Ethical persuasion is the best way a speaker can use to ensure that the audience been addressed does not retaliate later. This order analyses ethical and unethical persuasion methods. Using the text provided the order provides the writers view in regards to the text and provides reasons and examples based on the text.
Ethical Persuasion
Persuasion is considered to be an act of motivating the audience by using communication in order to voluntarily change the audiences' particular belief, behavior, or attitude. Persuading people to change or accept another proposal is vital in today's world, but the persuasion should always be ethical. Ethical forms of persuasion require the presenter to be honest and provide solutions that fit the audience. When it comes to persuasion, the most effective policy is honesty. The audience does not want to be manipulated or feel like they are been manipulated. This would result in a negative reaction as it is unethical to manipulate a person into accepting another person's views.
In persuasion, the line between ethical and unethical is very thin. A person will need to provide truthful information to ensure they are ethical during persuasion. Providing false and half-truths in order to motivate the audience might result in the audience changing their perceptions, but there is a chance that the audience might be well informed and would pin point the lies. Such a situation would result in the presenter being doubted, and it is unethical. To ensure that one is ethical in their persuasion, they will need to consider the audiences well being. The presenter should analyze and establish if what they want the audience to do is in the audiences best interests. This way they will have a win-win situation. Ignoring the well being of the audience would be unethical and result in a negative reaction from the audience.
Coercion is another method that can be used for persuasion, but coercion should be considered for its merits depending on the situation. In some situations, coercion can be ethical, and in others it can be unethical. Unethical coercion, for example, would involve threats, demonstrations, and disruptions. These methods might deliver the desired results, but they would create more hostility between the parties. Threatening people would result in the threatened parties to resist the proposed change in order to save face. Using coercion makes the presenter look bad, and it is totally unethical.
There is another tendency for people to use manipulation in persuading people. Manipulation involves use of trickery in making others act or think in a desired way. When people discover that they were manipulated, they will most likely desire to change their attitudes in the opposite direction. A "boomerang effect" occurs when people realize they were manipulated. Manipulation is unethical if the speaker does not state that they are trying to persuade the audience. Therefore, one can use manipulation so long as the audience is aware that the speaker is trying to persuade them in a certain way.
The best method for persuasion that is totally ethical is communication that would persuade the audience to voluntarily act in the desired way. Persuasion communication would use honesty and provide truthful information, which would make it ethical and ensure that no one is forced into making the decision or acting involuntarily.
Reasons for agreeing with the text
The text provides valuable insights in regards to methods a person can use to persuade an audience. The different methods of persuasion presented all have examples to demonstrate the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of a method. From the text, one is able to learn how to persuade an audience in different scenarios, which is vital in persuasion. For example, the case where the city council intends to turn the local athletic field into a parking lot, the authors have demonstrated different methods that the residents can use and ensure that this does not happen, but in the different methods the authors have pointed out the likely effect their persuasion methods would have. Finally, the authors indicate that persuasion communication is the best persuasion method that the citizens can use as it allows them to demonstrate why the park should remain. Using this method the citizens would be honest and provide truthful knowledge that the council cannot ignore, and this would persuade the council in their desired way.
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