The Hindu Business Line : It takes emotion to motivate action

The three main elements of every persuasive argument or presentation are ethos, logos, and pathos, says Aristotle. “Incredibly prescient, he got the elements right,” writes Russell H. Granger in The 7 Triggers to Yes (www.tatamcgrawhill.com).

Ethos is the credibility, the knowledge, the expertise and the stature of the speaker, explains Granger. “Logos is the appeal of logic, reason, cognitive thinking, data and facts.” And, pathos is the appeal to emotions, the non-cognitive, and non-thinking reasons behind our decisions and action.

A bigger insight is that, contrary to the popular notion of human beings being generally rational, most of us are in the automatic mode, most of the time, as the author observes. “Why do we seek the easy way out? Why do we seem to avoid the cognitive, rational thought process? Why are we not inclined to employ logic in our decision-making?” The answer, says Granger, is that cognitive evaluation takes time and effort. The secret, therefore, to persuasion is not to confuse people with too many facts but to realise that it takes emotion to motivate action. “People do what they want – what is comfortable for them based on their own built-in self-guidance system and internal triggers.” The seven triggers – friendship, authority, consistency, reciprocity, contrast, reason why, and hope – work for us, argues Granger.

Great read.

D. Murali

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

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It takes emotion to motivate action