To Persuade or Not to Persuade

Courting a mate is probably one of the most intense and focused exercise sentient beings, including humans, do. Take a look at what some male birds go through (Birds of the Gods on the blog) for a chance at copulation. A male bird meticulously cleans a ground arena. Then he makes some mating calls—invitations for females to come and watch him dance. When a female comes by and perches on a tree branch, the male bird then goes into dance frenzy. This is bird-speak for persuasion. Sometime a female is not impressed and flies away.

In our own human interactions, in one form or another, we want to influence people to do something: agree with us, or give us something—votes, money, sex, join a demonstration, etc. We have to persuade if we are to succeed. But, often than not, we go by random chance hits and misses. We succumb to the Rolling Stone’s proclamation of “You can’t always get what you want” when we could have done better.

Persuasion is a proven science that has been tested. The great advertising houses know the science. Deep-pocketed politicians employ experts to design their messages for desired effects. The rascal who used to get all the hot girls had what it took—probably instinctively.

In his book, Cialdini lists six universal principles of social influence as: Reciprocation, Authority, Commitment/Consistency, Scarcity, Liking and Social Proof.

In the recently concluded Uganda elections, if you looked closely, the ones who were endowed with or used some of the six principles fared better than they would have otherwise.

Museveni shamelessly used the principle of reciprocation to the nth degree. The Museveni Project is awash with cash. The national coffer and Museveni campaign financing are one and the same. To change the constitution to allow him effective life presidency MPs pocketed $5,000 apiece, and they reciprocated. It is said that, in taw of his campaign rallies, was a cash vault full of cash-stashed brown envelops to dish out to key local players. In the same vein, a gift of a necklace could get you the goods! Scratch my back and I scratch your back. It is very powerful.

Authority can be the one who is an expert. S/he is more likely to persuade us than the ordinary Joe. Twenty five years at the helm meant Museveni knew what he was talking about in the minds of many. Besides, he flooded the country with armed military personnel to show might and back his assertion that Uganda was no Kenya or Côte d'Ivoire.

No Uganda politician has worked so hard to be liked (and hated). People do business with those they like.

Remember the rascal who got the hottest chicks? He started from the top with Miss Hot. Others wanted what Miss Hot had. That is social proof at work. So, while the polls showed that Besigye and Mao and others were cooked, they insisted that they were going to win and the wavering should join their bandwagons. Besigye could have done even better if, instead of the vague “Change is coming,” he used something like: Join the Millions Fellow Ugandans for Change. That is social proof—you want to do what others are doing.

Olara Otunnu sold commitment consistent with values in his harping on genocide and other past atrocious shenanigans. He addressed scarcity of services to the wanainchi. In the former, a large part of the population had moved on, and he sounded like a trouble-maker. The message was a dud. Scarcity is real, but his nemesis had already shown that he was working on the issue in real terms as in the nationwide pre- campaign start-off “Let them Get Rich” trip funded by taxpayers.