1.  Subliminal Persuasion (AP 34)

•  There’s some evidence for subliminal perception (as awareness only).

•  There’s no good evidence that it influences behavior, esp. conscious behavior and plenty that it doesn’t work.

•  The fact that people falsely belief in subliminal persuasion may be more interesting than the phenomenon itself.

2.  Direct (mail) Persuasion - The direct mail advertisers are very good and do lots of research (AP 35)

• get the "right" mailing list!

  • The envelop is an attention getter

  •  An odd size envelop works best

  • Put a catch phrase on the envelop (hueristics)

• make it look like "official" mail

• use heuristics and cognitive shorthands

• use personal references, include the receiver’s name

• include opportunities to act (commitment, time investment ) and distraction from thinking of counter-arguments (e.g. sticker hunt by Publishers Clearinghouse)

• use surveys for response set.

• use group identity (dear friend ...)

• use fear appeals AND a way to resolve how to deal with fear

• list or ask for large commitments and make your expected amount the lowest box