Three Persuasion Tools for Your Toolkit

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If you want to make your arguments extremely effective, stop wasting time trying to craft a super creative legal reasoning that would make your law professor proud. Instead, just focus on the flaws in the brains of your audience.

You can find below three examples of how to leverage the flaws in people’s brains (i.e. cognitive biases) in order to deliver compelling arguments, both in legal disputes and in real life.

1. Narrative Bias

If you want people to buy into your argument, the number one rule is to frame it as a story. Our brains don’t want to hear rules and list of facts. They crave stories – in fact cognitive scientists have proven that the narrative (i.e. stories) is central to how we make sense of the world.

So, if you want your audience to swallow your argument, package it in a story. For example:

  • In arbitration: Make sure to wrap your arguments within a story about good guys (your client) vs. the bad guys. For example:

    • Unpersuasive Non-Story: Therefore, Respondent’s argument prior to these proceedings that the Purchase Price was fixed and not subject to modifications holds no water under these circumstances.

    • Persuasive Story: Therefore, Respondent was not acting in good faith when it claimed prior to these proceedings that the Purchase Price was fixed and not subject to modifications.

  • In real life: If you are trying to pitch work to a client, don’t blather on about how your firm is different from the competition. Give your arguments depth and substance with facts about how you helped other clients in similar situations.

2. First Impression Bias

You can also make a powerful persuasive impact by focusing on how you shape first impressions. We all recognize that first impressions can have a lasting effect on how we judge a new acquaintance. The same is true with your persuasive arguments. The first things out of your mouth will have the greatest effect, both good and bad.

  • In arbitration: Don’t just tell a story about your client being the good guy. Make sure that you quickly start with this story and set the moral tone.

  • In real life: You can make it more likely that clients will choose you after an introductory meeting if you focus on using your first moments to establish strong rapport and sync yourself with them (e.g. matching body language, topic choices, style of discussion).

3. Fluency Bias

Readers tend to trust writing that is easier to read. Such ease of reading makes your writing feel more familiar to them, and we usually trust familiar things.

You can encourage readers to trust your writing by focusing on techniques that promote processing fluency (i.e. readability). For example:

  • In arbitration: you can dramatically enhance the readability of complex material via simple techniques like starting with a table of contents or introducing screenshots of key evidence.

  • In real life: You can quickly boost the persuasiveness of lengthy emails by making them skimmable via section breaks and informative section headings.

Final Thoughts

You don’t win arguments by dazzling with legal brilliance. You win by working with the brain’s shortcuts. When you tap into stories, make your points easy to absorb, and shape first impressions, you turn cognitive biases into powerful allies that boost your persuasive impact.