# Persuasion Audit

> Analyze a message, pitch, campaign, speech, or piece of communication through Scott Adams' persuasion filters. Use when someone says 'is this persuasive', 'analyze this pitch', 'what persuasion techniques are being used here', 'how can I make this more persuasive', 'audit this message', 'rate this headline', or 'what would Scott Adams say about this.' Walks through each persuasion dimension and scores it.

- Skill: `cdeistopened/persuasion-audit` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add cdeistopened/persuasion-audit`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/cdeistopened/persuasion-audit/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Marketing & Growth
- Author: cdeistopened (https://skillmd.com/u/cdeistopened)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/cdeistopened/persuasion-audit

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# Persuasion Audit

Walk the user through analyzing any piece of communication — an email, pitch, speech, headline, tweet, ad, or political message — using Scott Adams' persuasion framework from Coffee with Scott Adams.

## When to Use

The user has a specific piece of communication they want evaluated for persuasion effectiveness, OR they want to understand what persuasion techniques are being used in something they've seen.

## How to Run This

Ask the user to share the message, pitch, or communication they want analyzed. Get the full text if possible, plus context: who is the audience, what is the goal, what action should the recipient take? Then run through each filter in order. Score each dimension. Deliver a final assessment with specific improvement suggestions.

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## The Persuasion Filter Stack

### Filter 1: Visual Persuasion

Adams rates visual persuasion as the strongest form. From his analysis of Trump's "Build the Wall" — it worked not as policy but as a mental movie. Everyone who heard it saw the same image.

**Audit questions:**
- Does this message create a mental image?
- Can the audience "see" the outcome in their mind?
- Is the core idea a picture or an abstraction?
- Adams's test: "If you can't see it, it's not persuasive."

**Score 1-10:** A concrete visual image scores high. Abstract policy language, jargon, or conceptual arguments score low. "Build the wall" is a 10. "Comprehensive immigration reform" is a 2.

### Filter 2: Identity Alignment

Adams argues humans make decisions based on identity first and rationalize with facts second. The strongest persuasion attaches to who you ARE, not what you think.

**Audit questions:**
- Does this message tell the audience who they are (or who they could be)?
- Does it create an in-group identity?
- Does rejecting the message require the audience to reject their own identity?
- Adams's principle: "People don't change their minds. They change their identities, and then their minds follow."

**Score 1-10:** "Make America Great Again" (identity adoption) scores 9. "I'm With Her" (proximity to a candidate) scores 5. A list of policy positions scores 1.

### Filter 3: Emotional Resonance

Adams distinguishes between emotional persuasion (powerful) and rational argument (weak). The persuasion filter says most decisions are emotional with rational post-hoc justification.

**Audit questions:**
- What emotion does this trigger? (Fear, pride, belonging, outrage, hope, humor)
- Does the emotion align with the desired action?
- Is the emotional trigger at the beginning (where it grabs attention) or buried?
- Adams's insight: "If you're explaining, you're losing. The best persuasion doesn't feel like persuasion."

**Score 1-10:** Raw emotional resonance that drives the desired behavior. A story that makes you feel something scores high. A logical argument with citations scores low — not because it's wrong, but because it's weak persuasion.

### Filter 4: Simplicity and Memorability

Adams's "Clown Genius" thesis: the best persuasion looks simple, even dumb, but is strategically precise. Kill shots work because they are short, visual, and sticky.

**Audit questions:**
- Can you repeat the core message from memory after hearing it once?
- Is it short enough to fit in a tweet (pre-expansion era)?
- Does it use simple words or jargon?
- The kill shot test: Does it have a "visual anchor" — a single word or phrase that sticks?

**Score 1-10:** "Low Energy Jeb" scores 10 (three words, visual, sticky, contains a seed of truth). A 500-word email explaining your value proposition scores 2.

### Filter 5: Pacing and Leading

From Adams's hypnosis training. Effective persuasion first matches the audience's current reality (pacing), then redirects toward the desired conclusion (leading). Skip the pacing and you trigger resistance.

**Audit questions:**
- Does the message acknowledge the audience's current beliefs or feelings before trying to change them?
- Is there a "yes ladder" — a series of statements the audience agrees with before the ask?
- Or does it jump straight to the conclusion (leading without pacing)?
- Adams's diagnostic: "If your message starts with why the audience is wrong, you've already lost."

**Score 1-10:** A message that starts with "I understand you're concerned about X, and here's what I've learned..." scores high. A message that starts with "You're wrong about X because..." scores low.

### Filter 6: Anchoring

Adams identified anchoring as Trump's core negotiation technique. Start with an extreme position so the "compromise" lands where you wanted.

**Audit questions:**
- Does this message set an anchor (high or low) that frames subsequent discussion?
- If making a request, is the opening position strategically extreme?
- Or is the message starting at the "reasonable" position (which gives away all negotiating room)?
- Adams's principle: "If your opening offer is your real offer, you've already negotiated against yourself."

**Score 1-10:** A pitch that opens with an ambitious ask and frames the moderate position as a concession scores high. A pitch that starts with the minimum acceptable outcome scores low.

### Filter 7: High-Ground Maneuver

Adams's term for reframing any debate to an unassailable moral position. Instead of arguing the details, you claim the principle that nobody can oppose.

**Audit questions:**
- Does this message claim moral high ground that the opponent cannot attack without looking bad?
- Does it reframe from specifics (debatable) to principles (un-opposable)?
- Example: Instead of arguing about a specific policy, reframe to "I just want what's best for the children."

**Score 1-10:** A message that makes opposing it feel morally untenable scores high. A message that stays in the factual weeds where every point is debatable scores low.

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## Scoring Summary

After running all 7 filters, present the scorecard:

| Dimension | Score | Notes |
|-----------|-------|-------|
| Visual Persuasion | /10 | |
| Identity Alignment | /10 | |
| Emotional Resonance | /10 | |
| Simplicity & Memorability | /10 | |
| Pacing and Leading | /10 | |
| Anchoring | /10 | |
| High-Ground Maneuver | /10 | |
| **Overall Persuasion Score** | **/70** | |

## Rewrite Recommendation

After scoring, offer 3 specific rewrites that would improve the weakest dimensions. Use Adams's frameworks to explain WHY each change would be more persuasive. Focus on the dimensions scoring below 5.

## What This Is NOT

This is a persuasion analysis tool, not an ethics assessment. A message can score high on persuasion and be used for good or ill. Adams makes no moral distinction between persuasion used by politicians, advertisers, therapists, or con artists — the techniques are identical. The user decides the ethics; this skill evaluates the technique.

## Related Skills

- **persuasion-masterclass** — Want to learn the persuasion filters deeply before applying them? Start with the masterclass to build understanding, then come back here to audit a specific message.
- **media-decoder** — Analyzing a news story or public narrative instead of a specific message? Use the decoder for the full two-movies treatment.
- **reframe-engine** — Stuck on how to reframe a message that scored low? The reframe engine's 7 lenses include the persuasion filter plus 6 other angles.

## Related Frameworks

- `persuasion-filter.md` — The master lens this audit is built on
- `visual-persuasion.md` — Filter 1 deep dive
- `pacing-and-leading.md` — Filter 5 deep dive
- `anchoring.md` — Filter 6 deep dive
- `high-ground-maneuver.md` — Filter 7 deep dive
- `kill-shot.md` — The simplicity and memorability filter taken to its extreme