Week #06 — Persuasion IQ #4

Trust is critical in persuasion. Unfortunately, we live in a day and age when people are more skeptical and mistrustful than ever before. Twenty years ago, the mindset was: “I trust you; give me a reason not to.” Now the mindset is: “I don’t trust you; give me a reason why I should.” You could say trust is at an all-time low and still falling. Gone are the days when there was a baseline of trust, no matter where you were coming from. A Gallup poll found that the majority of people feel you can’t be too careful when dealing with others. Another study found that only 4 percent of respondents felt complete trust in any of the persuaders they had conducted business with in the last twenty-four months.