Influencing Men in Business: The Psychology of Argument and Suggestion
Walter Dill Scott, director of the psychological laboratory at Northwestern University, argues in eight short chapters that every way of moving people, from employees to readers of an advertisement, is either argument or suggestion.
What it is
Walter Dill Scott, director of the psychological laboratory at Northwestern University, argues in eight short chapters that every way of moving people, from employees to readers of an advertisement, is either argument or suggestion. Argument makes people deliberate: they compare, delay and may not act. Suggestion plants an idea that tends to carry itself out, with no comparison and no delay. He sorts ways of deciding, from Benjamin Franklin's written list of pros and cons to the flipped coin, then gives rules: argue for new goods, purchases that are large relative to the buyer's wealth, unusual talking points and professional buyers; suggest when readers skim, when goods such as Ivory Soap are already trusted, and when you want action now. He finds that only 22 of 65 full-page ads in one magazine say with some completeness how to get the goods, and ends on coupons, samples and the assumptive close.
Why read it now
Scott's split fits later dual-process research well. Petty and Cacioppo's elaboration likelihood model and Kahneman's fast and slow thinking both hold that new, costly, high-involvement choices get careful processing while most ad exposure gets a glance. His rule that suggestion weakens as price rises relative to the buyer's wealth is an early statement of involvement. His insistence on saying where and how to buy is the idea behind friction reduction and implementation intentions today, and his line that the long argument impresses a few deeply while the short one touches many lightly is still the copy-length trade-off. What has dated: his law that every idea of an action tends to produce the action, stated as fact, overreaches, and modern behavioural priming studies have often failed to replicate; the section on a 'woman's method' of deciding by emotion is a stereotype, not evidence; and the assumptive close now reads as pressure to many buyers. Use it this way: before a brief, decide whether the buyer will deliberate or skim, then write reasons for the first, and one clear idea plus one easy next step for the second.
Passages worth keeping
Every idea of an action will result in that action unless hindered by an impeding idea, or physical impediment.
يرى سكوت أن الفكرة عن فعل ما تدفع صاحبها إلى فعله ما لم تعترضها فكرة معاكسة أو عائق مادي، وعلى هذا يبني قوة الإيحاء.
Argumentation is the only effective method of inducing men to perform important, new, and unfamiliar acts.
حين يكون الفعل المطلوب مهمًا أو جديدًا أو غير مألوف، لا يكفي الإيحاء، ولا بد من تقديم الأسباب.
The long argument is read by a few and these few are much impressed; the short argument is read by many and they are all a little affected.
النص الطويل يقرؤه قليلون ويتأثرون به كثيرًا، والنص القصير يقرؤه كثيرون ويتأثرون به قليلًا، فاختر حسب هدفك.
Even though an advertisement has made me want a thing, I am inclined to procrastinate unless all the steps necessary for securing the goods are clearly in my mind.
الرغبة وحدها لا تكفي للشراء، فإذا لم يعرف القارئ بوضوح أين يشتري وكيف، أجّل القرار.
He does not say, "Will you take the policy?" but, "Shall I make it for Ten Thousand?"
مندوب التأمين الماهر لا يسأل العميل هل سيشتري، بل يسأله عن مبلغ الوثيقة، فيعفيه من عناء قرار الشراء نفسه.
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