Day 20 – Q 4.What is persuasion? What role does it play in public life? Discuss.

4. What is persuasion? What role does it play in public life? Discuss.  

अनुनय क्या है? सार्वजनिक जीवन में इसकी क्या भूमिका है? चर्चा करें।

Introduction:

Persuasion is a method of changing a person’s cognitions, feelings, behaviours, attitudes toward some object, issue, or person, through some kind of communication.

Body

Elements of persuasion:

• Words, images, sound, etc. as tools.
• Methods of transmission like television, Internet, face-to-face communication etc.
• A deliberate attempt to influence others.
• Self-persuasion, i.e. people are not coerced, they are instead free to choose.

Dr. Robert Cialdini’s six principles of persuasion which act as universal guide to human behaviour are: reciprocity, scarcity, authority, consistency, liking and consensus.

Role in public life:

Individual perspective:

• Need creation– Various advertisements around us are focused on creating need for their products in a person’s life, which he/she otherwise does not require.
• Behavioural change– Active propaganda or viral video or contents through social media persuades people to modify their behaviour.

Governance or social perspective:

• Bringing social change – To deal with issues like girl child education, inter caste marriage, temple entry for women, persuasion may be the only solution because change has to be brought keep intact the dignity and respect of all stake holders.
• Implementing public policy– Sometimes persuasion works better than coercion; success of the initiatives like Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan- cleanliness drives and UjjwalaYojana’s give it up campaign can be attributing to persuasion.
• Following rules – It helps in making people follow rules which bring inconvenience to them, like District collector visiting houses in the morning to persuade people for waste segregation before disposal.
• Moral conditioning – Persuasion can bring change in attitude of people. In Delhi Metro various signboards on certain seats asks passengers to offer that seat to needy people. Similarly, regular announcements to keep the station clean persuade people to change their behaviour.
• Incentivising good behaviour– For instance in income declaration scheme a window was open to declare black money with some fine and no legal action that incentivized people instead of penalizing them.

Conclusion

Persuasion can bring a lasting change in people’s behaviour and is highly effective in implementation of public policies provided the tools are used in a right way.