Changing someone’s mind is never easy. The human psyche leans heavily toward confirmation bias, causing us to seek evidence that supports our existing beliefs — and to actively resist anything that challenges them. Persuasion is a powerful tool that can make a big impact in both our personal lives and on the public stage.
Defined by the American Psychological Association (APA) as any "active attempt by one person to change another person’s attitudes, beliefs, or emotions," persuasion shapes everything from ordinary conversations to marketing campaigns and even public health policies. For corporations and government agencies, however, this effort centers on public opinion — a crucial tool for gaining trust and shaping behavior.
Below, we’ll reveal the secret to harnessing the science of persuasion and explain how communication can be used to influence public opinion. Let’s take an in-depth look at the power of persuasion and the practices that underscore strategic communications.
At its core, strategic communications uses purposeful, targeted messaging to fulfill organizational missions. Blending various elements of business communication, this evolving practice draws from principles and research in psychology, marketing, and public relations to explore how messaging can influence attitudes and behaviors on a public scale.
As Jacek Mirenski, a communications and PR director, explained to the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, strategic communications is all about "positioning the company, positioning the brand, meeting the goals that you want to achieve."
According to framing theory, this technique helps create meaning and can be leveraged to "mobilize individuals toward collective action." This may involve:
Crisis communication, for example, provides the chance to craft a swift and transparent response to rapidly unfolding scenarios that may threaten an individual or organization's public image. This means countering misinformation with accurate details and maintaining a sense of trust. Ultimately, reputation management involves a broader and more strategic effort to influence how organizations are perceived over time.
Through consistent messaging and ethical conduct, communicators can activate emotional messaging from the brain's amygdala and analytical evaluations in the prefrontal cortex, while also engaging the brain’s reward system through social validation and positive reinforcement.
Traditional media (such as television, radio, and print publications) remain influential, often conveying credibility while reaching mass audiences. However, strategic communication is increasingly playing out via digital and social media channels, such as through influencer campaigns and podcasting. Across these many channels, messaging must remain consistent to reinforce repetition and inspire trust.
Available through the University of Minnesota's Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, this graduate program reflects the unique needs and priorities of today's working professionals. Reach out today to learn how you can embrace persuasive techniques by studying strategic communication.
Defined by the American Psychological Association (APA) as any "active attempt by one person to change another person’s attitudes, beliefs, or emotions," persuasion shapes everything from ordinary conversations to marketing campaigns and even public health policies. For corporations and government agencies, however, this effort centers on public opinion — a crucial tool for gaining trust and shaping behavior.
Below, we’ll reveal the secret to harnessing the science of persuasion and explain how communication can be used to influence public opinion. Let’s take an in-depth look at the power of persuasion and the practices that underscore strategic communications.
What Is Strategic Communications?
Persuasion is a critical element of strategic communications — an increasingly influential field focused on shaping attitudes and actions by aligning messaging with business objectives.At its core, strategic communications uses purposeful, targeted messaging to fulfill organizational missions. Blending various elements of business communication, this evolving practice draws from principles and research in psychology, marketing, and public relations to explore how messaging can influence attitudes and behaviors on a public scale.
As Jacek Mirenski, a communications and PR director, explained to the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, strategic communications is all about "positioning the company, positioning the brand, meeting the goals that you want to achieve."
The Science of Persuasion in Action: How Communication Shapes Public Opinion
The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) suggests that people process persuasive messaging through two distinct routes: the central route, which involves deep analysis, or the peripheral route, which relies on surface-level cues. While the prefrontal cortex helps individuals evaluate persuasive arguments analytically, the amygdala plays a key role in emotional engagement – ultimately determining whether persuasive communication sparks changes in attitudes or beliefs.Three Types of Public Opinion in Communication
To better understand persuasion techniques, it’s important to explain the three types of public opinion in communication:Latent Opinion
Latent opinions are present beneath the surface, but not overtly expressed. Although they’re not always visible, they have the potential to emerge and significantly influence public discourse. Communicators who can identify and understand these opinions are more likely to anticipate changes in public sentiment.Salient Opinion
Highly visible and perceived as relevant, salient opinions involve active discourse that may dominate public conversations and shape widespread agendas within media, politics, and beyond. These top-of-mind opinions can be explored and influenced either through alignment with mainstream sentiments or by thoughtfully presenting counter arguments.Consensus Opinion
Widely shared across entire communities or at the societal level, consensus opinions tend to remain consistent over time, forming a reliable baseline to shape social norms. Messaging that aligns with these opinions is more likely to be perceived as credible. It takes sustained effort to shift these opinions, but – when done successfully, this can spark lasting change.Effect of Communication on Public Opinion
When exploring the effect of communication on public opinion, it's easy to get lost in a chicken-or-egg argument. Which comes first — communication or opinion? In reality, they influence one another in a dynamic, never-ending cycle. Still, it is important to clarify: How does communication shape public opinion?Shaping Perception Through Framing and Language
Framing moves beyond the content of a message by determining how it’s delivered. It highlights certain elements while downplaying others, providing a helpful lens through which audiences can interpret information.According to framing theory, this technique helps create meaning and can be leveraged to "mobilize individuals toward collective action." This may involve:
- Diagnostic framing: Identifying a problem
- Prognostic framing: Articulating a proposed solution
- Motivational framing: Inspiring action
Agenda-Setting and Salience
Agenda-setting theory suggests that the media takes an active role in determining what the public deems important — revealing the value of shaping not only how people think, but also what they think about. This process is closely tied to salience, or increasing the visibility of desired issues.Reinforcing or Shifting Social Norms
Strategic communication can strengthen existing norms by highlighting stories or evidence that make these norms feel positive or desirable. Conversely, strategic communication can shift these norms by presenting desired beliefs in a more favorable light, such as by connecting less popular beliefs to key cultural touchpoints.Crisis Communication and Reputation Management
While many strategic communication efforts target deeply held societal norms, persuasion techniques can quickly change opinions during time-sensitive or urgent situations.Crisis communication, for example, provides the chance to craft a swift and transparent response to rapidly unfolding scenarios that may threaten an individual or organization's public image. This means countering misinformation with accurate details and maintaining a sense of trust. Ultimately, reputation management involves a broader and more strategic effort to influence how organizations are perceived over time.
The Two-Way Nature of Public Opinion and Messaging
Public opinions and messaging represent a two-way effort in which communicators strive to not only shape public opinion but to also identify and respond to audience sentiments. This calls for active listening, along with a willingness to engage in discourse that fully acknowledges public attitudes or concerns.Harnessing the Power of Persuasion in Strategic Communication Practice
The science of persuasion highlights the dramatic shifts in public opinion that can occur when messaging is carefully crafted to inspire emotion and action. This proactive effort can draw on psychological tendencies to overcome challenges such as confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance, which both involve a basic discomfort with confronting novel ideas or opinions.Through consistent messaging and ethical conduct, communicators can activate emotional messaging from the brain's amygdala and analytical evaluations in the prefrontal cortex, while also engaging the brain’s reward system through social validation and positive reinforcement.
Building Ethical Campaigns That Persuade Responsibly
Ethical communication uses a principles-based approach to deliver messaging that’s consistently honest and socially responsible. This involves both avoiding misinformation and demonstrating cultural sensitivity that shows respect for audiences. The TARES test offers helpful guidance, highlighting the value of Truthfulness, Authenticity, Respect, Equity, and Social Responsibility.Persuasion Techniques in Strategic Communication
While many persuasion techniques can elevate strategic communication, no single approach is valid in every situation. Rather, techniques should be selected and customized based on the audience and the outcome.- Storytelling for Emotional Engagement. As one of the most consistently powerful persuasion techniques, storytelling brings a narrative element to strategic communication, activating the public's empathy while sparking emotional investment. Messaging conveyed through stories feels more relatable and is more likely to foster deep connections with diverse audiences.
- Social Proof and Authority. The concept of social proof demonstrates how people look to others for insight into how they should think or behave. Strategic communication can leverage this desire for social validation by using cues to demonstrate how others feel. This may involve drawing attention to reviews or meaningful metrics, or using messaging to tap into the audience's desire to be part of a particular group.
- Scarcity and Urgency. People tend to assign greater value to items or experiences they perceive as rare (scarcity) or only available for a short period of time (urgency). These concepts can inspire action, encouraging audiences to commit to a central message.
- Repetition and Consistency. The exposure effect makes people more inclined to trust messaging they've encountered before. As a result, strategic communication aims to reinforce core messaging across numerous formats. Consistency in tone and even imagery can help this messaging stick while also improving credibility.
Persuasion Across Sectors
Persuasion techniques can play out differently in various sectors. Although these areas share a similar goal of leveraging tried-and-tested techniques to influence audiences (and inspire action), the desired changes in thoughts or behaviors may differ considerably.- Corporations. According to Neville Bolt, Director of the King's Centre for Strategic Communications, strategic communications in the commercial sector involves an internal effort to spark a greater "understanding of what the purpose of the organization is all about" while also communicating "what the organization or its products might be to the consumer public."
- Government. At the public level, Bolt reveals that strategic communications is all about the "long-term shaping and shifting of significant discourses in society... playing out the big conversations at the top level." This means discussing major ideas that shape ethical concerns and influence communities or national identities, but with the goal of "chang[ing] the behavior [or] thinking of identified audiences."
- Nonprofits. The nonprofit sector blends corporate and public communication priorities with a mission-driven focus that promotes its core purpose or objectives. Here, storytelling and values-based messaging can help inspire both empathy and action, encouraging audiences to support nonprofits and the mission they champion.
Tools and Channels for Persuasive Communication
In today's digital environment, we enjoy access to a wealth of channels that reach different audiences and offer opportunities for active engagement with strategic messaging. Multichannel approaches are heavily utilized in marketing to appeal to diverse audiences — and a similar approach can pay dividends in strategic communication.Traditional media (such as television, radio, and print publications) remain influential, often conveying credibility while reaching mass audiences. However, strategic communication is increasingly playing out via digital and social media channels, such as through influencer campaigns and podcasting. Across these many channels, messaging must remain consistent to reinforce repetition and inspire trust.
The Broader Career Value of Persuasive Communication Skills
Persuasive communication skills are widely relevant, influencing both the growing field of strategic communications and aligned practices such as marketing, public relations, and even public health.Influence Across Organizational Functions
Across numerous fields, organizations rely on strategic communication to foster strong relationships while building credibility and driving change. Strategic communicators can lend their talents to many industries, whether that’s the nonprofit sector, corporate communication, or a related area.Preparedness for Leadership and Strategy Roles
Effective leadership begins with effective communication. Upon gaining familiarity with management principles, strategic communicators can seamlessly step into leadership roles by articulating their vision in a clear, compelling way. This ability is especially impactful in times of change or during crises, with strategic communicators often taking a lead role in crisis communication or reputation management.Why Now Is the Time to Master Persuasion in Communication
While communication professionals have long understood the power of persuasion, its impact is just beginning to gain greater recognition across other professional areas — especially as new technologies and data-driven solutions enter the fray. Key reasons for mastering persuasion in strategic communication include:Information Overload and Misinformation
The public has access to several resources but struggles with digital literacy, or the ability to verify information. Media is flooded with misinformation, with the Pew Research Center suggesting over half of American adults find it "difficult to determine what is true and what is not" when analyzing news sources.Growing Demand for Trusted Voices
As the public struggles to sort through numerous sources of information, there is a collective craving for reliable resources that demonstrate strong ethical values, transparency, and accountability. Unfortunately, the most trusted resources are often also perceived as dry or complex, making it difficult to truly engage audiences. Strategic communication can help maintain the credibility that distinguishes trusted resources, while also attracting attention and inspiring engagement in a way that makes critical messages resonate.The Power of Persuasion for Social Good
Strategic persuasion can support some of the most important causes of our time, including public health, climate change, and social justice. Moving forward, these causes will depend on strategic communicators to keep the public informed while cutting through misinformation and sparking genuine engagement.UMN’s Strategic Communication Master’s Program
Discover the power of persuasion with a graduate program designed to help you craft messaging that changes minds and hearts. The Professional Master of Arts in Strategic Communication will introduce you to the language of persuasion and the specific techniques you can leverage to influence public opinion.Available through the University of Minnesota's Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, this graduate program reflects the unique needs and priorities of today's working professionals. Reach out today to learn how you can embrace persuasive techniques by studying strategic communication.
