From the course: The 10 Essentials of Influence and Persuasion

Three charms, four alarms

- We live in a world where people are hungry for information. Strange, then, how frequently we discard so much of the very information we claim is so valuable to us. Whilst many people will say that they need to see more information and data in order to be persuaded, the reality is often quite different. As a result, just delivering more and more content is unlikely to have any meaningful impact on your ability to influence and persuade others. So, what is the optimal amount of information that you should provide to have the biggest persuasive impact over your audience? Although there is no single objectively correct answer to this question, after all, everyone has slightly different needs and preferences; persuasion research provides us with a very useful rule of thumb. One study that neatly illustrates this rule of thumb asked participants to review a series of advertisements for a range of consumer items, like breakfast cereal, shampoo, and ice cream; businesses, like restaurants and retail stores; and even people, like politicians. In each case, the advertisements were accompanied with a number of reasons, features and benefits, if you like, that were specifically designed to communicate why that product, business, or person was worth their consideration. Unsurprisingly, the advertisements that came accompanied with two reasons were not only considered more persuasive to people, but also more trustworthy than advertisements that came accompanied with only a single reason. In fact, a clear pattern emerged in the study. The greater the number of reasons provided, the more people were likely to be persuaded by the advertisement. That is, until the number of reasons given reached three. At that point, providing more reasons actually increased people's skepticism, which, in turn, heightened resistance to the overall persuasiveness of the appeal. So the answer to the question of the optimal number of reasons you should provide in order to persuade people, the answer seems to be three. The researchers who study this call it the three charms, but four alarms rule. This three charms, but four alarms rule serves as a useful reminder of how easy it can be to fall into a trap of thinking that if we simply provide more and more reasons, then that will lead to more and more influence. And it's a trap that I've seen lots of people fall into, particularly if their early attempts to influence someone fall short, or if they feel like they're being ignored. So my advice would be to review your messaging on your website and in your proposals and even in your emails and your spoken text, and ask yourself the question, are you overselling with reasons? Delivering more and more reasons why you should be listened to invariably results in skepticism, and that's hardly the kind of influential outcome that all of us are hoping for.

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