 There's nothing magical about convincing people to say yes. The top psychologists know that we don't need to cast a spell or hypnotize people to persuade them to do what we want. All we need is a solid understanding of psychology. So what does science say about the art of persuasion? How can we use our knowledge of the human brain to get people to say yes? We've come up with seven tricks that might just work. Know your audience. This should be your first step. Before you even try to persuade someone, you need to understand who that person is on the inside. You need to know what makes them tick. One study examined different advertising techniques used by big brands. They found that certain ads were more persuasive for different kinds of people. For example, extroverts responded differently to certain ads which appealed to their open-mindedness when compared to introverts. Changing your persuasion tactics based on the unique aspects of the person you're trying to persuade is called psychological targeting and it's extremely effective. Do favors for people. One of the best known persuasion techniques revolves around something called the reciprocity bias. This has been analyzed in many different studies. Basically, what it boils down to is simple. People are more likely to do favors for you if you've already done a favor for them in the past. If you want to persuade someone to do something, then you might want to help them out before you ask. The best part about this is, you don't need to actually explain what you're doing. There's no need to approach the person and slyly state, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. Reciprocity bias influences a person on a subconscious level, without them even realizing it. Tell them everyone else is doing it. It's amazing how people will do just anything if it's seen as trendy. This is called social proof and it's a well-documented phenomenon in psychology today. Fortunately for you, it's also a great tool to use in the art of persuasion. If you're having trouble getting someone to say yes, then you might consider pointing out all the other people who have made the plunge. If enough people are doing it, people are much more likely to say yes. Make it sound like a rare opportunity. You've probably heard plenty of ads which rely on this persuasion technique. How many times have we heard a salesman tell us to act quickly and that soon all the products will be gone? This technique revolves around something called the scarcity principle, which is another well-documented psychological phenomenon. People are much more likely to act if they feel like whatever they have to gain is in short supply. Whatever is rare is automatically seen as valuable in the human brain, for the most part. So if you're trying to convince someone to say yes, why not use that to your advantage? Tell them how rare of an opportunity it is and how they might miss out if they don't act. Give it time. Patience is the best tactic. This is definitely true when it comes to persuasion. Why? It all has to do with something called the sleeper effect. Basically, this refers to the fact that people are more easily persuaded by a non-credible source the more time goes by. Even though someone might dismiss your persuasion techniques at first, they might soften up over time. Keep on repeating your arguments and the sleeper effect might make it easier for you to persuade them. Make it emotional. When it comes to the art of persuasion, this is huge. The simple fact is that emotions will carry more weight in an argument than actual facts. While this might not be the most logical behavior, it's just how the human brain works. Studies have shown that arguments are more effective when they rely on emotional undertones. Not only that, but they're even more effective when the arguments are crafted to match the target's current emotional state. For example, playing off someone's excitement is a great way to persuade them into doing what you want. Always keep a sense of humor. If you really want to persuade people, then you should definitely maintain a great sense of humor. One study even found that self-effacing humor was very effective in persuasion. For those who don't know, self-effacing is basically being timid or shy. When persuading people, it's easy to seem a little confrontational. But if you don't take yourself too seriously when trying to persuade others, it can definitely work to your advantage. You might even consider making fun of yourself. Lastly, we want to say thank you to everyone for watching and supporting our videos. If it wasn't for you guys, we would not be where we are. We hope to inspire other people to use our content for good and not evil, yours truly. Also, as a special thanks, we want to give away a free copy of our Psych2Go digital magazine. The details are in our video box.