Covert Influence...
Tapping into Human Desires and Emotions
(Part 3 of a multi-part series)
Kevin Hogan
Page 4
Is Empathy Really An Element in Hidden Influence?
Mark Joyner recently asked me what the most important factor
in persuasion is. I wrote a few pages of his Simpleology book and
he knows how I think pretty well.
"Empathy."
And he was surprised.
I'll tell you later what he thought I would answer....
But the answer IS empathy.
Remember when we talked about Doctors failing to diagnose
80% of incidental problems in color scans of patients when a
photograph wasn't included?
Yep....
Now read this VERY CAREFULLY.
People tend to be more sympathetic to people suffering from the
same misfortune as a friend. But friendship with a victim does
not make people generally more sympathetic, according to the
authors of a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
Authors Deborah A. Small and Uri Simonsohn (both University of
Pennsylvania) seek to understand the driving forces behind the
phenomenon where people become more sympathetic when a friend or
loved one falls ill or suffers some other misfortune.
"The
sympathy inherent to a close relationship with a victim extends
to other victims, leading benefactors to prefer charities that
help those suffering from the misfortunes that have affected
their friends and loved ones," write the authors.
The authors conducted three studies that confirmed that people
are more sympathetic to victims suffering the same misfortune as
a loved one than victims of other misfortunes. In the first
study, they interviewed strangers in a train station about their
feelings about Alzheimer's disease, breast cancer, and job
layoffs. They found that people who were closer to someone who
had experienced one of the misfortunes were more sympathetic to
the victims of those, but not to victims of the other misfortunes.
But you aren't raising money for victims of a disease that their
friend has, are you?
Yes you are!
(Think about it.)
Surprisingly, in subsequent studies, the authors were able to
recreate this phenomenon in an experiment where friendships were
newly created and the misfortune was losing $10 that had just
been given to the participants. After people became "friends" in
the study, they were more likely to donate money to a friend who
lost money.
The authors note that participants' sympathy did not increase
overall, just for victims of the same misfortune. "So friendship
with a victim does not simply make people more sympathetic;
rather it directs their sympathy to others with the same
misfortune as their friend or loved one," they explain.
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"The
sympathy inherent to a close relationship with a victim extends
to other victims, leading benefactors to prefer charities that
help those suffering from the misfortunes that have affected
their friends and loved ones," write the authors.
