Using Superstition To Persuade: "there Are No Accidents"

'Very superstitious, writing's on the wall Very superstitious, ladders bout' to fall Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin' glass Seven years of bad luck, the good things in your past

When you believe in things that you don't understand Then you suffer Superstition ain't the way' --Stevie Wonder, 'Very Superstitious'

Most cultures have their superstitions. Think about your knee jerk reaction when someone sneezes. "God bless you." This started in the Middle Ages when people thought that if your body was left unguarded, as in the midst of a sneeze, the devil could enter. Saying the magic words 'God bless you' in the moments after the sneeze assured that the devil would not take over the body of the sneezer.

In many high rise buildings, you can take the stairs one flight up from the twelfth floor to the fourteen floor. What happened to the thirteenth floor? It's called triskaidekaphobia, and in Western cultures, it's a fear of the number 13. (Eastern cultures have a superstition about the number 4 called tetraphobia.)

What about something as innocuous as walking under a ladder? This dates back early Christianity as the sides of the ladder and the ground from a triangle, the symbol of Holy Trinity. It was thought that when one walked through it, it violated the trinity and put you on the same level as the devil. Nowadays, no one really knows where this superstition came from and yet, people avoid walking under ladders without reason. Maybe it's wise to avoid walking under ladders simply because you might end up with a bucket of paint on your head but to believe bad luck will befall you? It's kind of a stretch.

An acquaintance of my family's believes all religion and spirituality to be superstition. I appreciate the perspective, though I respectfully disagree, because it's yet another example of how framing is so powerful and the ways we frame subjects such as religion can expand depending on perspective.

Superstition is defined as 'an irrational belief that an object, action, or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences its outcome.'

Even Helen Keller's assertion that, "Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.... Life is either a daring adventure or nothing," is an example of how diverse we all are, and yet, we all believe in something irrational.

How can we use our prospect's and client's irrational beliefs to persuade them?

But what I can tell you is that the more our world becomes unstable, the more people look for stability and look for ways to explain things. As a persuader, you have the ability to offer explanations, just the same way that they do to make sense out of their life.

Much in the same way that people look for reasons to support the decisions they've made (even nonsensical decisions), and to explain reality, they also look to assign blame. We can do this with persuasion.

One of my favorite terms born of superstition is "There are no accidents". This presupposes so much and can be used to maneuver. . .'Yes, you've had problems in the past, but those problems are what brought you to this point. And now you're here. And things can move forward for the good. You ended up with me for a reason.'

Is this true and verifiable? No. Absolutely not. But will you be called on it? Unless you're trying to sell my acquaintance, the cynic, who views the world through the frame that everyone is superstitious except him, I seriously doubt it.

About the Author

Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of affluent clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies.

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