Tools

There can be no doubt that business is a global affair. Even businesses that operate solely in one country will often come into contact with colleagues and customers from a variety of cultural backgrounds. So it probably makes sense to ask whether a person’s cultural origin has any bearing on how they are persuaded by others.
To answer this question, a team of persuasion researchers carried out a study in a large global business group to determine what factors people from different cultures paid attention to most when deciding whether to say ‘Yes’ to a request in a business setting.  

In the more individualistic cultures such as the USA, the UK and Canada people were often most persuaded by those who had done something for them first. In deciding to comply with a request, they tended to ask themselves, “What has this person done for me recently?” They felt most obligated to comply if they owed the requester a favour.
But the researchers found very different results in more collective cultures such as China and Japan, where the primary factor in deciding whether to comply with a request was who the requester was connected to. Typically people would ask themselves, “Is this requester connected to someone in my department, especially someone of a high rank?” If the answer was yes, they felt more obligated to fulfil the request.

The researchers looked at other cultures, too. In Mediterranean and South American regions they found that requests were more persuasive if the requester was connected to their network of friends. In Germany and Scandinavia, though, the most successful persuasion occurred when requests were shown to be consistent with an organisation’s official rules and policies.

Studies such as this can help businesses to increase their chances of successfully influencing and persuading others from different origins to their own by considering what they do first, before making a request.

In individualistic cultures this could require a business to ask how the resources and help they have already provided are benefiting the organisation before making a request. A different approach would be required in collective cultures where pointing out connections to high ranking members of the organisation might be a 
more effective approach.

While many differing factors determine how successful you are at persuading others, it clearly makes sense to take into account cultural preferences.

Steve Martin is co-author of Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion, scienceofyes.com

• Tweet