{"id":45866,"date":"2021-08-25T09:15:14","date_gmt":"2021-08-25T13:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=45866"},"modified":"2021-09-06T10:43:05","modified_gmt":"2021-09-06T14:43:05","slug":"appeal-to-self-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/appeal-to-self-interest\/","title":{"rendered":"To Mobilize an Idea, Appeal to Self-Interest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is the key to getting people to onboard with an idea? How do communicate an idea in such a way that gets people to not only listen to it, but act on it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want people to hear your idea and act on it, show them how they will benefit. Ultimately, you can use this appeal to self-interest to get them to care about something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Continue reading to learn how to make your message stick with an appeal to self-interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Appeal to Self-Interest<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Another way to make people care about something is to appeal to self-interest: tell them how they personally will benefit <\/strong>from acting on your message. Again, advertising offers many examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mail-order ads were once a common method of advertising. These ads appeared in newspapers and magazines and people who wanted the product filled out an order form and mailed it to the company with their money. Mail-order ads often used an appeal to self-interest to make people feel more capable, popular, or attractive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most effective ads that incorporated an appeal to self-interest were written by John Caples, who basically invented the genre and wrote a textbook on it. One of his classics was an ad for a correspondence course in music. It read: \u201cThey Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano \u2026 But When I Started to Play!\u201d The technique was so successful and has so many applications that it\u2019s still used today. (\u201cMy Husband Laughed When I Ordered \u2026\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Caples said that in every headline, he tried to suggest something the reader would want. He focused on benefits rather than the features of a product. For instance, if you sell grass seed, instead of stressing that your grass seed is the best, tell people they can have their neighborhood\u2019s best lawn.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Noble Self-Interest<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Self-interest isn\u2019t always crass; sometimes it can be noble.<\/strong> For instance, people may join the military or choose certain occupations for altruistic reasons. They may contribute to a cause because they truly want to improve others\u2019 lives, not because they want to see their name on a plaque.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Abraham Maslow\u2019s 1954 hierarchy of needs is useful as a reminder to appeal to people\u2019s altruistic motivations more often. Maslow identified a list of needs that motivate people, arranged as a ladder or progression. He contended that people start at the bottom, fulfilling physical and security needs first, and end at the top with self-actualization and transcendence. But later research suggests people pursue multiple needs, including the higher-order needs, at the same time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Floyd Lee, a retired U.S. Army and Marine Corps cook, who returned to Iraq to run a unique mess hall for U.S. troops, is an example of a person motivated by higher values. His mess hall outside the Baghdad airport became legendary among soldiers for its exquisitely prepared food and welcoming atmosphere\u2014he had the same raw materials to work with as every other dining hall, but he elevated serving food to soldiers to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/personal-mission\/\">personal mission<\/a>. He saw himself as not just in charge of food service, but also of morale, and that attitude guided everyone who worked in his dining hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The lesson is to not underestimate people\u2019s altruistic side when you make an appeal to self-interest.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the key to getting people to onboard with an idea? How do communicate an idea in such a way that gets people to not only listen to it, but act on it? If you want people to hear your idea and act on it, show them how they will benefit. Ultimately, you can use this appeal to self-interest to get them to care about something else. Continue reading to learn how to make your message stick with an appeal to self-interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":45870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,42,9],"tags":[459],"class_list":["post-45866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing","category-motivation","category-psychology","tag-made-to-stick","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>To Mobilize an Idea, Appeal to Self-Interest - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do you want people to hear your message and act on it? 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