"Jane", the avenue to Jane, the first weapon of persuasion | The Five-Word Mantra of Negotiation Spike Part III
This is Kirito's 607th tweet on "Negotiating Thinking."
The full text is 3266 words long and takes about 3 minutes to read.
1 Introduction
Early Saturday morning, Lao Tu took his son to the zoo to play.
Unfortunately, the traffic in Shanghai is very congested on this day;
Lao Tu's car drove very slowly, with an average speed of only 30 miles from home to the zoo.
When I got home at night, the traffic jam was even worse, with the average speed of cars getting home from the zoo to home being only 20 miles.
Let me test you,
Lao Tu drove once and for all, what was the average speed of the whole journey?
As I write this, my daughter-in-law Wanchu interjected,
How simple is this, (30 + 20) / 2 = 25, the average speed is 25 km / h.
Well, it does sound pretty simple, dear reader, is your answer also 25?
Many times, our brains choose to solve problems with the simplest habits, such as averaging problems.
However, 25 is wrong.
We might as well assume that the distance from the old butcher to the zoo is 60 kilometers;
So the time it takes to go is,
60 / 30 = 2 hours
The time it takes to get home is,
60 / 20 = 3 hours
Then the average speed of the whole journey is,
(60+60)/ (2 + 3) = 24 km/h
The correct answer is 24.
In the brain's habit of thinking, as soon as the average is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is,
Add up all the numbers and divide by the numbers.
Well, actually this is called the "arithmetic average."
For the concept of speed, its mean cannot be calculated using the "arithmetic mean";
Instead, it should be calculated with a "reconciling average".
The so-called "reconciled mean" refers to,
The reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of the reciprocal of the population variable.
That is,
2/(1/30+1/20) = 24
Don't be sad, in the face of this question, most people come up with an answer of 25;
The emergence of this error actually has its psychological explanation;
Because our brains especially love the "simple."
2 Simple preferences
We are still in the series of tweets on "Negotiating the Five-Word Truth of the Spike", and its way of thinking is inspired by experimental psychology research at Oxford University.
The five-word mantra of "negotiation second kill" is,
"Jane", "Lee", "Odd", "Faith", "Love".
Jane - simple, clean and tidy
Benefits - benefits, personally related
Odd - surprising, unexpected
Letter - Confident, solid and reliable
Empathy - empathy, empathy
"Jane", simple, clean and neat, is the first important feature of "negotiation second kill".
The power of "instant persuasion" comes first and foremost from "simplicity."
The reason is also very simple,
Because our brains just love "simplicity."
Just like the title at the beginning of the article, although you finally understand that speed should be solved by a harmonic average, the simplest "arithmetic average" is the first thing you think of at the moment you hear the problem.
When you want to convince the other person, the message you convey to the other person must be as simple as possible;
Because only "simple", your message will be more "fluent and smooth" so that the other person's brain can instantly capture and understand.
Whether a sentence is convincing or not has a decisive relationship with whether the sentence can be accepted "fluently and smoothly" by the brain.
From the perspective of "fluency and smoothness", your expression must be "simple";
Simplicity is more convincing than complex!
Look at the following sentence,
I believe that even if I block most of the handwriting, you can easily understand what I am saying;
Why?
For the understanding of the message lies only in the most "simple" elements of its content.
3 Avenue to Jane
"Simplicity is the most important thing", how simple is this sentence?
Let's see how commercial companies understand this.
The famous British department store, M&S Food, printed on the body of their van, with such an advertising slogan,
This is not just food, it's M&S Food.
Martha has always been known for its short and concise advertising campaigns, and the above advertising slogan is quite powerful;
You know, the carrier area of the body advertisement is very limited, and sometimes the body of a van is even more stretched;
At this time, the content of the advertisement cannot be complicated and lengthy, for example, "Our food is fresh and exquisite, taking into account the habits and preferences of various consumers, the price is favorable, and it is one of the best in a hundred." ”
Let's not say whether such an advertisement is useful or not, the body must not be written...
And this one sentence "This is not just ... This is Martha Foods", simple, clean and neat;
How convincing is it?
Hit the heart.
Let's see how politicians understand the power of "Jane."
Professor Luke Conway, a psychologist at the University of Montana in the United States, specializes in the "simple" sexual laws in political speech.
Professor Luke found a pattern by studying a large number of speeches by the past 41 presidents of the United States:
The longer the president, the more the content of their speeches in the later years of office, the closer the expression tends to be "simple and clear, in a word."
Especially in speeches about the last minutes of the campaign, the more politicians' wording highlights this feature;
Professor Luke explains this phenomenon as, "The Avenue to Jane";
It's hard to imagine a speaker who is eager to grab an audience and will express his own demands in a grinding and ambiguous way.
Well, my position may be right or wrong, and if you don't believe it, we can discuss...
Such presidential candidates are usually less convincing.
（详细实验见：Thoemmes, Felix and Conway, Lucian. G., III, ‘Integrative Complexity of 41 U.S. Presidents.’ Political Psychology28 (2007): 193–226.）
The most famous example in history is the call speech of British Prime Minister Vincent Churchill to the people and the Allies on June 4, 1940;
We will fight at sea, on the beach, on the streets of the fields, and never surrender!
Simple words, people's blood boiling.
You can't imagine what a leader who makes the call particularly complex would say.
In the days to come, we may encounter attacks and battles from enemy armies on the coastline, the place of battle may be in the city, or it may be ... In short, we want to...
Simple? complex?
Judgment from above.
4 The magic of rhyme
The most literal expression of "the road to simplicity" is poetry and aphorisms.
More precisely, poems and aphorisms with rhymes.
Professor Matthew McGlon, a psychologist at the University of Texas in the United States, has done interesting experiments on how people react to "rhyme".
Professor Matthew prepared a large number of aphorisms and short sentences for randomly selected college students to read and score.
Students are graded to assess which aphorisms are more convincing.
Of course, these aphorisms with "rhymes" will be deliberately modified to another form without "rhymes", and will also be handed over to students to read and score;
Like what
Birds of a feather, Flock together
The modified motto reads,
Birds of a feater, Flock conjointly
Another example,
Caution and measure, Win you treasure
Caution and measure，Win you riches
The results of the experiment were obvious, and the aphorisms that have been recited to this day rhyme easily and catchy, and the students rated them high on "persuasiveness".
But the modified aphorisms that don't rhyme, the "persuasiveness" score is noticeably low.
（详细实验见：McGlone, Matthew S. and Tofighbakhsh, J., ‘Birds of a Feather Flock Conjointly: Rhyme As Reason in Aphorisms.’ Psychological Science11 (2000): 424–428.）
To use Chinese aphorism as an example, it is very easy to understand;
Men and women match, work is not tired.
Very simple, very rhyming, vivid, persuasive jumping on the paper.
But if it is changed to,
Men and women match, work is not hard.
The original meaning immediately lost its charm, no color, no feeling, and its persuasiveness was bleak.
Why does a rhyming distinction create such a huge persuasive difference?
Or because of "simplicity".
"Rhyming" sentences make the whole sentence more "fluent and smooth", making it easier for the brain to "swallow the whole sentence" at once;
You can understand it as saying that the more the brain is able to swallow a sentence in one bite, the faster it can understand it and the more it can be persuaded by the sentence.
In contrast, sentences without rhyme invisibly bring obstacles to the brain's understanding of this sentence, and it is not so easy to "swallow", and it is necessary to divide into two or three bites...
Thus harder to be persuaded.
In our lives, there are many examples of using "rhyme" to silently improve persuasiveness;
If you want to be rich, build roads first.
If changed to,
If you want to be rich, you must first solve the traffic problem.
Isn't that a big difference?
Recently I saw on the road about the NEW CROWN vaccine booster needle slogan,
Three stitches are good, three stitches are wonderful, the virus looks around and runs...
5 First Class seats
Professor Kevin of Oxford University, in the process of studying the "negotiation second kill", once focused on a topic;
At airlines, every check-in staff member has some power to allocate seats to upgrade guests to first class;
So, how have these staff members been affected in allocating these places?
An Aer Lingus customer service agent, Kerry, recalled when asked this question,
Wow, you know, some guests... It's just some magic, they're just able to make you want to upgrade him in an instant...
Of course, not every guest is a similar pattern, but there seems to be some commonality hidden behind it.
Carey remembers a guest who just casually asked such a question,
Hello, now there is still a window by the window..... belch..... First Class seats?
(The first class seats on this flight are all window-by-window, which is obviously a humorous joke)
Kerry felt that he immediately felt that he did not mind giving him the upgrade place;
Simple, clean and tidy.
Of course, this is not just because of this "simple sentence";
Carey went on to recall,
Not only this sentence, but also the way he spoke, looking at my eyes, as if to suggest to me, "Give me the quota, I don't say, you don't say, no one knows...", that kind of confidence, but not annoying... It's a magical feeling.
In Professor Kevin's research data, those who can get a promotion usually have their own way of demonstrating "simple" skills;
Of course, this is not just the power of "Jane";
And what we'll cover in the next article,
"Odd, unexpected", Kerry is clearly struck by an unexpected joke;
"Faith, confidence and reliability", the confident and not arrogant eyes;
"Affection, empathy resonates", I don't say, you don't say, you decide...
But the premise of all this is a strong persuasive force to complete under the framework of "simplicity".
6 Summary
Our inherent understanding of persuasiveness always seems to complicate problems;
The more difficult it is to persuade people, the more complex logic and methods to use?
Contrary.
Think about how simple those melodies that once haunted our minds and lingered in our minds?
The simpler something is, the more powerful it is.
The road is simple, and so is the persuasiveness.
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Here is "Negotiation Thinking"!
"The Five-Word Mantra of Negotiation Second Kill Part III" To be continued
--- Platycodon