The Persuasive Power of Uncertainty

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April 9, 2013

a project of ServiceSpace

The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.

- Ursula Le Guin -

The Persuasive Power of Uncertainty

"When we started this research, we had the same hypothesis that a lot of people would have, that being more certain would be generally better when you're trying to persuade somebody or convince somebody to do something. And so, we were originally thinking expressing confidence or certainty might be a solution for people who lack credibility to gain influence. And so, we did some studies to look into that possibility, and found that, in fact, under some conditions it was having the exact opposite effect, that expressing certainty was backfiring rather than giving you a persuasive advantage." Zak Tormola of Stanford's Business School shares more { read more }