But if you think about it, it is predominantly about perception.
Sure you can try to convince a person of something, but what you do before that counts too.
If you don’t look the part, act the part, talk the part, and set the expectation, there might not ever even be a chance to persuade.
A person in a dirty t-shirt talking about the economy is less persuasive than a person in a suit doing so.
And if you see me arrive at a sales meeting – it matters if I get out of a 20-year-old lemon – or a new Land Rover.
For persuasion purposes, it is not as easy as brushing it all aside as “superficial” and “materialistic-stuff.”
Appearances persuade: Even if you think they don’t.
This is the same reason why wine can taste different, depending on how you have been prepped.
The concept of setting the table for persuasion has a lot of obvious elements, such as dressing for the part and broadcasting your credentials. But there is also a deeper and scarier level that cognitive scientists have discovered. It turns out that you can influence people’s future opinions simply by exposing them to cleverly selected images and ideas that are totally unrelated to the topic of your persuasion.
