{"id":2875,"date":"2020-12-03T19:52:07","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T00:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/aer\/?p=2875"},"modified":"2021-12-16T14:56:31","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T14:56:31","slug":"brain-lessons-persuaded-or-convinced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2020\/12\/03\/brain-lessons-persuaded-or-convinced\/","title":{"rendered":"BRAIN LESSONS: PERSUADED OR CONVINCED?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Consider an argument you made to your jury just before they deliberate and hand you your hard-fought victory.\u00a0 Did you persuade them or did you convince them?\u00a0 Perhaps you just dissuaded them from finding for the other side.\u00a0 However, if you dissuaded them, why can\u2019t you also say that you dis-convinced them?\u00a0 Or disvinced them? \u00a0Don\u2019t try \u201cdeconvincing\u201d either as that, too, is a dead end.<\/p>\n

So, what gives?\u00a0 Why can you persuade and dissuade but you cannot both convince and dis-convince? \u00a0It\u2019s likely the case that you have never considered that while \u201cdissuade\u201d is the antonym of persuade there is no such lexicological opposite to the word \u201cconvince.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0According to Professor Adelino Cattani there is a very good reason for this\u2014and it\u2019s not simply a trick of the tricky English language. This missing antonym is missing from other languages too and, for the advocate, it\u2019s worth thinking about whether persuading and convincing are really the same thing. [i]<\/a><\/p>\n

Persuading and convincing, suggests Cattani, largely employ two different methods and seek different aims.\u00a0 Persuading largely employs the powers of rhetoric, which can be both artful but largely manipulative, whereas convincing employs the powers of logic and sets of rules but can be spoiled by fallacious argument.[ii]<\/a>\u00a0 The dialogue of persuasion \u201caims at modifying people\u2019s opinions and behaviours\u201d which is why persuasion and dissuasion can work as opposites and produce actions or omissions in the receiver.[iii]<\/a> \u00a0The dialogue of conviction, however, seems to refer \u201cto the realm of thinking, not that of doing; it does not serve to induce someone to act, but to gain intellectual agreement or assent\u201d and is, thus, more focused on the addressee than what the addressee can do.[iv]<\/a>\u00a0 Persuading is more like a gaming process, artful but still manipulative to gain its advantage.\u00a0 Convincing, however, is more like a demonstration of one\u2019s proofs\u2014showing, rather than telling.[v]<\/a>\u00a0 One can begin to see why \u201cconvince\u201d has no antonym.<\/p>\n

I see two quick points to ponder for the trial advocate reading this blog post:\u00a0 The first is that it might be worth considering which things one must persuade upon and which things one must convince one\u2019s jury about.\u00a0 A closing argument can gain more structure and become more purposeful with a little meditation on these two ideas.\u00a0 Second, there seems to me to be a real difference in the rhetorical power of the two words in the minds of jurors and judges who will largely regard them as interchangeable.\u00a0 It might just be me, so let me take the two terms for a test drive in a hypothetical courtroom:\u00a0 It seems quite a bit more powerful to ask a jury if the state has convinced <\/em>them that the defendant is the man who committed the crime than to ask them if the state has persuaded <\/em>them to that fact.\u00a0 What do you think?\u00a0 Have I persuaded you or are you convinced?<\/p>\n

* I have to give special thanks to Nathan Wilson, a rising 3L at UNC, who has helped me twice now with my Bluebook citation formatting for this blog\u2014a task I loathe.\u00a0 Nathan is the kind of student I wish I could clone and hand out to other law schools.<\/p>\n

[i]<\/a> Adelino Cattani, Persuading and Convincing<\/em>, U. Windsor (June 4, 2020) https:\/\/scholar.uwindsor.ca\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=2528&context=ossaarchive&fbclid=IwAR3LxAMt0MnRGpsVk1pIo3RK87C8x0gdBkriIiIgHNinoM7luHdEst8rrcI. <\/a><\/p>\n

[ii]<\/a> Id. <\/em>at 2-3.<\/p>\n

[iii]<\/a> See Id. <\/em>at 2.<\/p>\n

[iv]<\/a> Id. <\/em>at 3-4.<\/p>\n

[v]<\/a> See Id. <\/em>generally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Consider an argument you made to your jury just before they deliberate and hand you your hard-fought victory.\u00a0 Did you persuade them or did you convince them?\u00a0 Perhaps you just dissuaded them from finding for the other side.\u00a0 However, if you dissuaded them, why can\u2019t you also say that you dis-convinced them?\u00a0 Or disvinced them?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,11],"tags":[],"coauthors":[203],"class_list":["post-2875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","category-brain-lessons","category-trial-advocacy"],"yoast_head":"\nBRAIN LESSONS: PERSUADED OR CONVINCED? - Advocacy and Evidence Resources<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2020\/12\/03\/brain-lessons-persuaded-or-convinced\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BRAIN LESSONS: PERSUADED OR CONVINCED? 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