Covert Persuasion With Presuppositions – Comparatives
What Method Is Better Than Presuppositions?
This is another article on linguistic presuppositions, the powerful language patterns that you can use to covertly persuade others to happily give you exactly what you want.
Today’s pattern is the comparative structure. This is a powerful pattern that you can use in many different ways. I will cover two of the basic ways.
First, a little bit about comparatives. These are simply adjectives with the –er suffix attached to them. Higher, taller, fatter, bigger, longer, etc. Or with irregular adjectives (e.g. adjectives with more than two syllables) you simple put “more” in front of them. More beautiful, more expensive, more exciting, etc.
You can also join two actions using “the more…the more…” or “the more…the (comparative),” as follows:
The more I eat, the fatter I get.
The more I study, the smarter I get.
The more I type, the more tired my fingers become.
A good way to use the first comparative is to think of something you want to persuade your listener of, and then ask a question of they know anything that is (better, easier, faster) than your idea.
Examples.
Idea = exercise is the best way to lose weight.
Sentence:
Do you know of any way that is more effective than consistent daily exercise to lose weight?
If they answer no, (either out loud or in their head) then they admit that exercise is the best way to lose weight. If you are a personal trainer, then you’re in a great position to sell them some of your services.
Even if they answer yes, (either out loud or in their head) they must accept that exercise is a great way to lose weight, otherwise the sentence wouldn’t make any sense, as they would have anything to compare their “other” method to.
Idea = dollar cost averaging is a great way to make money in the stock market.
Do you know of anything simpler than dollar cost averaging to consistently make money in the stock market over the long term?
Again, no matter if they say yes or no, they will implicitly accept the idea that dollar cost averaging is a great way to make money in the stock market.
To use “the more… the more…” pattern, you set it up so that the idea you are trying to convince them of naturally leads to a desirable outcome. Or you can use “the more…the less” to set it up so that when they accept your idea, something that is undesirable will decrease.
Idea = exercise is a great way to lose weight
The more my clients realize that exercise is the best way to lose weight, the less they have to worry about fad diets, or how many calories they eat with every meal.
Or you can even use this to set up increasing social proof for your message:
More and more people are starting to discover that exercise is the best way to lose weight.
Idea = dollar cost averaging is a great way to make money in the stock market.
The more our clients understand the power of dollar cost averaging, the more they are starting to really look forward to their retirement.
The more our customers start to see the wealth generating capacity of simple dollar cost averaging, the less they are worried about their future.
More and more of our clients are using simple dollar cost averaging to make their financial future brighter and brighter.
Now I’m sure you’re starting to realize that there aren’t many methods out there that are more powerful and elegant than linguistic presuppositions to covertly persuade somebody to your way of thinking.
More and more salespeople are starting to realize that the more they study these simple patterns on a daily basis, the brighter their future becomes, as more and more opportunities seem to start showing up out of nowhere.
And I can’t think of anything more exciting than gaining such incredible persuasive power, both socially and professionally, through studying some simple language patterns.
And the more you start to realize that, the more you’ll understand how much potential is all around you, just waiting for you to leverage it to your benefit.
