Sometimes it can be difficult to get people to do things that you know would actually be good for them. We’ve all run into this situation before, and probably tried to come up with ways of gaining their cooperation to no avail. This can be quite frustrating, but fortunately there is a way you can solve at least some of these problems. It has to with desensitizing the message you’re trying to get across to them.
This persuasion technique involves minuscule, gradual changes that produce a much larger change overtime. Lets pretend that you have a rather stubborn child that sits far too close to the television screen whenever he’s watching a program. You know that it’s not good for him to do that, and have told him that a number of times, but despite all of your efforts he continues to do this. That’s where this desensitization persuasion technique comes in. Everyday before your child gets settled to watch TV, you could move his chair a few inches away from the television. Such a small change would become difficult for him to notice, and before long you’ll have the chair positioned an appropriate distance away from the TV and he wont even know the difference.
Of course, just like most persuasion techniques out there, it’s not going to work every time. He might notice that the chair is farther than it was to begin with before you’ve it moved back far enough. However, even if he does notice it, he’ll most likely just move it closer and proceed to turn the TV on. You can then start over using the same technique in smaller incumbents (maybe just one inch at a time) to minimize the chances of him figuring out what you’re up to even more. If he does call you out on it…at least you tried.
You may also find this persuasion technique useful if you’re trying to get someone to start eating healthy. In this case, you would continue to make the healthy(or at least semi-healthy) meals that you would normally prepare, while throwing in a few extra healthy ingredients in small portions. They may or may not see it, but even if it is noticed, they may go ahead and eat it anyway since it’s such a small amount. Once again, you would gradually increase the amount of this new ingredient until they’re eating enough of it to reap the benefits it has to offer. This method even incorporates some aspects of the repetition technique that I discussed yesterday. When you’re increasing the doses incrementally, you’re also exposing them to the new ingredient on a consistent basis, and like we talked about yesterday, the more you’re exposed to something (especially if you’re exposed to it subconsciously) the greater the chances are that you’ll end up liking it.
These are just a couple of many instances this persuasion technique could be applied. Remember, the smaller you make your incremental changes, the more likely it will be that what you’re doing will go unnoticed. This technique wont work all of the time, but when it does, you’ll be glad you knew how to use it.