Persuasion. Philosophers have worried about it. Political and economic actors have weaponized it. Psychologists have measured it. Prose writers have required it. We're all subjected to it. And some have even mastered it. Of them, we are often very suspicious. Why is that? Persuasion: A Key Idea for Business and Society asks the disciplines of philosophy, politics, psychology, and prose analysis - the 4 Ps of persuasion - to answer this important question.
The book is written for students and teachers of business and marketing but will also guide researchers across the social sciences and humanities.
Stephen Dunne is Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Edinburgh Business School, UK.
"Stephen Dunne's book on persuasion is very persuasive. So much so, I bought twenty copies. You can't get more persuasive than that. Don't delay, buy it today!" Stephen Brown, Author of The Marketing Code and Professor at Ulster University, UK.
"Every successful business, politician, activist or story-teller depends, whether they know it or not, on the art or science of persuasion. In this innovative and wonderfully readable book, Stephen Dunne draws on centuries of insight and a range of vivid examples, to examine how we are led and misled today." Will Davies, Author of Nervous States: How Feeling took over the World and Professor at Goldsmiths University of London, UK.
"If we cannot persuade each other, we lose a key component of what it means to be human. In this essential new book, Stephen Dunne offers a novel interdisciplinary account of persuasion, re-connecting with its contested conceptual history to detect, detail, and develop persuasive practices in contemporary business and society." Sine Nørholm Just, Author of Controversial Encounters in the Age of Algorithms and Professor at Roskilde University, UK.
"Stephen Dunne's book on Persuasion should be recommended reading for all students wishing to understand the philosophical foundations and skills of dishonesty as well as the psychology, politics, and prose of cultural brand makers in contemporary societies. Dunne provides a depth of analysis that sadly has been lost in much of the academy and is a timely reminder of the need to refuse the dark arts of storytelling for a purpose." Pierre McDonagh, Author of The Dark Side of Marketing Communications and Professor at the University of Bath, UK.
"Stephen Dunne's book is a fascinating and detailed analysis of the many ways in which the humanities and social sciences have engaged with the challenges of understanding how we seek to change each other's minds and behaviours. Offering students and researchers a rich and variegated context for our struggle with the mysteries of persuasion, Dunne's study provides a perfect argument for how careful and creative interdisciplinary work offers deep insights into a topic central to marketing, management, and organizational studies." Christopher Miles, Author of Marketing, Rhetoric and Control and Principal Academic in Marketing Communications at Bournemouth University, UK.
"At the present moment, it might be comforting to imagine that the 'good' people are engaged in a fight for truth against the 'bad' ones. The problem is that it is not clear who is which. In this dense and beautiful book, Stephen Dunne encourages to think about this in terms of persuasion, a social process that includes marketing, fiction, myth, politics, and theory. It cannot be escaped, and it has always mattered very much indeed. Read this book and understand why." Martin Parker, Author of Against Management and Professor at Bristol University, UK.