Cialdini's Principles Of Persuasion

Clinton and Trump both used social psychological principles in order to describe their viewpoints on political issues. These components of social psychology include Cialdini’s principles of persuasion, central and peripheral routes to persuasion, as well as out-group and in-group membership. Hillary Clinton relied far more on central messaging, while Trump tried to use peripheral messaging in order to attract voters. Clinton utilized central messaging through the implementation of facts, logic, and statistics when she was discussing important topics, such as when she expressed her idea of creating more employment opportunities for the American people through the installation of solar panels across the nation. Donald Trump, on the other hand, was far more willing to implement peripheral messaging when …show more content…
By stating that he appreciated these communities due to his financial transactions in them, Trump also depicted the principle of persuasion known as commitment and consistency. Commitment and consistency is the act of continuing to express one’s inner-most beliefs through action. For instance, Trump’s moral values are aligned with being a businessman. In order to reflect his lifestyle, he made reference to it during the debates, in the hopes of obtaining more votes from people who, like himself, also own businesses. He, therefore, was guiding voters who were similar to him by subliminally encouraging them to place themselves in an in-group with himself, while causing non-business people to feel like they were a part of the out-group. Trump’s persuasion caused these voters to feel an in-group favoritism for him, and decided to vote for him in the election as a result, which was his ultimate goal. The out-group would have felt alienated by Trump due to differences in lifestyle, however. Clinton also used reciprocity by supporting the middle-class in her financial