Persuasive Design or The Fine Art of Separating People from Their Bad Behaviours – Online

There are 3 main reasons:

One – it’s hard. Writing and editing is time consuming. It takes effort and discipline. Most people (except for professional writers) don’t want to take the extra time to refine their copy. 

Two – people don’t get it. Most business owners and marketers don’t realize the effect that changes to their copy will have.

Three –  people don’t believe. Of those that are don’t about the power of language, many don’t believe that a few word changes will make a difference. (Personally, I can relate to this viewpoint. I shared it for many, many years. )

Don’t underestimate the words you use. Spend time going through your campaign looking for words that aren’t carrying their own weight. Change them immediately. Even a few changes will make a difference.

There are three big reasons you should be paying attention to influence, persuasion, and human behavior.

1. It helps you in your business. By understanding the nature and idiosyncrasies of buying behavior, you learn to improve your marketing, messaging, and product in order to make more sales.

2. It helps you recognize your own behavior. When you understand influence and persuasion, you can instantly see the techniques being used on you. This gives you a chance to put more thought into your decision. You may decide that you want to the buy the item, but at least you are making a conscious decision.

3. It provides a foundation for discussion and eliminates hand-waving. More times than not, a business owner will adamantly insist on a particular campaign or the wording of a phrase. Alternatively, they will summarily dismiss some ideas that are put on the table. In both situations, the owner believes that they have ‘insider’ knowledge of their industry and they know better than anyone else. By studying influence, you can discuss the specific techniques and research behind your campaign ideas.

And, for me, there is a fourth reason. I find this stuff insanely interesting. I’ve always been interested in learning how things work. Learning how the brain works is a natural extension to this curiosity.

(For the record, I’m not talking about differences of opinion here. I’m talking about being wrong on well-established subjects that have verifiable facts, not opinions. )

Here’s the interesting part of their blathering. They don’t realize they are wrong In fact, they truly believe they know what they are talking about. Sounds odd, right? Surely someone can’t go on endlessly without realizing they are wrong. They must have some idea that they are wrong, or at least off by a little. Right?

A Cornell University study set out to prove just that point. And, as it turns out, people who scored lower on tests results about a topic had an interesting idiosyncrasy. In addition to their low scores, they didn’t realize  their own low scores. They over-estimated their ability on the tests.

The study compared 3 groups and ran tests on their expertise in humor, logical reasoning, and grammar. The low scorers and high scorers were asked to gauge their own performance. In all cases, the low scorers in the groups all significantly overestimated their performance. Every time.

Fascinating.

The explanation for this overestimate is hidden within the low scores. Because the lower percentile doesn’t have knowledge in the field, hence the low scores, they also lack the capacity to accurately evaluate their performance. They lack the metacognitive ability to asses themselves.

What does this mean for you? It means next time you hear someone spouting off on a topic and they don’t know what they are talking about, take pause before correcting them. They earnestly believe in what they are saying. You correcting them probably won’t lead anywhere except an argument, since they don’t have the capacity to correctly assess your argument.

Source article:  Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments