all articles

|
How to Change People's Attitudes

How to Change People's Attitudes

Nov 04, 2008 -

Rap Reiplinger, a famous comedian from Hawaii, created a popular radio sketch involving a room service attendant who repeatedly confirms a hotel guest's dinner order: "You sure? Positive? You sure you sure?" It turns out, we're not sure we're sure according to the classic 1973 study by Goethals and Reckman.In the study, researchers invited high schoolers to discuss their opinions on an issue in this case, school segregation and whether bussing would help racial integration. Some time later, study participants returned for another discussion. This time, however, they were divided into pro and con groups. Inside each separated groups, Goethals and Reckman placed a confederate, a person armed with arguments for the opposing viewpoint. The goal was to reverse the groups outlook.In the end, both confederates successfully reversed the groups opinions. What's more, the people in the groups couldn't accurately recall their original position. Many claimed their previous beliefs were less definite than researchers originally observed. Bussing supporters even thought they were against the issue from the beginning, this was not true at all.An article called "Our Secret Attitude Changes" provides several explanations if this phenomenon.
  1. Participants didn't anticipate being persuaded, thus they weren't aware that they were changing their own positions. When asked about their old beliefs, they simply thought of their current ones.
  2. In order to ease the conflict between their old and new perspectives, study subjects unconsciously integrated the two, so that it made sense.
  3. The high school participants may not have been emotionally invested in the bussing issue.

Creating a successful business requires effective persuasion. This study shows that great persuasion sometimes occurs when people don't expect it. This means that you should always be selling, you may persuade people when you least expect it. This is also a good argument for the potential power of tools such as Twitter and blogs. These new approaches can open doors for people who haven't thought about a new concept.

Here are four more interesting stories to read about this subject:

  1. "The Hidden Workings of Our Minds"
  2. "What We Don't Know About Shopping, Reading, Watching TV and Judging People"
  3. "When We Are Fools to Ourselves"
  4. "At the Heart of Attraction Lies Confusion: Choice Blindness"

Tags: guy kawasaki

4 0

You Might Also Like

About This Author

author

Guy Kawasaki

(Alltop)

Open Tools

Accept Pay

Owners are sharing business tips and discussing ways to get paid faster.

join the conversation