JOUR1912

Seven days a week, everywhere in the world, people are busily trying to persuade other people. Students want their professors to accept late work. Professors want students to throw themselves into their coursework. Advertisers want consumers to buy their products. PR practitioners want people to think more highly of their clients. Newspaper editorialists want readers to change their minds. Defense lawyers want juries to acquit their clients. And politicians want constituents to vote for them.Some of these people are very effective persuaders; others less so. In this course, we will search out the best techniques for persuading different kinds of people to do various things. We'll study really good textbooks, meet top-quality professional persuaders, and search out real-life instances of good and bad persuasive efforts. And we'll try our hands at persuading someone to do something that's important to us. All the while we will be trying to build our own theories of persuasion and maybe have some fun!

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