A successful lawyer is one who knows how to persuade
jurors, that much is obvious. What is less obvious is that jurors are persuaded
on several different levels. One level that is often ignored is the difference levels
in how we each perceive information, our unique perceptual modes.
An
individual’s perceptual mode determines the primary way that individual
perceives events and situations: we see it, hear it or feel it. That is not to
say that people who favor a visual mode, for example, only experience the world
through their eyes. Rather, they first and predominantly experience the world
in visual terms. Visually oriented people make use of the auditory and feeling
modes, but only secondarily.
How
does this apply to the courtroom?
Each
of us tend to express and receive information in our preferred perceptual mode,
to the relative exclusion of the other modes. Many men, for example, are
visually oriented, and thus are focused on the visual. Women are frequently
more kinesthetically (feeling) oriented, and relate to kinesthetic expression.
Figure
out how you see the world: are you more likely to say “I see what you mean” “I
can’t picture it” (visual), or “that sounds good to me” “Doesn’t ring a bell
for me” (auditory), or “I understand how you feel” “I want to get a handle on
this” (kinesthetic)?
Deliberately
express yourself in all three modes during trial; make a conscious effort to
communicate in those modes that are not your predominant one. In so doing, you
will more effectively reach and therefore persuade all the jurors, not just
those who resonate to your native mode.
