| Abstract: | The study explores the hypothesis that persuasion can be carried out in a combination of three basic styles: the factual-inductive, the axiomatic-deductive, and the affective-intuitive. The weight of each of these three basic styles differs from culture to culture. The paper begins with the presentation of some earlier research on this question. The styles adopted by the representatives of the United States, the Soviet Union, and the Arab countries in the course of debates in the Security Council of the United Nations are then analyzed. The analysis confirms the hypothesis of there being in each case a dominant style as described above. The results of the study should be considered as preliminary: there exists a possibility of bias among the judges; the sample, even though sufficiently large for statistical purposes, is limited to the discussion of one dispute; the style of other nationalities is not investigated. It is hoped that additional results will be presented in the near future. |
