Persuasion fatigue is a new term implying a situation where a person experiences a worn-out feeling and drainage as a result of failing to persuade someone to do something or take a certain direction.
People experiencing persuasion fatigue are initially feeling an irresistible urge to persuade another person whom they are targeting. But the question is, what happens when their powers of persuasion fail to meet the target? Would they decide to stop talking about the particular issue, cut ties or remain in the impasse?
With persuasion fatigue, unresolved debates can spark social estrangement and parent-child breakups.
People experiencing persuasion fatigue become anguish over their failures because the situation exposes their weakness and lack of power and control. They might have feelings of being trapped or stuck in a situation.
The findings by Scientific America, America's popular Science Magazine, persuasion fatigue is a new norm but spreading. Of 600 people in the US who were interviewed by the Magazines' studies, 98 per cent reported having experienced this kind of fatigue.
Referring to past research, Scientific America demonstrates feelings of frustration can make people more resistant to changing their minds.
"We think it might also diminish your ability to recognize why your arguments don't succeed. Feeling burned out could obscure whether your audience is open to persuasion and, if so, how to get your point across better," the Scientific Magazine writes.
According to Scientific America, when the persuasion fails to hit the desired target, sometimes people need to make personal introspection instead of shifting the blame to others.
It's true that not everyone is receptive to your thoughts. Therefore, ending the conversation may be the best course of action.
However, in a heated argument, your exhaustion could cause you to misinterpret the situation and assume that your opponents are too naive or deluded to recognize the reality.
It is quite unlikely that you have never participated in tiresome discussions. The research report states, we respectfully advise that maybe it's not them; it's you.
The findings recommend that identifying or labelling emotional experiences, a situation of naming emotions with greater specificity and granularity, can help manage people's feelings, including anger and distress.
Effective labelling techniques, the study suggests, may help people slow down, take a breath and dive a person into deep self-discovery in the rationality of why the persuasion might have stalled.
Even when people think it won't work, effective labelling has the capacity to help them control their emotions.
This little period of reflection could create a framework in which you can more seriously examine the causes of your exhaustion.
Maybe there are weaknesses in your argument. If your aunt says don't speak to me until I've had my coffee, perhaps you should take her at her word.
Like moral empathy gaps, according to the study, people should refrain from criticizing those who disagree with their "moral convictions" or disregard them for having less intelligence, bad intentions, or both.
Also, with reference to Vaccine hesitancy, in which parents were reluctant to get their kids vaccinated, researchers demonstrated that such was an indication "attuned to issues of liberty and purity desiring freedom of choice on decisions related to family or in fear of impure vaccinations than a less hesitant parent."
"These misconceptions have the potential to exacerbate political and cultural gaps," the study adds.
According to the Magazine's poll, 28% of respondents said they had removed someone from their lives because they had become weary of trying to convince them.