Apologies to the engineer or philosophy-type minds out there -- but when it comes to human persuasion, logic is often more a liability than a beacon.
Logic is one of humankind’s great inventions -- it lets us build bridges, go to the moon, make future plans, understand motivations, really glorious stuff -- but when we trade it back and forth in persuasion interactions, logic breaks almost instantly.
And this is true across industries, relationships, and intelligences.
Logic is a technology that is very, very sensitive. It’s the Jaguar of human interaction.
I’ve seen logic’s limits over and over again in business. When I work with startup clients trying to build new messaging around a new product, there’s always a point where they want to get all their offers in there, all their explanations, all their information. And I have to tell them, “You can say one thing. IF… it’s clear, concise, and simple.”
Putting high information-demand on audiences kills persuasion.
I’ve also seen this over and over when I work in political persuasion. People want to meet bad logic with good logic. They want to counter misinformation with truth. They want to attack unethical persuaders with claims and evidence that they are, indeed, unethical people.
And none of it works.
Throwing logic at people who aren’t even using clean logic is a failure-guaranteeing idea. So is trying to teach people how to be logical while you’re trying to engage in logic with them. “Don’t you see?!” No. They don’t. Because they’re not actually being logical.
So this persuasion tip is simple, clean, and one-factor: relying on logic kills your persuasiveness.
Be very, very wary of it.
(I’ll talk in another installment of techniques for using baby logic, and why those can still work. Sometimes. In limited ways.)
(Also, I am aware of how ironically logical this post actually is.)