Social persuasion
- Philip Brophy
- Mar 26
- 3 min read
Fueling your confidence • 2 min read
Psychologist Albert Bandura’s research found that overly optimistic social persuasion tends to be less effective, especially if the person who is being encouraged fails to hit their goals. This type of encouragement can in fact lead to reduced levels of self-belief.
He recommends that positive appraisal be realistic to ensure we stay motivated and maintain our belief in our abilities.
Introduction
Step right up!
We’re about to persuade you to learn about the fourth pillar of self-belief.
Today, we’ll highlight the importance of our environment and its role in building our self-belief. We’ll not only focus on our own self-belief but the belief others have in us.
Social persuasion
persuasion
/pəˈsweɪʒ(ə)n/
The action or process of persuading someone or of being persuaded to do or believe something.
We thought we’d kick things off with a definition for our linguistic lovers.
Social persuasion is all about the impact that feedback has on our self-belief. This typically comes in the form of verbal feedback. When we receive positive feedback and encouragement from others, it strengthens our belief in our ability to succeed.
For building self-belief, social persuasion is not considered as effective in comparison to when we expose ourselves to experiences and persevere through certain tasks (mastery experiences). However, it’s always nice to receive words of encouragement and positive feedback.
Positive feedback
Lots of us are our own worst critics so it’s important that we receive positive feedback on our performances. It recognises progress on something that matters to us. It’s a key driver in helping people to stay motivated and to strengthen their own belief in their abilities to succeed.
Negative feedback
There is debate around ‘negative feedback’ as it can be interpreted and used in various ways. Some schools of thought recommend that we should only focus on an individual’s strengths and not their weaknesses. This is because our brains are more likely to develop faster in the areas we’re already strong.
It’s not a black and white matter, and we’ll cover the topic of ‘feedback’ later in our programme. For now, we’ll continue to focus on feedback for the purposes of self-belief.
Who should we speak to?
When influential people in our life, such as parents, coaches, and managers, believe in us, this gives us the self-belief to overcome self-doubt, fear and uncertainty when facing challenges.
Success rarely comes about without the help of other people. Any feedback should be encouraging and constructive with the aim of helping the individual believe in their abilities to achieve a task or a goal.
Key takeaways
Our environment and the feedback we receive from influential people in our lives plays an important role in building our confidence.
Feedback from others should ideally be encouraging and constructive with the aim of helping us believe in their abilities to achieve a task or a goal.
Influential people in our lives can include: family members, coaches, mentors, managers and colleagues.
Think big, act small
If you are lacking confidence in a certain area, go seek feedback and advice from someone who knows and understands you.
Absorb their words of encouragement to help recharge your self-belief battery.
Content sources
Oxford Languages, powered by Lexico, “persuasion” search
Harvard Business Review, How To Give Feedback People Can Actually Use, Jennifer Porter
Harvard Business Review, What Good Feedback really Looks Like, Craig Chapellow and Cindy McCauley
Positivepsychology.com, What is Self-Efficacy Theory in Psychology?, Courtney Ackerman
SimplyPsychology, Self-Efficacy Theory, Gabriel Lopez-Garrido
Verywell Mind, Self Efficacy and Why Believing in Yourself Matters, Kendra Cherry
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