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Persuasive Seduction Strategy #1: The Foot In The Door Strategy

Imagine getting a random phone call from some telemarketer. Usually, they try to impress you with a grand sales pitch when you answer, but this time is unlike the others. The second you answer the call, he tells you that he is requesting a fast phone survey that requires less than 30 seconds to complete.

He further assures you that there's absolutely no personal information being gathered whatsoever, and goes on to say that he's also not attempting to sell you anything. Generally by now, you'd have either hung up on such a telemarketer or gave them a rather florid piece of your mind - depending on your overall mood at that very moment.

Yet something's definitely different about this particular telemarketer. And although you can't quite put your finger on it, you're mildly intrigued enough to see what his game is.

First, he begins with little, innocent inquiries... "What is your age bracket?", “What is your job?", "Where do you go for vacations?" So far, these questions appear harmless enough, so you you happily continue playing along with his little game (as you enjoy your own private amusement all the while).

However, soon the questions start getting noticeably more personal. Midway through this supposed "30 second" survey, he again assures you there's only "one last question".

You start to become quietly irritated and suspicious as the questions got more personal. But his speedy assurances and non-stop friendly chitterchatter leaves you little time to think straight, so you keep answering these progressively more personal questions.

At the close of what amounted a very personal 5 minute interview, this complete stranger politely thanks you and hangs up. At this point, you're confused as to why this dude didn't even try to sell anything.

"Hindsight is 20/20" as the old saying goes, when you finally discover his hidden agenda a couple days later (by way of yet another seemingly random phone call).

Except this time, it's from a sultry-sounding female. When you answer the phone, she calls you by name like a long lost friend. You're instantly intrigued, figuring it must be someone who you somehow fell out of touch with in the past.

WHAM! It all of a sudden hits you, as she reminds you of the previous telemarketer phone call. Not skipping a beat, she congratulates you for being among the lucky 10 people to qualify for a limited gift. All you have to do was to attend a short seminar.

You then realize you've been duped... it won't be a short seminar and there'll definitely be more than 10 individuals there, because you'd attended a similar "seminar" in the past.

At the core level, this strategy involves getting a individual to agree to a harmless little request, and then progressively presenting larger ones.

By agreeing to a brief 30-second impersonal survey, the telemarketer then drags it on for a full 5 minutes via incessant amounts of "just one more question!"; whereby stealthily squeezing far too much personal info out of you.

Now, if this telemarketer told you up front that it would be a semi-personal 5-minute survey, you would have flatly refused.

Moral; As a whole, individuals are far more probable to comply with a request that costs little in time, money, or effort. Especially if the requests start super simple, and work up in baby steps.

Persuasive Seduction Strategy #2: Cognitive Dissonance

This strategy centers on the theory of cognitive dissonance, which is an uncomfortable feeling induced by holding two contradictory ideas at the same time. The thoughts or emotions (i.e. cognitions) at odds with one another may include attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and/or facts.

In other words, cognitive dissonance generally occurs when one thought implies the opposite of another.

Moreover, the cognitive dissonance hypothesis suggests that individuals have a strong motivational drive to avoid cognitive dissonance by either 1) adjusting or 2) rationalizing their conflicting cognitions in such a way as to alleviate the discomfort.

For instance, animal rights activism could be translated as inconsistent with eating meat or wearing leather. Acknowledging the contradiction would lead to dissonance... anxiety, frustration, anger, embarrassment, stress, confusion, etc.

Conversely, when people's thoughts are congruent, their cognitions are in a state of harmony (i.e. consonance). If cognitions are unrelated, they're categorized as irrelevant to one another and do not lead to dissonance.

Social engineers have also discovered that individuals will often change their immediate viewpoint positions to match their behaviors (so as to avoid the induced cognitive dissonance discomfort).

A more benevolent use of cognitive dissonance is via dissonant colloquialisms to instill strong curiosity. For example... "Post-Pregnancy Pot Bellies Are The New Sexy [Proof Inside]!".

It's cognitive dissonance in the sense of two conflicting mental images (i.e. pregnancy flab being sexy). However, instead of causing discomfort, it instead incites a "WTF?!"-style curiosity; whereby the reader has to solve the unsolved riddle as it were.

Persuasive Seduction Strategy #3: The Low Ball Strategy

The Low Ball Strategy works by first making commitment and/or closure to the thought or item which you want the other human to accept. It then taps into our primordial hardwiring: Most individuals will act consistently with their beliefs to hold up the commitment - even when the agreement is altered midstream by the other party.

The Low Ball Strategy can also contain an illusion of irrevocability; whereby a individual believes that a decision made can't be overturned. For instance, when a individual agrees to buy a car and considers the handshake to be the deal-sealer (vs. actually forking over the money).