Politics of Persuasion
Abstract
The major position represented is that underlying every attempt by one person to change another person's attitudes, affects, behavior or even health is a complex set of assumptions about their relative power positions, the direction of change desirable, the degree to which the target person must conform to social and political standards of appropriateness, the ethics of persuasion, and the social sanctions given to the change agent. An analysis of the techniques used by salesmen, police interrogators, and volunteers canvassing for political candidates helps make explicit some of these fundamental assumptions. In the process of presenting these general analyses, extractions from police training manuals and improvised tactics used to influence voting behavior, the issue of Machiavellian strategies is examined in detail and questions are raised as to the far-ranging consequences of using these and other forms of social influence.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1971
- Accession Number
- AD0719406
Entities
People
- Philip G. Zimbardo
Organizations
- Stanford University