I once shouted to anyone who would listen:
When In Doubt, Take the Peripheral Route.
Both logic and empirical data support the exhortation. Most of the time most Other Guys are Low WATT and on the Peripheral Route surfing a sea of Cues, just rolling along, singing a song. So. If I wanted to be persuasive with the Persuasion Blog and attract many readers who would benefit from persuasion science while learning nothing, then I would be writing Low WATT posts.
Yet, if you spend more than a minute here, you know that everything about the Persuasion Blog is High WATT. You have to dial it up, search and scrutinize the Arguments I present, then engage the Long Conversation in your Head to determine the validity and utility of what I assert. Alas, I am nothing but a high Need for Cognition guy and Professor Poopypants, while Sincere, is also High WATT as Tesla demonstrated with benign electricity.
If I only panthered persuasion, then you would find nothing but Cues. Beautiful boys and girls. Pointy headed and earnest experts. Smooth writing à la Malcolm Gladwell putting in print what Kenny G put in smooth jazz (YouTube).
To understand persuasion, which most often and most easily hits the TACT with Low WATTage, you must go High WATT to understand and execute. Like Coltrane’s Giant Steps (YouTube).
What do you want?
