In this essay, I’m going to remind you of 3 ancient strategies for persuasion.
When passionately arguing, it’s easy to feel that only a binary is possible - “yes, you’ve convinced me” or “no, I’m not persuaded”. The fundamentals of persuasion - logos, pathos and ethos - give you options.
Despite making arguments everyday, most people don’t do it in 3 dimensions.
Making an argument is like driving a car
You can drive without understanding how a car works. Driving becomes autonomic behaviour - spontaneous and involunatary. But unthinking behaviour leads to bad habits when driving or persuading.
Failing to personalise or bring to life
Not providing supporting facts or statistics
Unconsciously using logical fallacies
Not providing any credentials or sources
Failing to consider (and refute) opposing arguments
So meet your 3 new best friends and musketeers - pathos, logos and ethos.
Pathos: appeal to emotion
Evoke emotion to make your audience feel the way you want them to and “frame” their response.
“Imagine you are in a heated argument feeling more and more frustrated …”
Logos: appeal to logic
Ensure your argument is reasonable, connects to facts and analogies and avoids assumptions or weak connections.
“Bad arguments are like bad driving habits - they cause 60% of accidents”
Ethos: appeal to credibility
Finally, why should the audience trust you, no matter how good the argument?
“As a consultant with 20 years experience I’ve persuaded a lot of people. Plus, who’s going to argue with the ancient Greeks?”