Examples Of Persuasion Through The Wire

Persuasion Through The Wire
Those looking for a quick buck in the 1930s might put their money into betting on horse races. Con men used this desire for quick money to trick unsuspecting men who just sought a dollar. These men would continue to be tricked by what was known as the wire. The wire is a con game made famous in the movie The Sting. In its most basic form, the wire involves a brilliant grifter, a rigged betting system, and a wealthy, unsuspecting victim. The wire was also known as the ‘big con’ because it was considered the biggest scam a con artist could execute in the early twentieth century. The primary element of con artistry is persuasion, which can be explained through the use of logos, ethos, pathos, and David Maurer’s ten

Without persuasion, a con man cannot pull off his schemes. The three pieces of persuasion are logos, ethos, and pathos. Logos is an appeal to someone’s logic. In other words: persuasion through facts and logic. In the con, logic is used to appeal to the victim’s natural intelligence. Ethos is an appeal to ethics, which basically is persuasion through credibility and facts. In the con, the victim’s own ethics are used against him to make it seem like he is part of the con. Pathos is an appeal to emotion. The use of pathos, according to YourDictionary, “creates an emotional response to convince the audience.” In the con, the victims emotions are put into play. Essentially, the heart of persuasion consists of appeals to logic, credibility, and emotion. In his book, The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man, David Mauer describes how con artists are persuasive and explains the con in ten steps. They are as follows: putting the mark up, playing the con for him, roping the mark, telling him the tale, giving him the convincer, giving him the breakdown, putting him on the send, taking off the touch,, blowing him off, and finally, putting in the fix

These two steps are playing the con and roping the mark, and Hooker completes these steps by explaining his plans to Lonnegan. Hooker’s persuasiveness through logic and facts build a sense of trust between him and Lonnegan, which will eventually lead Lonnegan to buy into the con. Typically in the wire, the appeal to logic involves money. Greedy people always want more money and somehow, the victims in the early 20th century believed that betting on horse races was an easy way to receive