Humor and Persuasion

Humor and Persuasion

Introduction

Persuasion is the ability to inspire thoughts, feelings and actions about something in order to accomplish a specific result. There are numerous types of persuasion techniques and many means of persuading others. Choosing the suitable scheme of persuasion can have a large impact on the effectiveness of persuasion. One way of persuading is by adding humor to the technique. The use of humor in persuasion can have both a negative and a positive impact on the situation.

If humor is used properly and effectively, humor can increase the positive impacts on the situation and the audience will be more inclined to accept the decision of the persuader. On the other hand, if humor is used inappropriately it can overturn the situation and displease the audience. Edward de Bono said: “It has always surprised me how little attention philosophers have paid to humor since it is a more significant process of mind than reason. Reason can only sort out perceptions, but the humor process is involved in changing them.”

Discussion

Humor helps to disarm the audience, making it easy to be persuaded. Once the audience feels more comfortable and refreshed, they are expected to remain attentive and take interest to the message of the persuader. A person is usually attracted to someone who can make them laugh and keep them awake during a message that is boring and tiring. In this fast-paced culture the audience would remember the ability of a person to deliver dull messages in an interesting way and would hold the image of the persuader in the positive light.

An example of this could be that of a salesperson whose job is to convince the customers to buy his product or service. His ability to convince them would mark his performance. The sales person may use different techniques ...