Promises and Threats in Persuasion

In this paper we analyse Promises and Threats (P/T) use in persuasion. Starting from a general definition of P/T based on the concepts of speech act and social commitment we focus on Conditional Influencing P/T (CIP/T): those incentive-based P/T used to persuade the addressee, rooted on dependence and power relations. We argue that in CIP/T class the concepts of promise and threat are strictly connected: the promise act is necessarily accompanied by a threat act and vice versa. Thus we discuss the problem of why the CIP/T are credible even if the speaker is supposed to be a rational agent and analyse some asymmetries between CIP and CIT. We also identify beyond the rhetorical presentation a deeper difference between substantial promises and substantial threats. Throughout the article is given a pre-formal model of these concepts.