Persuading

Persuading people about some new attitude or action allows them the freedom to choose whether they wish to accept it or not. Such a decision is stronger and more reliable than one evoked by coercion.

Persuasion may be termed a form of "hidden violence", all the more lethal because it is a form of coercion which is harder for its victims to resist than outright physical coercion.

As all persuasion involves manipulating another's decision-making, it can produce superficial compliance (like that of "rice Christians" to missionaries) without even the depth of commitment that physical coercion produces.