Newsflash: People can be persuaded.
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Discussion Starters
1.) Do the students with whom you work ever mention being “tricked” or “duped” into doing something they wouldn’t do otherwise without some sort of outside influence? How do they feel when the changed behavior is for the better? Does the change then become habit?
2.) In what ways have you used this method in your instruction, teaching or leadership with your students?
3.) One could argue subliminal influence is how the Holy Spirit communicates with us. What biblical references can you think of where this might be the case?
In a complex society, with over-taxed schedules, we either don’t have time, or won’t make time, to think deeply before making decisions and reaching conclusions.
Therefore, rather than issuing ultimatums, orders and directives, sometimes what’s more effective is the gentle art of persuasion.
Call them what you will — hints, clues, subliminal enticements — but often a mere suggestion of a benefit carries enough weight to have an enormous impact on outward behavior — for better or worse.
Organizations throughout the world have figured out the power of suggestion can curb such habits and vices as smoking, gambling, nail biting, and can even stop men from peeing on the floor.
