Part 2 of 3: Arguing Persuasively 1. Make them feel smart. When you make people feel stupid, that makes them shut down and tends to quickly lead an argument nowhere. Make them feel smart and youll have an easier time turning the argument in your favor. 2 Use evidence tailored to the argument and audience. Evidence from reliable sources that specifically supports and deals with what youre arguing about can be one of the easiest ways to win an argument. You should also tailor the type of evidence you use to what kind of person they are, using more logical or more emotional evidence based on what you think theyll respond to best. 3 Look for logical fallacies. Pointing out fallacies in their logical and politely explaining why that logic is bad is a good way to start to change someones mind. Learning to recognize logical fallacies can be challenging but here are a few common ones: • Watch out for arguments with incorrectly assume that correlation means causation. For example, rates of autism diagnosis increased with the usage of cell phones. Therefore, autism is caused by cellphone usage. Post-hoc fallacies are similar, but are based on the idea that because A preceded B, B was caused by A. • An Argument from Silence fallacy is the idea that because there is no evidence for something, it must not exist. For example, God/germs/evolution/aliens do not exist because we have never physically witnessed them. 4 Paint them as the hero or victim. People like to think of themselves as the main character in their life story. Keep them thinking this and charm them into changing their views by carefully tailoring how you talk about the issues. • For example, I know you really, really want to help people. Youre one of the most generous people that I know. But if you really wanted to help people, you wouldnt donate to a charity that misuses their money like that. Dont you want to be sure that your money is directly saving lives? 5 Curate your language. When you argue, avoid language like you and me. Instead, use words like we. This brings your opponent into thinking of the two of you as a single unit with singular interests, rather than driving you apart. 6 Know when to stop. Sometimes, someone wont be able to change their mind right in front of you. Sometimes you have to just back off and their mind will change slowly over the course of time, as they think about what you said. Of course, sometimes you just have to persist too. Its a subtle art that you may just have to experiment with. • Generally, if someone seems like theyre getting really upset, its time to stop. • Close the argument with something like, Okay, I can see that I cant change your mind but, please, just think about what I said.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 06:21:45 +0000
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