How we change what others think, feel, believe and do

Choice

Techniques > General persuasion > Creating Cognitive Load > Choice

Description | Example | Discussion | See also

Description

Engage their minds by offering them a number of options from which to choose.

Make the options fairly complex and the choice non-obvious so they have to think hard but are unlikely to easily give up.

Example

Which car do you prefer out of the five I've shown you. Take your time, it's an important decision.

Well we could go La Travia, Jimmy's or Beko. Depends, I guess. What do you think?  

Discussion

Some choices are ready and obvious. Others are harder when there is no one option that stands out. This is usually because you are using multiple criteria and the alternatives each score very differently on each criterion, for example when considering cars, one might be speedy but thirsty while another is slower but more economical.

Hard choices hence need much weighting up of the different dimensions of choice, which can easily be mentally taxing.

See also

Choice vs. Decision