Persuasion and Personal Relationships

Chapter 8 introduces the topic of persuasion and personal relationships with a case study involving Taylor Swift’s public feud with music manager Scooter Braun. The chapter content then opens by defining power and by discussing the six principles of power: perception, relational concept, resources, the idea that the individual with less to lose has more power, the disabling or enabling nature of power, and the prerogative principle. Next, various influence goals in interpersonal relationships are discussed before the text explains the many types of verbal power plays: direct requests, bargaining, aversive stimulation, ingratiation, indirect requests, moral appeals, manipulation, deception, distributive communication, and threats. Chapter 8 then outlines the many different types of nonverbal behaviors that increase power, which include physical appearance, spatial behavior, eye behavior, body movements, touch, voice, and artifacts. Finally, the text concludes by discussing persuasion and power across interpersonal relationships, such as family and marriage.