My Journal Entry: Persuasive Thinking

Most of us use the art of persuasive thinking every day in one way or another. However, most of the time we do not even realizes that we are using persuasion to influence that person. Unless we use the power of persuasion intended for whatever purpose such as to sell something or influence your intended target of something. There are many ways to be persuasive, but first must understand a few things such as human nature, thinking carefully and learning to control our emotions. When we are trying to persuade someone to accept our message, we are using the art of persuasion. One way to persuade someone into your way of thinking is to appeal to his or her pride is a deceitful persuasion.

Appealing to pride is a logical fallacy and allows for reasoning incorrectly. When appealing to someone’s pride we are appealing to his or her emotions instead of the fact or logic. By appealing to a person’s pride our intended person is persuaded to agree by pride. If someone has little pride in him or her, you can still appeal to his or her pride just as if trying to appeal to someone with much pride. Pride is pride whether there is only a little or a lot. Appealing to someone’s pride easily accomplished by flattery aimed towards the target. Comments directed towards one’s appearance or possessions are usually a good starting point.

Flattery always goes a long way with most people. Considering flattery as a positive way of getting someone on your side can help the progression. Even someone with little pride likes to be flattered at times and appealing to his or her little pride may have the results of that with someone who has much pride. We all have some sort of pride about something it is just a matter of figuring out what that pride may be....

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Deceitful persuasion such as appealing to pride is just one of many ways of persuasive thinking. Learning to defending ourselves against deceitful persuasions can be a useful tool especial the next time we go to make a big purchase and have a sales person assist us. Kirby describes how we are influenced by a salesperson and the technique of appealing to our pride by writing, “Feeling flattered, we may be more willing to buy her items. When we point out that the other retailers in the area have suggested that we not invest in the “better” product line, she asks us why we would even consider their views on the matter. Certainly, she tells us, we are not the kind of person who is told what to do.” (Kirby 278)

Works Cited

Kirby "Feeling" Kirby, Gary R., Goodpaster Jeffery R., Scientific Thinking. Pearson Education, Inc: Upper Saddle, New Jersey, 2007. 259-286.