Persuasion In Everyday Life

Persuasion

Upon sitting down to pre-write this paper, I had a bit of a problem figuring out where exactly to start. As this course first pointed out, persuasion is all around usÐ'--it is used by advertisers, by the news, by politicians, by friends and family, by school officials, even by my neighbor's cat (the latter of which is especially good). I looked at the paper prompt and after glancing through it, noticed the line "A good place to start is to consider if you're a person who is easily persuaded by others?" Putting off pondering whether the line actually constituted a question, I looked to the message and after reviewing my extensive class notes I decided that I was not one to be easily persuaded by others. In fact, I am well known among my friends for my stubbornness and recalcitrant argumentative style. Looking into the cause of this, I found the answer in my perception of lifeÐ'--in my attitude.

Attitudes are learned, or in the very least, they are influenced greatly by the environment one develops in and those that one develops with. Thus it is fitting to look to my parents to explore my own attitude and persuasibility. Both of my parents are extreme liberals and have a healthy distrust of government and authority figures, and that was undoubtedly passed on to me. They cautioned me to trust facts, urging me to think for myself and to take people's words with a grain of salt. This has resulted in an interesting situationÐ'--I look whole heartedly for the facts and numbers in a person's argument, but those most likely to use numbers in an argument are authority figures who I distrust. Thus, I am a "show me" kind of person; I like to know where a person obtains their information and how credible that source is.

For sure, credibility itself is a relative term, and my definition of it has a lot to do with how I was raised. My parents did not put an emphasis on money or material objects when I was growing up and instead stressed the value of hard work and the importance of defining oneself by one's actions. As a result, I have a fairly different perspective from which I view the world and the majority of credibility that advertisers depend onÐ'--celebrity endorsementsÐ'--doesn't hold much weight with me as I always end up thinking about the ridiculous amount of money that celebrities earn just by aligning themselves with a particular object. Instead, I place a great deal of credibility of an object on that object's reputation: has it tested well in comparison to other products of its kind? Has it received any special merits for its performance or usefulness? Indeed, my preferred magazine is Consumer Reports and my favorite cookbook is from America's Test KitchenÐ'--a company that runs all of its recipes past a panel of professional tasters and doesn't stop modifying a recipe until all of the tasters give the recipe full marks. The credibility of a person or object, for me, relies heavily on track record and experience, both of which I prefer to look at before reaching a conclusion about said person or object.

Thus, it would be fair to say that I do participate in a fair amount of brand loyalty, but not because I was influenced by an advertisement for that brand, but impressed with that brands particular product. In fact, taking a quick glance at the possessions I own, a few articles of clothing and my box of 48 Crayola are the only things I have from a major name brand, and they were gifts at that. Everything else happens to be from independent, non-global companies; companies that have yet to market an advertisement in such a way as to allow me to experience it.

My experience with ads is also influenced by my attitude. When I was growing up, my parents limited my television intake to public broadcasting, and commercial television was simply not allowed. It wasn't until the fifth grade when my class was going through a unit on the different types of advertising that I became fully aware of television ads, and at that point I was already scrutinizing