Tecnologie linguistiche della persuasione: la funzione combinata di implicature e stereotipi

The paper suggests that stereotypes and implicatures can work persuasively by reinforcing each other. This is shown in short texts from advertising and political propaganda. Stereotypical contents are easier to reconstruct by implicature than less expected contents and, at the same time, they are more easily agreed upon by receivers if they are presented via implicature, as compared to assertion. In other words, the association of stereotypes and implicatures has a bidirectional effect: stereotypical assumptions guide the implicature process, and at the same time they are re-inforced by that process. Many stereotypes would appear as too simplistic or exaggerate if directly asserted, but when they are evoked implicitly during an inferential process, they can bypass the receiver’s critical reaction and enter their set of beliefs. These cognitive mechanisms are systematically exploited in persuasive communication, especially when trying to “smuggle” questionable or false contents. For this reason, the quality of democratic cohabitation could be improved if the awareness of such phenomena could spread across the population.