Happiness, fun, family, friends, greed, comfort, love, freedom, choice, hate, revenge, service, pride, humility, community, adventure, inner peace, world peace, harmony, security, status, recognition, fear, inspiration, laziness, possessions, apathy, achievement, superiority, control, growth, learning, wisdom, salvation, endurance, toughness, perseverance, open mindedness, acceptance, tolerance, understanding.
By definition, values are the only things that matter to a person. They are the things that the person values. They motivate every action and influence every decision the person makes. Some values are strong, some are weak. Some healthy, some unhealthy. A strong awareness of values in general, and of other people’s values, gives you a strong edge in persuasion.
An awareness of your own values strengthens your life and helps you reach your goals and discover lasting satisfactions. It deters you from wasting time on things that don’t satisfy and from making mistakes. Discovering and developing them in your paper will start an awareness that will open one more door of life-long learning the easy way for you.
Many times people seem to act against their values. What really happens is probably caused by one of two things:
We all hold many values, which will inevitably contradict each other from time to time. We struggle with these conflicts from the moment our alarm clock rings until we fall back asleep. Do we get up and get started or sleep in? Do we eat a good breakfast or grab a donut on the way to class? Do we let the car merge into our lane or snuggle up to the bumper ahead of us and let the other guy slide in behind us? Do we do our homework or hang out with friends?
The two biggest values that we experience throughout our lives are love and fear. We can love ourselves, our friends, our job, our neighbor. We can fear others’ opinions, failure, stress, ourselves. Which is most influential in your life?
This includes self deception, where a person believes they hold one value but they really value something else more. Does the parent who spends many hours at work do so because they value their family (as they often tell themselves) and want to provide for them, or because they value success, status, and work or fear failure?
Lack of information is also the greatest cause of apathy. The more you know about something, the more you’re likely to take an interest in it.
Either of these situations offers you another persuasive edge. People usually want to believe that they have positive values. Ironically, our society gives plentiful lip service to generosity, service, and altruism, but rewards greed, self promotion, and selfishness. If you point out the link between their values and actions, you will place readers in a position to choose the positive value or admit that they don’t possess it. At least not as strong as less-positive values.
Don’t think of this as manipulation. Manipulation involves an attempt to control behavior through intimidation and logical fallacies. If you simply clarify a person’s choice and do so honestly with good intent, you are not controlling and manipulative. The choice still belongs to the reader and no intimidation is involved.
The two main strategies involving persuasion through values are
Values also add interest and insight to a paper. People love to read about themselves and what makes them tick. If you can discuss it clearly and insightfully, readers will be more than willing to read your paper closely and consider your ideas.
Some issues are based almost entirely on values. Much of the stagnation on the abortion argument, for example, is caused by the failure to recognize this fact. No matter how long you argue about the moment that life begins and the fetus should enjoy "inalienable" human rights, no one is bound to change their mind until they decide what they value more: the value of an unborn life or the choice of how to control one’s own body. There are more than two possible choices and not everyone will agree, but by clarifying values and perhaps building them up, you can help your readers to choose more effectively and wisely according
to their values, which will usually lead people to what they consider to be good (if they don’t, they must admit that they value "negative" values more than "positive" ones).