Jonah Berger

Well, very simply, you know, if they're so clear about the right answer, it's hard not to believe that they're right because they seem so sure of it themselves.

And so certainty is a great way to persuade others.

Notice that's not what most of us do most of the time.

Most of us, whether our personal or professional lives, we speak with a great deal of uncertainty.

I am as guilty of this as anybody.

When I work with consulting clients and someone says, hey, what do you think of this strategy?

I might say, well, I think it's a good idea.

Seems like it might work.

It's probably the best course of action.

Words like seems, probably, might, could, I think, in my opinion, are all hedges.

They all indicate uncertainty.

and not surprisingly that reduces persuasion because people are sitting there going well if it's not even clear you're certain about what you're saying why should i take your your advice and so i'm not saying never hedge there are certainly cases where we may want to communicate uncertainty um but at least in in many situations particularly trying to persuade others don't just hedge because it's inconvenient

Don't just hedge because it's a verbal tick that we do.

Hedge because we're doing it on purpose.

And if not, ditch the hedges.

Ditching the hedges will make you seem more confident, seem more certain, which will make other people more likely to take your advice.

Or when we have to hedge, when we want to communicate uncertainty, own that uncertainty.

Rather than saying, yeah, I'm not sure if this strategy will work, say, hey, I think this strategy is really effective, but for it to work, these three things need to happen.

You're not suggesting that it's necessarily going to work.

You're suggesting it's going to work as long as these three things happen.