Paralysis of Analysis

By Dr. Robert Cialdini

"Usually, a communicator’s purpose is to develop and send a message that alters the attitudes, decisions, or behaviors of recipients. The critical question, of course, is how best to arrange it... the best indication of how much change a communication will produce lies not in what it says but, rather, in what the recipient says to him-or herself as a result of receiving the message.

Because people frequently disengage their critical thinking/counterarguing powers and defer to expert advice, communicators who can lay claim to relevant expertise would be fools to fail to make that expertise clear early in the messaging process.

besides projecting our expert standing into the consciousness of an audience, it is as important to protect that status by conveying our background, experience, and skills honestly without exaggeration or fabrication."