Manipulating the Audience

I believe most of us think that the only way of “winning” an argument is by speaking louder, or even screaming, to the rival. Without even noticing we end up in a fight in which we both lose. When an argument turns into a fight, it means that you wouldn’t be able to reach your goal of persuading the audience. It’s not easy to see the difference between an argument and a fight. Wouldn’t an argument be the same thing as a fight, just not being insulting or physical? No. Jay Heinrichs makes it very clear in his book Thank You for Arguing that, “In a fight, each disputant tries to win. In an argument, they try to win over an audience…” (15). It is now clear that you only win when you make the audience commit to you without them noticing it. An extremely good comeback, or shutting up your opponent, doesn’t make you the winner.

According to Heinrichs there are three steps to win an argument:
1. “Stimulate your audience´s emotions” (22).

2. “Change its opinion” (22).
3. “Get it to act” (22).

This seems as a pretty easy task to accomplish. How hard can it be to change someone’s mood, concede him/her to do what you want them to do, and last but not least make them do it? I believe the process is the easy part, the hard part is making sure your audience doesn’t notice you are manipulating them and that you have the patience you hold back your come backs.

At the beginning this seemed as a really easy method to follow and I started thinking to myself that I’m now going to win every argument I have with my parents. Just as Dorothy Jr. beat her father. I thought it for a while and realized that I don’t have the patience to do it. I wouldn’t be able to control my anger and manipulate my audience in a calm way. Everyday I have an argument with my brother that turns into a fight. I can’t bear with the thought of my brother winning over my argument. Heinrichs make it sound as if it’s the easiest thing to accomplish, but its actually not. My perspective of winning changed after I read this chapter. By making the audience believe that they have “won,” you actually end up really winning. A good trick that he gives us is that, “ …one way to get people to agree with you is to agree with them—tactically, that is” (21). It’s all a game of the mind.
A good example he gives about playing with the audience mind is with the book The South Beach Diet. It sounds like a random title, but it was an effective one since the book sold over five million copies. How did they know the book would have such success? After Heinrichs analyzed it, it all made sense. The title greats a sense of emotion by “making readers picture a desirable and highly personal goal: you, in a bathing suit, looking great” (25). At the end the book said the same stuff as the other diet books, but the author and editors manipulated the audience by making them produce emotions.

At the end, Heinrichs, believes that you only need two tools to convince your audience: “set your own goals” and “set your goals for your audience” (26).