{"id":693,"date":"2010-10-12T13:25:52","date_gmt":"2010-10-12T17:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/?p=693"},"modified":"2010-10-12T13:25:52","modified_gmt":"2010-10-12T17:25:52","slug":"the-art-and-science-of-persuasion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/the-art-and-science-of-persuasion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art and Science of Persuasion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The annual Conference of the International Bar Association <\/a>in Vancouver presented several panels of\u00a0unusual distinction and interest.\u00a0 This first report covers a group of speakers posing the questions: “What does it take to persuade?\u00a0 How does a lawyer cause an arbitrator, judge, businessperson or other lawyer, to willingly reach the desired conclusion?”\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Co-Chair Jose Astigarraga<\/a> set the scene with a domestic anecdote.\u00a0 After arguing with his wife about whether women or men are better drivers, he saw an article on the topic and shared it with his wife.\u00a0 Both concluded that the article supported their (opposing) points of view.\u00a0 “Confirmation bias<\/a>” is the tendancy to accept information that conforms with one’s predisposed belief, and to reject nonconforming information — without being aware of that selective process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Equally pervasive is the use of benchmarks.\u00a0 Ask a group the population of Turkey.\u00a0 Then ask an identical group whether Turkey has more or fewer than 17 million people.\u00a0 You will get different responses.\u00a0 Students listening to a guest lecturer who is exhalted prior to the class will be more approving of that lecturer than students who are not told anything about the lecturer.\u00a0 This, as readers of this blog are well aware<\/a>, is “anchoring,” and is sublimely useful in negotiation.<\/p>\n

Spanish lawyer Manuel Conthe<\/a> ran through other common perceptual biases that pose obstacles to the difficult task of changing one’s mind — or having one’s mind changed for one.\u00a0 He used the title of one of my current favorite books — Predictably Irrational<\/a> — to explain the domain of “behavioral economics.”\u00a0 For example:<\/p>\n

Hindsight bias<\/strong>: Before an event occurs any number of contingencies may exist.\u00a0 After the event occurs, the event is recast as predicable, or even inevitable.\u00a0 This is especially true in tort claims.\u00a0 As they say in Spain, “After the bull passes, everyone is courageous.” \"Matador<\/a><\/p>\n

Anchoring<\/strong>:\u00a0 Again, the use of a number to manipulate the answer.\u00a0 “How many countries are in Africa?” gets a different answer from “Are the number of countries in Africa more or less than 35?”<\/p>\n

Need for narrative<\/strong>:\u00a0 Conthe says we do not hear facts — we hear stories.\u00a0 Lawyers persuade by telling stories, not by relating facts.\u00a0 These stories feature recognizable cultural architypes and have external narrative coherence if they are successful in being heard by the listener.\u00a0 They resonate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

These stories will of course be screened through the confirmation bias of the jurors.\u00a0 But random facts will not just be screened — they will be reconstituted into stories by each listener, using their cultural or experiential predispositions.\u00a0 Examples: Objects held in the hand of urban black people are perceived to be weapons; Bernard Madoff in a suit and wavy silver hair is perceived to be trustworthy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

Chief Justice Robert Bauman<\/a> of the Supreme Court of British Columbia offered remarks that I found particularly useful as a mediator between opposing viewpoints.\u00a0 Paraphrasing Cicero, he admonished:\u00a0 “If you wish to persuade me, think my thoughts, feel my feelings and speak my words.”\u00a0 \"\"Asking someone to change is useless, said Judge Bauman, and might make you seem paternalistic and breed resentment.\u00a0 Know the audience you address and “reduce the cost of persuasion.”\u00a0 Find the easiest path for the judge to conclude what you want.\u00a0 Don’t try to change their predispositions; work with their predispositions to show that your story appeals to their common sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This means, of course, never lie; never mislead; never breed skepticism or disrespect.\u00a0 It also means, know the person you are trying to persuade.\u00a0 Use common sense and appeal to the listener’s common sense.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

(This reminded me of my father’s memorial service<\/a>, which was attended\u00a0both by the high-falootin’ and also by many alchoholics whom Dad had helped during his own 30+ years of recovery.\u00a0 Said one attendee: “He met you where you are.”)<\/p>\n

Veteran arbitrator David W. Rivkin<\/a> brought it home for us practical-minded folk.\u00a0 Make the decision-maker comfortable with the conclusion you want them to come to.\u00a0 Talk to them directly and on their terms, not to a “jury” that isn’t in the room.\u00a0\u00a0Dispel “hindsight bias”\u00a0by presenting contemporaneous documents that show motive at the time the act occured, not ones that characterize it after it happened.\u00a0 Arbitrators bring their own common sense to the hearing, reminded Rivkin, as well as feelings, values and opinions.\u00a0 Approach them with an appeal to their common sense and rationality and they will fill in the gaps of the story the way you would wish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A multinational panel of experts talks about the obstacles confronting those of us whose job is to encourage people to change their minds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,37],"tags":[31,27],"class_list":["post-693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conflict-resolution","category-negotiation","tag-negotiation","tag-teaching"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}