photo credit: cliff1066

Which emotional trigger is Obama activating to persuade the public to have confidence in his effort to soften the blows of our economic meltdown?  Against all promises for his “Change”  mantra, he is activating the Authority trigger by appointing authority figure names.  And every one of these names is a throwback to former authority.  To former governments. Robert Rubin was the well known well publicized Treasury Secretary in the Clinton administration.  Rubin is a Washington insider.  Most recently he headed up the advisory committee at Citigroup. Larry Sumnmers was appointed Secretary of the Treasury in 1999 – another authority figure with a long past as a Washington insider.  Tim Gaithner, newly appointed head of the Treasury is currrently President of the Federal Reserve bank of New York.  Obvious ties to The Fed in Washington. Can you see “Change” in any of these appointments?  I don’t think so. Change?  Fuggedaboudit!

Yet  to instill confidence, to avoid a complete emotional breakdown for the public, Obama must persuade us that better times are coming.  He has activated the Authority Trigger to persuade us that he is putting top people in place.  The stock market is persuaded.  The public feels better.  The Authority trigger is working – as it always does for persuasion.

photo credit: liberalmind1012The big 3 auto presidents from Ford, GM and Chrysler violated a critical emotional trigger and blew a $25 billion windfall.  No, one violation alone didn’t kill the deal – they made several persuasion mistakes.  The biggie however was really outrageous.

Remember what we have been saying about the persuasive power of building trust through sameness – similarity, honesty and mirroring those you want to persuade – elements of the friendship trigger?

Each of these clowns, Wagoner, Mulally and Nardelli flew into the hearings on his own private luxury jet.  Can you imagine the trust generated by a guy walking off a 46 million dollar luxurious Gulfstream jet with his tin cup in hand pleading poverty and begging for a handout?  This is the antithesis of smart persuasion – not one soul in the room could relate positively to these guys.  They blew every emotion of trust and similarity.

House leader Harry Reid put it very simply stating “They did themselves no favors each flying in on their private jets.”

These guys have to learn the basics of emotional triggers!