguments!!! Where can you find more information like this? Science of Influence CD Set Volumes 1-12 by Kevin Hogan
Here are just some of the incredible things you will learn when you receive the first 12 cds in the series:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- is the author of eleven books, including The Psychology of Persuasion, Talk Your Way to The Top and Irresistible Attraction. In addition to his Science of Influence series, his most popular audio programs include Time for Love, Time for Money: Time Production System and Psychology of Wealth Complete Package CD SetKevin Hogan is the nation's leading influence and body language expert. He has shared his expertise about body language, persuasion and influence with the BBC, the New York Post and dozens of popular magazines like Cosmopolitan, First for Women, Women's World, Playboy, Women's Own and others. Kevin Hogan has become the go-to resource for analyzing key White House figures. Hogan teaches Persuasion and Influence at the University of St. Thomas Management Center and is a frequent media guest. Articles by and about him have recently appeared in Success!, Redbook, Office Pro, Selling Power, Cosmopolitan, and numerous other publications. He was recently featured in a half dozen magazines (including wProst) in Poland after teaching persuasion and influence skills to that country's 350 leading sales managers. |
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Compelling Persuasion
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