Persuasion is not manipulation. The difference between persuasion and manipulation is that when one is persuading typically that means that person actually cares!
When doing Evangelism, we need to persuade. 2 cor 5:11 11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences.
Persuasion is a form to get someone to move in one way of thinking to another way of thinking. Manipulation is the same thing, but it is trying to trick someone into doing it. It comes down to the ethics of the persuader. Do we want to trick someone? Or do we want to conform someone’s thinking? Persuasion is ethical.
Persuasion involves 4 things:
1. Change. We must focus on small steps. Cannot change someone’s mind. It is about changing small minor steps.
2. Persuasion involves a voluntary decision to change. By making data known. Persuasion is about getting data in a new package. We must need to get the data in front on the product.
3. In order to persuade we must understand the Beliefs, Attitudes, and Values of the non-believer.
Beliefs: what is true or seems to be true
Attitudes: predisposition to respond to a set of data/problem/issue
Values: important or what matters to you
If we can integrate of all three elements, then this will lead to a behavior change!!
You cannot change anything or anyone, but you can provide new, cool, hip data.
4. Appeal to Aristotle’s appeals of: pathos (audience’s emotions), logos (logic of reasoning), and ethos (trustworthiness of the speaker). Aristotle argued that these three appeals give one the ability to change someones mind.
