Emotional Intelligence - A Powerful Persuasion Tool

Emotional intelligence, as few people know, is one of the main factors that can lead you to success. By learning how to control other people’s emotions, as well as your own, you have a higher chance of accomplishing your objectives. This is more effective than merely relying on logical thinking.

Have you ever thought about how easy it is to influence people by appealing to their emotions? When you want someone to do something for you and you say something like, “This is the right thing to do!” or “You will be happy with the result,” which among the two sentences do you think is more reliable?

To be able to use your emotional intelligence as a tool to persuade other people, you must first understand the different types of emotions. You must also learn how to send yourself a signal when you are experiencing these emotions. Anger, patience, friendship, enmity, fear, confidence, shame, shamelessness, emulation, contempt, kindness, pity, indignation, and envy are just some of the emotions that we experience. See how you respond to these emotions by trying to recall a significant event in your life that is associated with one of these examples.

When using emotions to persuade other people, you must also learn how to analyze their current situation. There are three important questions you should remember:

1) What kind of circumstances are these people facing at the moment?

2) What kind of person are you talking to?

3) What kind of emotion do you want and need to trigger to get the desired response?

Why and how does it work?

To answer that question, let’s have a closer look at the mechanics.

Emotions arouse interests

I’ve noticed that our local news channels have been covering the (A)H1N1 flu virus or swine flu for quite some time now. You will notice that a lot of people are concerned and scared about this. However, the fact that only 163 people around the world have died from the virus seems like a ridiculous reason for the media to be causing a worldwide hysteria. Well, they know very well that fear causes more people to watch the news.

Emotions are triggered instantly

When you hear a memorable song playing on the radio or when you smell a familiar scent that reminds you of someone from the past, do you notice any kind of change in the way you feel at that particular moment? Emotions do not require people to think. The words you say to the person you’re talking to may have an effect that you may not even be aware about. You don’t necessarily have to know exactly what’s on his/her mind. All you have to do is read the body language and you can easily tell a person’s emotional state.

Emotions get in the way of rational thinking

Common sense will tell you that an angry person is usually not in the right state of mind and it’s better to leave that person alone. If you want to win over a person’s interest or if you want someone else to do your bidding, the best way to accomplish this is to avoid giving them time to think. What would you feel if I told you these techniques can give you hypnotic powers? Isn’t that cool? Can you imagine all the things you can do with this? (These questions are just examples)

Emotions stick to memory

Can you describe to me what your first childhood crush looked like? What was it like when you had your very first sexual encounter with a person of the opposite sex? Can you still remember your graduation day? You may notice that people, places, and events are easier to remember when strong emotional states are associated to them.

Emotions can easily change behavior

The perfect example to this can be taken from the movie, “The Day The Earth Stood Still.” Professor Barnhardt (John Cleese) tells Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) that it’s only at the precipice that people change. The entire human race is about to be annihilated for being the cause of planet earth’s destruction. This is quite true when you realize that at times of intense fear, happiness, shame, or anger, people change the way they act.