As defined by Kurt W. Mortensen, author of Maximum Influence, “The Law of
Association defines the mental triggers and anchors that will generate the
right feelings, emotions, and thoughts to create a persuasive environment”
(Mortensen 124). In other words, the Law of Association means that the more you
are able to trigger positive emotions and feelings, the more successful you will
be in creating a persuasive environment. Although I don’t use this law on a
regular basis, I find myself using it on certain occasions in my life. I use it
because it is an easy way to persuade people to do what you want them to do.
Stimuli like smells, music, and symbols are powerful stimuli in evoking
memories and triggering feelings in our minds (Mortensen 125-126). When you are
able to trigger positive feelings through these stimuli, more often than not,
people want to fulfill their need to experience those feelings again. If your
solution allows the person to fulfill that need, the more persuasive you will
be. It has been especially effective for me when I want to persuade my mother
or sister, since they are the only ones I really use this law on. I love going
to the movies, but sometimes my mom or sister don’t want to go; apparently they
don’t share the same passion for cinema as me. In order to get them to go I
will remind them of the smell of the popcorn, the sight of the giant screen,
the feeling of sinking into one of their specialized chairs designed for
maximum comfort, and the taste of the candy they love to eat. Most of their
memories and feelings about the movies are positive, so after triggering said memories
and emotions, we end up going to the movies. My goal is to learn how to use
this law on other people that I don’t know, or have never met before. I feel
like it would be hard to use the Law of Association on someone successfully if
you have never met them before because you don’t know what triggers their positive
emotions or memories. It would be a great tool to learn how to utilize this law
on both people I’m familiar with and people who are strangers to me.
My first example of the Law of Association in action is
when I encounter products that are the color black. Black is one of my favorite
colors and I have nothing but positive associations with it. One of the reasons
for this is because I am a big super hero fan, whether it pertains to movies,
comics, or video games.
The majority of my favorite characters wear the color
black, and most of those characters are super villains. Whenever I see a
product that is black I have to stop and consider if I should buy it or not,
such as a blanket, a watch, socks, shoes, sunglasses, hats, and so on. When I
see black products I always find myself reminiscing about the great times I had
watching and reading about my favorite characters in super hero movies and comics
that the wear the black which resembles evil. If a store is selling a product
(small items, not cars or appliances) that is black they are bound to persuade
me because I have the urge to buy it so I can experience those positive
feelings and emotions as much as possible; I can maximize such experiences by
buying the product. My positive associations with the color black explains why
I prefer the night sky, why I have a black cat, why seventy-five percent of my
wardrobe has some black in it, and why the background for this blog is black.
An example of where the Law of Association is not so
successful in persuading me is whenever I’m at a clothing store. I have very
negative associations with clothing stores because when I was a child my mother
always dragged me around everywhere she went, with the worst places being
clothing stores. She would look around the store and shop for hours on end; we
would arrive at ten in the morning and leave at one in the afternoon. My sister
wasn’t born at the time so I was all by myself with my mom as she forced me against my will to shop at clothing stores with her. I disliked those clothing
stores with an absolute passion and I still do to this day because of those
experiences I had as a child. When I walk into a clothing store now the smell
of fabrics, the sight of the endless sea of clothes, the bright lights, and the
changing rooms put me in a sour mood because it reminds me of the negative
experiences I had as a child. Just thinking about it right now, as I’m writing this
blog, is making me quite uncomfortable. As you can probably guess clothing
stores are extremely ineffective and unsuccessful in any attempt they have at
persuading me. A given store could offer a “buy one get two free” sale and I
still wouldn’t be interested because I have such a predetermined negative view
about everything that clothing stores are. In all honesty, there is nothing
that clothing stores could change or do to make me want to buy more clothes
than necessary because the negative emotions and memories I associate with them
will never change.
Some of the fondest memories I have of my childhood
involve the many times my dad and I went fishing. I cannot recall one bad time
that I had as a child when I was holding a fishing pole in my hand. Every time
my dad asked me if I wanted to go fishing I got butterflies in my stomach
because I knew great times would surely ensue. I can still remember the smell
of the baits, the sound of the line as I casted out, and the feeling of a fish
biting my line. But before we could go fishing my dad and I always had to stop
by the bait
store. As soon as we walked through the doors of that store a smell
of everything that was fishing met my nostrils. It was like they took all of
the baits and the fish and mixed them into the perfect smell that represented what
fishing was. The experience was even better because the place they kept their
bait gave off a sound that was identical to that of my dad’s live well (the
container in the boat where you keep the fish). Those smells and sounds put my
dad and I in such a great mood, which led us to always buy more than what we
really needed. Every time we went to that store we couldn’t help but purchase
something that we didn’t need. That store was so successful in persuading us
because we probably spent more money there than any of their other customers.
It got to a point where we had to verbally promise ourselves and each other to
not buy anything more than what we needed before we walked into the store, but
our efforts were futile. I’m sure that if we walked into that store today we
would probably buy something that we don’t need because of the way it triggers our
positive emotions and memories about fishing through their smells and sounds.
Since my last blog review I have continued to explore the
Law of Obligation, but I haven’t gotten the opportunity to use it in a selfless
way yet. As Kurt W. Mortensen explains, “The Law of Obligation, also known as
pregiving or reciprocity, states that, when others do something for us, we feel
a strong need, or urge, to return the favor” (Mortensen 82). I have been using
this law the same ways since my previous blog entry. That is, I still use it on
my friends and family to gain something from them for my own personal benefit.
I genuinely hope that I’m able to break that trend and work towards being more
selfless through this law. I know this law can be applied in the ways in which
I aspire to use it, so I will continue to put in the effort to explore
different situations and test my ability to use this law for the benefit of
others.
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