Guest post by Scott Adams
I have been writing about Donald Trump’s powers of persuasion for months and yet many of my readers are still persuasion doubters. I get that. We like to think of ourselves as creatures of reason.
But we are not creatures of reason. We aren’t even close. Science has known this for a long time.
For example, here’s a story about an experiment that changed men’s votes (from Clinton to Trump) just by priming the men with a gender-related question. The effect was dramatic and immediate.
You should be skeptical of any study until you see it replicated. But I’ve studied persuasion for years, and this study looks credible to me. If you have read my Persuasion Reading List – especially the book Influence – you already know that humans can be reprogrammed this easily.
The effect you see in the study is a big reason I predict Trump will win the general election in a landslide. Trump understands persuasion at this level, as he often demonstrates. His opponents do not. He’s bringing a flamethrower to a stick fight.
I have blogged that a Trump-versus-Clinton matchup would feel like Dad against Mom. If the country feels safe, they might prefer mom for a hug and a sandwich. But if there’s a scary noise downstairs (such as ISIS), Dad starts looking like a better deal, even if he can be an asshole sometimes. We are wired to be sexist that way. Reason can only overcome some of that.
But perhaps a larger factor than the mom/dad theme – as the study suggests – will be how men and women feel about gender roles in general. If men are feeling secure about their masculinity and their roles in society, they will have no problem voting for Clinton. That describes about one-third of men, I would think.
And women who feel they are living in an oppressive patriarchy will prefer Clinton, I assume, as the best solution. In my experience, about one-third of women feel they are living in an oppressive patriarchy that needs to change and the rest prefer things the way they are.
By my subjective estimate, about two-thirds of men and two-thirds of women will have a greater emotional connection to Trump compared to Clinton by election day. That’s all you need to know.
Unless you still think policies matter.
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Here’s a little experiment to try at home. Record one of Hillary Clinton’s televised rally speeches and put it on TV with volume high (but not too high) when you expect a female friend or relative to knock on the door. Answer the door and say nothing about the television in the background. Then watch the expression on the face of your guest. Two-out-of-three times you will see a pained grimace. For many people – male and female – listening to Clinton’s speeches actually hurts.
I love you, Dilbert.
Scott Adams has some terrific insights.
Recent persuasion story. If you don’t like personal anecdotes, stop reading now.
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1. Me doing some persuasion
So, it’s springtime. This is PEAK home selling period!! People buy now and next month so they can move in their newly purchased home before school starts. In the last 3 weeks we’ve had two fucking showings. TWO!!! WTF? Our realtor actually has never shown this home, not once. What we have surmised is that he is a “listing getter” …. he gets the listing, and then literally forgets about it, being more than happy to have another agent sell the home, and then split the commission for basically doing jack shit. So, I want OUT!! I (condensed) conversation kinda went like this;
Me: I want an unconditional release from our contract.
Retarded Realtor (RR): Why? I’ve spent a lot of my money on the photographer, the sign guy, getting it on MLS, blah blah fucking blah blah.
Me: That’s nice. But, you haven’t sold the home. We’ve had two showings in the past three weeks, and NONE scheduled and it’s PRIME TIME selling season. Not to mention you’ve broken some promises. So, I WANT OUT!
RR: Sorry you feel that way. But, a contract is a contract, and my company just doesn’t do unconditional releases.
Me: Listen you little shit. [Really.] I’m a contributing editor on a website that gets 100k views per day. I can write about anything I want. I will mention your company’s name, your name, and your broker’s name. I will write a rant that will make prospective buyer’s head swim. Then I will spend hours on Yelp and other social media. Then I will call your office 50 times a day. Then I will write a letter to the Realtor Board. And if you think I’m kidding you’re making the biggest mistake of your life.
RR: Hold on. Let me talk to my broker.
tick tock, tick tock … about 10 minutes go by.
RR: We’ll give you the unconditional release.
Me: I want it in 30 minutes.
Aftermath … I got it in 15 minutes.
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2) Me being persuaded.
So, we already have another realtor picked out. A lady realtor that actually sold the house … two years ago. What happened? Well, when push came to shove, Ms Freud just couldn’t pull the trigger. So, we nixed the deal. Kind of pissed off the lady realtor. Nevertheless, she was happy to give it another shot — (we actually met with her about 5 days before the above phone call).
Meanwhile ………….. between meeting the old realtor, and the phone call above, we get some junk mail advertising from a local realtor. I would have thrown it away without opening it. But, Ms. Freud loves junk mail. I’m serious. She says, “here, read this.”. I say, “I don’t read junk mail bullshit.”. She flutters her eyelashes, and gives me a puppy dog look, and says “pleeeease?”. Sheesh. Ok.
It’s one page. Lots of white space. Not a lot of info. No pictures of the realtor (already a huge plus for me … as if I give a flying fuck what you look like!). Basically …
—- in bold red Arial 28 point font, this –> “I am the most aggressive realtor you’ll ever meet!”
then in regular black beneath it
—- I will never ask you to lower the price of your home in order to sell it
—- I know why you’re home hasn’t been sold yet
—- Other than agreed upon commission, I will never ask you for any other commitments. You can drop me any time you wish.
—- I don’t “show” homes … I SELL them.
And, really, that’s about it. He gave me just enough info which practically FORCED me into wanting to know more. It was an absolutely brilliant marketing letter.
So, I called him.
We signed a contract yesterday …… about two hours after I got my unconditional release from RR. heh heh! Some people know how to sell … this guy knows how to persuade.
(I have yet to call the lady realtor to let her know that once again, she’s shit out of luck. I think she’ll probably want to kill me.)
Good for you Stuck…great news.
Stuck, God has great mercy on us. I’m not about to launch into a sermon, it’s more of a personal anecdote.
I had a GF once. She was quite nice, or so I thought. Then she dumped me. What’s new?
Years later, this former beer bitch I call the beautiful blonde starts to work where I work. I listen to her cackle everyday. Her raspy voice sounds like a bedroom voice on the phone but in person, her gravel and glass voice wears your eardrums down, I mock her at times.
Then I recall that former GF and her same fucking raspy voice I somehow found sexy at the time. Imagine 20+ years of that?
Thank God she dumped my ass.
Imagine 4 or 8 years of Cankles’ sweet laugh and those inspiring speeches; we have nothing to fear but fear itself, ask not what your country can do for you…will sound so thrilling…Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall…