How we change what others think, feel, believe and do

Claim Victory Despite Defeat

Techniques > General persuasion > The Art of Being Right > Claim Victory Despite Defeat

Description | Example | Discussion | See also

Description

This, which is an impudent trick, is played as follows: When your opponent has answered several of your questions without the answers turning out favourable to the conclusion at which you are aiming, advance the desired conclusion, -- although it does not in the least follow, -- as though it had been proved, and proclaim it in a tone of triumph. If your opponent is shy or stupid, and you yourself possess a great deal of impudence and a good voice, the trick may easily succeed. It is akin to the fallacy non causae ut causae.

Example

Are we not healthy?...
Have we been away this year?...
Then it's clear we should go on a transatlantic cruise!

Do I look like I can't afford it?...You clearly are good at customer service. I lost my ticket, so I don't have to buy another, do I?

Discussion

It is surprising what you can achieve with a certain amount of confidence, assertiveness and general bravado. Most people want to believe that everyone else is speaking the truth and is generally rational, because the alternative situation would take a lot more effort to understand and handle.

The underlying, though slightly strange, principle is that you do not have to make sense -- you just have to sound like you are making sense.

Even if this method does not work, it can be worth a go and can get you what you seek with relatively little work.

'Claim Victory Despite Defeat' is the fourteenth of Schopenhauer's stratagems.