Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition Paperback – 26 December 2006
by
Robert B. Cialdini
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Influence, the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say "yes"—and how to apply these understandings. Dr. Robert Cialdini is the seminal expert in the rapidly expanding field of influence and persuasion. His thirty-five years of rigorous, evidence-based research along with a three-year program of study on what moves people to change behavior has resulted in this highly acclaimed book.
You'll learn the six universal principles, how to use them to become a skilled persuader—and how to defend yourself against them. Perfect for people in all walks of life, the principles of Influence will move you toward profound personal change and act as a driving force for your success.
- ISBN-10006124189X
- ISBN-13978-0061241895
- EditionRevised
- Publication date26 December 2006
- LanguageEnglish
- Print length336 pages
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Product description
Review
For markters, this book is among the most important books written in the last ten years. (Journal of Mariketing Research)
Influence should be required reading for all business majors. (Journal of Retailing)
This book will strike chords deep in the hearts and psyches of all of us. (Best Sellers Magazine)
The material in Cialdini’s Influence is a proverbial gold mine. (Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology)
Influence should be required reading for all business majors. (Journal of Retailing)
This book will strike chords deep in the hearts and psyches of all of us. (Best Sellers Magazine)
The material in Cialdini’s Influence is a proverbial gold mine. (Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology)
From the Back Cover
Influence, the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say "yes"—and how to apply these understandings. Dr. Robert Cialdini is the seminal expert in the rapidly expanding field of influence and persuasion. His thirty-five years of rigorous, evidence-based research along with a three-year program of study on what moves people to change behavior has resulted in this highly acclaimed book.
You'll learn the six universal principles, how to use them to become a skilled persuader—and how to defend yourself against them. Perfect for people in all walks of life, the principles of Influence will move you toward profound personal change and act as a driving force for your success.
About the Author
Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D. holds dual appointments at Arizona State University. He is a W. P. Carey Distinguished Professor of Marketing and Regents' Professor of Psychology, and has been named Distinguished Graduate Research Professor. Dr. Cialdini is also president of Influence At Work, an international training and consulting company based on his groundbreaking body of research on the ethical business applications of the science of influence.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Influence
The Psychology of PersuasionBy Robert B. CialdiniHarperCollins Publishers
Copyright ©2007 Robert B. CialdiniAll right reserved.
ISBN: 9780061241895
Chapter One
One of the reasons reciprocation can be used so effectively as a device for gaining another's compliance is its power. The rule possesses awesome strength, often producing a "yes" response to a request that, except for an existing feeling of indebtedness, would have surely been refused. Some evidence of how the rule's force can overpower the influence of other factors that normally determine whether a request will be complied with can be seen in a second result of the Regan study, Besides his interest in the impact of the reciprocate rule on compliance Regan was also interested in how liking for person affects the tendency to comply with that person's request. To measure how liking toward how affected the subjects' decisions to buy his raffle tickets, Regan had them fill out several rating scales indicating how much they liked Joe. He then compared their liking responses with the number of tickets they had purchased from Joe. There was significant tendency for subjects to by more raffle tickets from Hoe the more they liked him. But this alone is hardly a startling finding. Most of us would have guessed that people are more willing to do a favor for someone they like.
The interesting thing about the Regan experiment, however, is that the relationship between liking and compliance was completely wiped out in the condition under which subjects had been given a Coke by Joe. For those who owed him a favor, it made no difference whether they liked him or not; they felt a sense of obligation to repay him, and they did. The subjects in that condition who indicated that they disliked Joe bought just as many of his tickets as did those who indicated that they liked him. The rule for reciprocity was so strong that it simply overwhelmed the influence of a factor—liking for the requester—that normally affects the decision to comply.
Continues...
Excerpted from Influenceby Robert B. Cialdini Copyright ©2007 by Robert B. Cialdini. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Product details
- Language : English
- Paperback : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 006124189X
- ISBN-13 : 978-0061241895
- Best Sellers Rank: 2,982 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 8 in Applied Psychology
- 18 in General Marketing
- 53 in Business Economics
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David
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Super boek, erg goed toe te passen.
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Het boek is erg goed geschreven. Er zijn veel aha-momenten die helpen om de informatie in het boek toe te kunnen passen. Verder is het boek ook geschreven op een prettige manier.
Athan
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Dated, but fun
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 25 November 2017Verified Purchase
This is a classic that is unlikely to retain its status, but this it owes to its “manners” rather than its “substance.” The next generation is highly unlikely to abide the 1960’s style worldview of Robert Cialdini and totally unlikely to recognize any of the products described in the book. (Encyclopedias, anyone?) I was shocked to discover “Influence” originally came out in 1984, if I’m honest. It feels a lot more like “Hustler” than “Color of Money,” bottom line. In 1984 there was no Internet, besides, and that’s where influence is of any use these days.
But if hustle you must, it takes you through a number of techniques that may not 100% survive the transition from door-to-door double-glazing sales techniques to online marketing, but regardless merit your attention.
Given that my startup finally has a product to sell, I thought “what the heck” (to quote from a 1983 movie) and made “Influence” my companion in the tube for a week. And I found out about
• Reciprocation
• Consistency
• Social Proof
• Liking
• Authority, and
• Scarcity
The idea here is that we humans are bombarded by information and rely heavily on what Daniel Kahneman has called (thirty years later) our “System 1” to navigate the planet: our prejudice, intuition and rules of thumb. To trick your mark’s intuition, you need to find the weak entry points into his subconscious, and the six chapters deal with an entry point each.
Not all chapters are equally good and not all deal 100% with influence per se, but my reading time was not wasted. And as a bonus, I now know the source of some of the most persistent circulars to appear on the early Internet, such as the letter (p. 15) from the daughter who failed chemistry, all the way to Frank Zappa deadpanning back to a rude interviewer (who called him a girl for having long hair) that his wooden leg made him a chair (p. 274).
APPENDIX ---- THIS IS NOT MY REVIEW, MERELY MY NOTES FROM THE BOOK:
RECIPROCATION
People are wired to reciprocate. If you can get somebody to accept the tiniest gift they will be obliged to you.
• People know this and will sometimes work toward avoiding uninvited debts.
• But once your gift is accepted, you’re in: you can trigger “unfair exchanges.” People do not want to fail the reciprocity rule, they don’t want to be mooches
• Small gifts work well, because they are difficult to turn down. Your mark is too embarrassed not to accept (we’re also wired to not offend somebody who’s offering a gift) so then you’re set. A free can of Coke at a time when a drink would be natural is quoted as something you can lever well.
• Free samples are even better: your mark 1. gets to experience the product 2. owes you
Reciprocal concessions take reciprocation to the next level. Basically, ask for something big. If you get turned down, which is a concession on your part, you are in a position to ask for something smaller. Example: “if you can’t buy tickets to our ball, would you perhaps consider buying some cookies?”
Here you are not only triggering reciprocation. You are also invoking the contrast principle.
Apparently this was the technique the scriptwriters for Happy Days used to get the word “virgin” into the show. They’d stick it in the script 50 times and the reviewer would allow it in once, at the place the scriptwriters wanted it all along.
Oh, and that headhunter who asked you if you cared for a job at some crappy competitor? The only thing he wanted all along was your deskmates’ names you gave him toward the end of the call, after you told him you are happy at your job. Yup, that was a kick in the stomach.
It gets worse: suppose you start with the high demand. And suppose you meet your mark in the middle (i.e. where you always wanted to end up.) You get two benefits for free:
(i) He now “owns” the deal. He earned it and he’s responsible for it. Not you
(ii) He gets the satisfaction of having beaten you down. He feels good about the deal and maybe even you.
So if you work at a department store and a customer’s walking in, you now know why your boss wants you to start with the 3k suit before you move on to the shirts, ties and sweaters.
CONSISTENCY – COMMITMENT
We all like to think we are consistent. When Faraday was asked if some competing scientist was always wrong, he allegedly quipped back that no, he wasn’t that consistent. That’s something for the salesman to latch onto!
Consistency is also a great “System 1” shortcut. It acts as
(i) A shield against thought (“If there’s liver on the menu, I’m set”)
(ii) A way to tie yourself to the mast (which explains why news reinforces our beliefs regardless)
Two AWESOME stories here: first, one from the author’s visit to transcendental meditation workshop, where his fellow professor’s piercing questions actually got others to immediately sign up, in case they go home and think about it and change their mind and second, one from the toy store. It turns out that the toys advertised most heavily on TV ahead of Christmas don’t become available till January. You promise them to your kids, you don’t find them, you buy other toys to stick under the tree and then, to show your kids that good people keep promises you go to the store and buy the advertised toys as soon as they become available. “But, daddy, you promised:” you’re checkmated! The advertiser pushed your consistency button there!
It gets even when we move on to the practices of the Chinese toward their POWs during the Korean War. They would offer you tiny little concessions (a cigarette or something) if you would as much as state that not everything was perfect in America. Another tiny gift if you were happy to write that down. Recognition was given if you’d participate in essay competitions regarding the politics of the times, with care taken to often reward essays that, while critical of communism or of China, also cared to take a less absolute view of the world.
The key here is that when you write something down that moves from your initial position, you own it. It’s yours. And if you write something a bit further away from your original position, you own that too. If you read your essay in front of other POWs or if it’s broadcast, you own that too.
The prizes must be small. You cannot be able to tell yourself you were coerced.
And then, of course, if you have any self-esteem you will defend what you said, you’ll stay consistent with it. So that was the Chinese way to slowly sway you: small, incremental steps to change your self-perception.
The “Magic Act” was the commitment in writing. The second step was you telling your story in front of the public eye.
Fraternity hazing, like waiting in line to get tickets to a show, works the same way: once you’ve been subjected to it, you own the experience, you feel it did you good and you appreciate what comes next more. Colleges across America have gone to great lengths to ban it, but upperclassmen will not have it any other way. The suffering they went through (that the author convincingly compares with the rituals of African tribesmen) is inseparable from what makes them love their fraternity. It was the very act of commitment. Oh, and exactly for the same reason the Chinese gave small prizes, you cannot send your pledges to clean out toilets at the local hospital. It cannot be something they did for the common good. Hazing has GOT to be pointless, they need to have suffered it for their own sake.
Car salesmen take this “ownership” concept even further: they’ll low-ball you on a car. You know your market, so you jump on the deal. By the time “a mistake” is discovered in the price that lines it up with all the other prices you saw, you “own” the deal you struck, and besides it’s no worse than the competition. The trick is you’re now sold on the deal, when you came it to look at the actual car. You end up getting a fair deal, perhaps, but not necessarily on the car you would have bought if you did not feel the need to be consistent.
The biggest idea here is left for last: commitment generates its own support. The car you dealt on, you find reasons you actually like it after you’re set on the deal. Once you’re a customer, you find your own reasons why you like the product, basically. The original prop may fall, but the table will have grown its own legs! This extends all the way to more important parts of your life, the author says: once you’re committed to your life partner, you have the rest of your life to find out what it is that attracted you to her…
SOCIAL PROOF
We are sheep. We want to know what others are doing, especially if we’re not sure what we’re doing. That’s how come canned laughter is effective in televised comedy, that’s how come the barista at Starbucks will “salt” the tip jar with dollar notes and that’s how come it’s effective advertising to say that the Ford Focus is the “fastest selling” car in the world and that’s why a club will maintain a long line outside the door even if it’s not full inside: to signal to us sheep to imitate others.
We mainly take our cues from people we consider to be our peers: toddlers who become less diffident if they’ve seen videos of other outgoing children; the author’s son who refused to swim was found safe and sound in the neighbors’ pool, swimming alongside the similarly-aged son of the neighbors; Jim Jones’ disciples drank the cool-aid after a mom, one of them, served some to her infant and had some herself; conversely, Catherine Genovese was famously left to die (a well-publicized incident from 19640 probably because the first couple people to walk by her did not notice her: those who walked by next took notice of how the first passers-by did not help and took their cue from them!
(The book also goes into a crazy wormhole that’s nothing to do with sales but is interesting nonetheless: the higher incidence of lethal accidents after vs. before highly publicized accidents –showing imitation—the manner the age of post suicide accident victims clusters around the age of the person involved in a heavily publicized suicide etc. etc. Useful for a minister of propaganda, perhaps, but of no use to a salesman, I would think)
LIKING
If they like you, you will sell. To be liked, it helps to:
• Look good
• Be similar to whoever you’re selling to
• Pay compliments
• Maintain contact
• Be associated with good news
• Be associated with success
• Be introduced by somebody who is liked (and borrow from their good standing)
There are techniques to being liked. For example, cops use the “good cop – bad cop” technique to extract confessions –to the good cop.
AUTHORITY
Authority sells. People will follow an expert.
The famous Stanley Milgram experiment is mentioned from the sixties, where otherwise perfectly normal people would invariably carry on administering electric shocks to screaming actors, because an expert was telling them to do so.
Also the example of actors who play doctors on television and go on to advertise products that normally an expert would be expected to sell, rather than somebody who merely acts in the role of an expert. The point is made that purchase decisions are made by the subconscious, which is happy to take 100% illogical shortcuts.
Clothes are important too. That’s why you need to dress the part.
SCARCITY
If something is running out, first we’ll take it and then we’ll think. It’s a trick used to sell speakers out of the back of a van, the latest hot savings product etc. That’s because it presses two big buttons:
• It’s a “shortcut,” in that if something’s running out, it must be good
• Straight out of prospect theory, it’s something you have now, but stand to lose, thereby triggering regret
The author goes on to discuss Romeo and Juliet and how he feels silly whenever he makes a negative comment about his children’s consorts. The reaction of the buying public whenever there is a gun-related massacre would fit right in here too, though the vintage of the book restricts us to a less poignant incident from Kennesaw, GA.
From there, the author goes on to discuss how revolutions often happen after swathes of a population experience enhanced status that gets taken away, how Barry Diller once overpaid for some deal and how his brother books appointments to see cars he sells all at the same time…
But if hustle you must, it takes you through a number of techniques that may not 100% survive the transition from door-to-door double-glazing sales techniques to online marketing, but regardless merit your attention.
Given that my startup finally has a product to sell, I thought “what the heck” (to quote from a 1983 movie) and made “Influence” my companion in the tube for a week. And I found out about
• Reciprocation
• Consistency
• Social Proof
• Liking
• Authority, and
• Scarcity
The idea here is that we humans are bombarded by information and rely heavily on what Daniel Kahneman has called (thirty years later) our “System 1” to navigate the planet: our prejudice, intuition and rules of thumb. To trick your mark’s intuition, you need to find the weak entry points into his subconscious, and the six chapters deal with an entry point each.
Not all chapters are equally good and not all deal 100% with influence per se, but my reading time was not wasted. And as a bonus, I now know the source of some of the most persistent circulars to appear on the early Internet, such as the letter (p. 15) from the daughter who failed chemistry, all the way to Frank Zappa deadpanning back to a rude interviewer (who called him a girl for having long hair) that his wooden leg made him a chair (p. 274).
APPENDIX ---- THIS IS NOT MY REVIEW, MERELY MY NOTES FROM THE BOOK:
RECIPROCATION
People are wired to reciprocate. If you can get somebody to accept the tiniest gift they will be obliged to you.
• People know this and will sometimes work toward avoiding uninvited debts.
• But once your gift is accepted, you’re in: you can trigger “unfair exchanges.” People do not want to fail the reciprocity rule, they don’t want to be mooches
• Small gifts work well, because they are difficult to turn down. Your mark is too embarrassed not to accept (we’re also wired to not offend somebody who’s offering a gift) so then you’re set. A free can of Coke at a time when a drink would be natural is quoted as something you can lever well.
• Free samples are even better: your mark 1. gets to experience the product 2. owes you
Reciprocal concessions take reciprocation to the next level. Basically, ask for something big. If you get turned down, which is a concession on your part, you are in a position to ask for something smaller. Example: “if you can’t buy tickets to our ball, would you perhaps consider buying some cookies?”
Here you are not only triggering reciprocation. You are also invoking the contrast principle.
Apparently this was the technique the scriptwriters for Happy Days used to get the word “virgin” into the show. They’d stick it in the script 50 times and the reviewer would allow it in once, at the place the scriptwriters wanted it all along.
Oh, and that headhunter who asked you if you cared for a job at some crappy competitor? The only thing he wanted all along was your deskmates’ names you gave him toward the end of the call, after you told him you are happy at your job. Yup, that was a kick in the stomach.
It gets worse: suppose you start with the high demand. And suppose you meet your mark in the middle (i.e. where you always wanted to end up.) You get two benefits for free:
(i) He now “owns” the deal. He earned it and he’s responsible for it. Not you
(ii) He gets the satisfaction of having beaten you down. He feels good about the deal and maybe even you.
So if you work at a department store and a customer’s walking in, you now know why your boss wants you to start with the 3k suit before you move on to the shirts, ties and sweaters.
CONSISTENCY – COMMITMENT
We all like to think we are consistent. When Faraday was asked if some competing scientist was always wrong, he allegedly quipped back that no, he wasn’t that consistent. That’s something for the salesman to latch onto!
Consistency is also a great “System 1” shortcut. It acts as
(i) A shield against thought (“If there’s liver on the menu, I’m set”)
(ii) A way to tie yourself to the mast (which explains why news reinforces our beliefs regardless)
Two AWESOME stories here: first, one from the author’s visit to transcendental meditation workshop, where his fellow professor’s piercing questions actually got others to immediately sign up, in case they go home and think about it and change their mind and second, one from the toy store. It turns out that the toys advertised most heavily on TV ahead of Christmas don’t become available till January. You promise them to your kids, you don’t find them, you buy other toys to stick under the tree and then, to show your kids that good people keep promises you go to the store and buy the advertised toys as soon as they become available. “But, daddy, you promised:” you’re checkmated! The advertiser pushed your consistency button there!
It gets even when we move on to the practices of the Chinese toward their POWs during the Korean War. They would offer you tiny little concessions (a cigarette or something) if you would as much as state that not everything was perfect in America. Another tiny gift if you were happy to write that down. Recognition was given if you’d participate in essay competitions regarding the politics of the times, with care taken to often reward essays that, while critical of communism or of China, also cared to take a less absolute view of the world.
The key here is that when you write something down that moves from your initial position, you own it. It’s yours. And if you write something a bit further away from your original position, you own that too. If you read your essay in front of other POWs or if it’s broadcast, you own that too.
The prizes must be small. You cannot be able to tell yourself you were coerced.
And then, of course, if you have any self-esteem you will defend what you said, you’ll stay consistent with it. So that was the Chinese way to slowly sway you: small, incremental steps to change your self-perception.
The “Magic Act” was the commitment in writing. The second step was you telling your story in front of the public eye.
Fraternity hazing, like waiting in line to get tickets to a show, works the same way: once you’ve been subjected to it, you own the experience, you feel it did you good and you appreciate what comes next more. Colleges across America have gone to great lengths to ban it, but upperclassmen will not have it any other way. The suffering they went through (that the author convincingly compares with the rituals of African tribesmen) is inseparable from what makes them love their fraternity. It was the very act of commitment. Oh, and exactly for the same reason the Chinese gave small prizes, you cannot send your pledges to clean out toilets at the local hospital. It cannot be something they did for the common good. Hazing has GOT to be pointless, they need to have suffered it for their own sake.
Car salesmen take this “ownership” concept even further: they’ll low-ball you on a car. You know your market, so you jump on the deal. By the time “a mistake” is discovered in the price that lines it up with all the other prices you saw, you “own” the deal you struck, and besides it’s no worse than the competition. The trick is you’re now sold on the deal, when you came it to look at the actual car. You end up getting a fair deal, perhaps, but not necessarily on the car you would have bought if you did not feel the need to be consistent.
The biggest idea here is left for last: commitment generates its own support. The car you dealt on, you find reasons you actually like it after you’re set on the deal. Once you’re a customer, you find your own reasons why you like the product, basically. The original prop may fall, but the table will have grown its own legs! This extends all the way to more important parts of your life, the author says: once you’re committed to your life partner, you have the rest of your life to find out what it is that attracted you to her…
SOCIAL PROOF
We are sheep. We want to know what others are doing, especially if we’re not sure what we’re doing. That’s how come canned laughter is effective in televised comedy, that’s how come the barista at Starbucks will “salt” the tip jar with dollar notes and that’s how come it’s effective advertising to say that the Ford Focus is the “fastest selling” car in the world and that’s why a club will maintain a long line outside the door even if it’s not full inside: to signal to us sheep to imitate others.
We mainly take our cues from people we consider to be our peers: toddlers who become less diffident if they’ve seen videos of other outgoing children; the author’s son who refused to swim was found safe and sound in the neighbors’ pool, swimming alongside the similarly-aged son of the neighbors; Jim Jones’ disciples drank the cool-aid after a mom, one of them, served some to her infant and had some herself; conversely, Catherine Genovese was famously left to die (a well-publicized incident from 19640 probably because the first couple people to walk by her did not notice her: those who walked by next took notice of how the first passers-by did not help and took their cue from them!
(The book also goes into a crazy wormhole that’s nothing to do with sales but is interesting nonetheless: the higher incidence of lethal accidents after vs. before highly publicized accidents –showing imitation—the manner the age of post suicide accident victims clusters around the age of the person involved in a heavily publicized suicide etc. etc. Useful for a minister of propaganda, perhaps, but of no use to a salesman, I would think)
LIKING
If they like you, you will sell. To be liked, it helps to:
• Look good
• Be similar to whoever you’re selling to
• Pay compliments
• Maintain contact
• Be associated with good news
• Be associated with success
• Be introduced by somebody who is liked (and borrow from their good standing)
There are techniques to being liked. For example, cops use the “good cop – bad cop” technique to extract confessions –to the good cop.
AUTHORITY
Authority sells. People will follow an expert.
The famous Stanley Milgram experiment is mentioned from the sixties, where otherwise perfectly normal people would invariably carry on administering electric shocks to screaming actors, because an expert was telling them to do so.
Also the example of actors who play doctors on television and go on to advertise products that normally an expert would be expected to sell, rather than somebody who merely acts in the role of an expert. The point is made that purchase decisions are made by the subconscious, which is happy to take 100% illogical shortcuts.
Clothes are important too. That’s why you need to dress the part.
SCARCITY
If something is running out, first we’ll take it and then we’ll think. It’s a trick used to sell speakers out of the back of a van, the latest hot savings product etc. That’s because it presses two big buttons:
• It’s a “shortcut,” in that if something’s running out, it must be good
• Straight out of prospect theory, it’s something you have now, but stand to lose, thereby triggering regret
The author goes on to discuss Romeo and Juliet and how he feels silly whenever he makes a negative comment about his children’s consorts. The reaction of the buying public whenever there is a gun-related massacre would fit right in here too, though the vintage of the book restricts us to a less poignant incident from Kennesaw, GA.
From there, the author goes on to discuss how revolutions often happen after swathes of a population experience enhanced status that gets taken away, how Barry Diller once overpaid for some deal and how his brother books appointments to see cars he sells all at the same time…
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Viriya Taecharungroj
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great book but has some detestable remarks
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 25 May 2009Verified Purchase
"Click and the appropriate tape is activated; whirr and out rolls the standard sequence of behaviors."
"Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert Cialdini is a book about psychology and how people react to the weapons of influence. The book has been published numerous times and the first edition dated back to 1984. The good point is that, despite dramatic changes in lifestyle and technology, human psychology does not change much. We are still the social animals and the weapons of influence is as effective to us as ever, if not even more. The book is arguably one of the best selling psychology books ever (although we can classify it as a business or self-improvement book).
Contents
(Actually, to explore the contents, you can easily google "Influence, Cialdini" and there will be a lot to read. So, I'll keep it very brief.)
Intro: Weapons of Influence
1. Reciprocation: The Old Give and Take ... and Take
The rule of reciprocation is that when you give someone something, it is almost obligatory that the person who took it has to return the favour. This rule is very effective that you feel you need to give back even though you are not satisfied with the whole situation.
2. Commitment and Consistency: Hobgoblins of the Mind
This is the shortcut of human beings. We tend to do what we set our mind to without thinking much. It reduces time spent but sometimes consistency without careful consideration can be disastrous.
3. Social Proof: Truth Are Us
When you are thinking and doing one thing, it might be true or false. When too many people are thinking and doing that thing, our human mind tend to believe that it is true just because so many people do and believe in it. It might sound insignificant and Cialdini told us stories that the rule of "Social Proof" can lead to tragic deaths.
4. Liking: The Friendly Thief
It is not as simple as that you will do something if you like it. The author wrote different perspectives of liking such as that salesperson often pretend to be similar to us in one way or another to trigger the sense of association and similarity that can deceive our judgment or sexy ladies in the ad can stimulate the "liking" and alters your perception towards the product.
5. Authority: Directed Deference
We are born to obey authority from parents, teachers, etc. When we are adult, this same trait is still with us and we tend to obey and rely on people who we believe have higher authority. Authority comes in different forms such as titles, or even clothes.
6. Scarcity: The Rule of the Few
People always perceive that less is more valuable. Not having something is more tolerable than losing something. We always fear losing things or desire rarer things that sometimes it clouds our judgment.
...
I would like to compare this book to an ideal business book; the book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience.
Ease of Understanding: 8/10: The book is structured nicely into 6 weapons of influence and each of them are explained sufficiently with many interesting researches. Those researches are not filled with complex statistics but common senses in everyday situations like a choice of cookie, car salesperson, poster ads, etc.
Distinction: 9/10: It is a matter of then and now. At the time the book was first published I doubt that there were many book that explored into our mind on how we make decisions. The findings are eye-opening in how they explain the reasons why we do what we do. Currently, there are many similar books on this topic but it is likely that "Influence" has influenced most, if not all, of them.
Practicality: 7/10: This book offers solid guidelines on how these methods work and how to avoid them. However, implementation is a different story because in many situations, there will not be enough time for you to implement it perfectly unless you are a natural born influencer. Nevertheless, this book is very useful if you have time to think and make decision.
Credibility: 7/10: Each method is supported by many researches; they are very credible. Moreover, those methods are pretty much common senses and self-explanatory but most of the time, we are not even aware of them because they are built-in our behaviours and they are often triggered subconsciously and involuntarily. The points are taken because some researches might still be just coincidence because despite having many researches, some are not deep enough.
Insightful: 9/10: This book is a great compilation of psychological researches about persuasion. There are more than 200 references in the bibliography section in a 280 pages book. Some of them might be shallow but that number of researches is intriguing and you will learn a lot from the book.
Reading Experience: 2/10: I have been objective throughout my review, I need a place to be subjective and sentimental. You can ignore this completely but I do not like this book at all. Some remarks of the author has "influenced" me totally negatively. I will give you some examples.
Regarding the mass suicide in a jungle settlement in Guyana, South America led by the Reverend Jim Jones under the name of The People's Temple. Approximately 910 died in the incident; people took strawberry flavored poison. The author suggested that due to the rule of "Social Proof", when people are uncertain of the situation, they follow others and all of them died in orderliness. "When viewed in this light, the terrible orderliness, the lack of panic, the sense of calm with which these people moved to the vat of poison and to their deaths, seems more comprehensible."
On the other hand, when the author explained people who are sport fans who refer to the team they support "we" when the team win. For example, when the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series, 11 million people - in a city of 1.5 million - crowded the streets to shout "We're Number 1" as their heroes passed in a victory parade. And when the team lost, the sport fans rather refer to the team as "they". Cialdini wrote
"Unless I miss my guess, they are not merely great sports aficionados; they are individuals with a hidden personality flaw - a poor self-concept. Deep inside is a sense of low personal worth that directs them to seek prestige not from the generation or promotion of their own attainments, but from the generation or promotion of their associations with others of attainment."
It continues "No matter which form it takes, the behavior of such individuals shares similar theme - the rather tragic view of accomplishment as deriving from outside the self."
In the later chapter, there is an analogy of a shopper and fish; I find it very insulting to many people. It's about shopping. He explained that commercial fishermen use loose bait to attract a large schools of certain fish. When water is full of fish snapping mouths competing for the food. Fishermen drop unbaited lines and catch fish because it crazed food and will bite at anything, including bare metal hooks. He stated that a "Bargain Sale" sign is a loose bait and you, shoppers, are craving fish.
"If the bait, of either form, has done its job, a large and eager crowd forms to snap it up. Soon, in the rush to score, the group becomes agitated, nearly blinded, by the adversarial nature of the situation. Human and fish alike lose perspective on what they want and begin striking at whatever is contested."
Hence, while I felt terribly sorry for those in the mass suicide, we can imply that Cialdini sees them as psychologically normal but under a bad circumstance. While passionate sport fans (a majority of men) have poor self-concept and a rather tragic view of accomplishment. And girls fighting for clothes on sale (most female, obviously) are nearly blind food craving fish. Next time when you are going to support your sport team, take a look at a mirror and tell yourself how great you are instead. And ladies, alway buy full price.
Overall: 7.0/10: Despite the fact that I detest some remarks and the general know-it-all egotistical attitude of the author, this is an excellent book. It will teach you how to beware of the influence from everywhere in every social setting. The six methods are very clear and the number of researches are remarkable if you decide to use them or to prevent them from influencing you. Unfortunately, the author has totally influenced my negatively but when thinking of it sensibly, I still recommend everyone to read the book.
"Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert Cialdini is a book about psychology and how people react to the weapons of influence. The book has been published numerous times and the first edition dated back to 1984. The good point is that, despite dramatic changes in lifestyle and technology, human psychology does not change much. We are still the social animals and the weapons of influence is as effective to us as ever, if not even more. The book is arguably one of the best selling psychology books ever (although we can classify it as a business or self-improvement book).
Contents
(Actually, to explore the contents, you can easily google "Influence, Cialdini" and there will be a lot to read. So, I'll keep it very brief.)
Intro: Weapons of Influence
1. Reciprocation: The Old Give and Take ... and Take
The rule of reciprocation is that when you give someone something, it is almost obligatory that the person who took it has to return the favour. This rule is very effective that you feel you need to give back even though you are not satisfied with the whole situation.
2. Commitment and Consistency: Hobgoblins of the Mind
This is the shortcut of human beings. We tend to do what we set our mind to without thinking much. It reduces time spent but sometimes consistency without careful consideration can be disastrous.
3. Social Proof: Truth Are Us
When you are thinking and doing one thing, it might be true or false. When too many people are thinking and doing that thing, our human mind tend to believe that it is true just because so many people do and believe in it. It might sound insignificant and Cialdini told us stories that the rule of "Social Proof" can lead to tragic deaths.
4. Liking: The Friendly Thief
It is not as simple as that you will do something if you like it. The author wrote different perspectives of liking such as that salesperson often pretend to be similar to us in one way or another to trigger the sense of association and similarity that can deceive our judgment or sexy ladies in the ad can stimulate the "liking" and alters your perception towards the product.
5. Authority: Directed Deference
We are born to obey authority from parents, teachers, etc. When we are adult, this same trait is still with us and we tend to obey and rely on people who we believe have higher authority. Authority comes in different forms such as titles, or even clothes.
6. Scarcity: The Rule of the Few
People always perceive that less is more valuable. Not having something is more tolerable than losing something. We always fear losing things or desire rarer things that sometimes it clouds our judgment.
...
I would like to compare this book to an ideal business book; the book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience.
Ease of Understanding: 8/10: The book is structured nicely into 6 weapons of influence and each of them are explained sufficiently with many interesting researches. Those researches are not filled with complex statistics but common senses in everyday situations like a choice of cookie, car salesperson, poster ads, etc.
Distinction: 9/10: It is a matter of then and now. At the time the book was first published I doubt that there were many book that explored into our mind on how we make decisions. The findings are eye-opening in how they explain the reasons why we do what we do. Currently, there are many similar books on this topic but it is likely that "Influence" has influenced most, if not all, of them.
Practicality: 7/10: This book offers solid guidelines on how these methods work and how to avoid them. However, implementation is a different story because in many situations, there will not be enough time for you to implement it perfectly unless you are a natural born influencer. Nevertheless, this book is very useful if you have time to think and make decision.
Credibility: 7/10: Each method is supported by many researches; they are very credible. Moreover, those methods are pretty much common senses and self-explanatory but most of the time, we are not even aware of them because they are built-in our behaviours and they are often triggered subconsciously and involuntarily. The points are taken because some researches might still be just coincidence because despite having many researches, some are not deep enough.
Insightful: 9/10: This book is a great compilation of psychological researches about persuasion. There are more than 200 references in the bibliography section in a 280 pages book. Some of them might be shallow but that number of researches is intriguing and you will learn a lot from the book.
Reading Experience: 2/10: I have been objective throughout my review, I need a place to be subjective and sentimental. You can ignore this completely but I do not like this book at all. Some remarks of the author has "influenced" me totally negatively. I will give you some examples.
Regarding the mass suicide in a jungle settlement in Guyana, South America led by the Reverend Jim Jones under the name of The People's Temple. Approximately 910 died in the incident; people took strawberry flavored poison. The author suggested that due to the rule of "Social Proof", when people are uncertain of the situation, they follow others and all of them died in orderliness. "When viewed in this light, the terrible orderliness, the lack of panic, the sense of calm with which these people moved to the vat of poison and to their deaths, seems more comprehensible."
On the other hand, when the author explained people who are sport fans who refer to the team they support "we" when the team win. For example, when the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series, 11 million people - in a city of 1.5 million - crowded the streets to shout "We're Number 1" as their heroes passed in a victory parade. And when the team lost, the sport fans rather refer to the team as "they". Cialdini wrote
"Unless I miss my guess, they are not merely great sports aficionados; they are individuals with a hidden personality flaw - a poor self-concept. Deep inside is a sense of low personal worth that directs them to seek prestige not from the generation or promotion of their own attainments, but from the generation or promotion of their associations with others of attainment."
It continues "No matter which form it takes, the behavior of such individuals shares similar theme - the rather tragic view of accomplishment as deriving from outside the self."
In the later chapter, there is an analogy of a shopper and fish; I find it very insulting to many people. It's about shopping. He explained that commercial fishermen use loose bait to attract a large schools of certain fish. When water is full of fish snapping mouths competing for the food. Fishermen drop unbaited lines and catch fish because it crazed food and will bite at anything, including bare metal hooks. He stated that a "Bargain Sale" sign is a loose bait and you, shoppers, are craving fish.
"If the bait, of either form, has done its job, a large and eager crowd forms to snap it up. Soon, in the rush to score, the group becomes agitated, nearly blinded, by the adversarial nature of the situation. Human and fish alike lose perspective on what they want and begin striking at whatever is contested."
Hence, while I felt terribly sorry for those in the mass suicide, we can imply that Cialdini sees them as psychologically normal but under a bad circumstance. While passionate sport fans (a majority of men) have poor self-concept and a rather tragic view of accomplishment. And girls fighting for clothes on sale (most female, obviously) are nearly blind food craving fish. Next time when you are going to support your sport team, take a look at a mirror and tell yourself how great you are instead. And ladies, alway buy full price.
Overall: 7.0/10: Despite the fact that I detest some remarks and the general know-it-all egotistical attitude of the author, this is an excellent book. It will teach you how to beware of the influence from everywhere in every social setting. The six methods are very clear and the number of researches are remarkable if you decide to use them or to prevent them from influencing you. Unfortunately, the author has totally influenced my negatively but when thinking of it sensibly, I still recommend everyone to read the book.
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Latour07
5.0 out of 5 stars
Remarquable
Reviewed in France 🇫🇷 on 18 June 2011Verified Purchase
Recommandé par l'illusionniste Jacques Paget (
Le pouvoir de l'illusion : Les secrets de la persuasion, Les clés de votre réussite
), cet ouvrage fut à la hauteur de mes attentes.
Robert B. Cialdini est docteur en psychologie, professeur de psychologie et de marketing à l'Université de l'Etat d'Arizona, auteur de plusieurs ouvrages sur le thème de l'influence.
Pourquoi sommes-nous enclins à dire "oui". Cet ouvrage fruit de 35 années de recherche et d'expériences nous apprend quelques mécanismes fondamentaux, de manière claire, explicite, consciente, et nous donne pour chacun d'eux le moyen de dire "non", affirmant ainsi notre liberté.
- Premier thème : la réciprocité (reciprocation)
"Je reçois donc je donne". Utilisé par les manipulateurs (l'auteur illustre son exposé par plusieurs exemples dont celui du savoir-faire de la secte Krishna pour capter de l'argent dans le public) à leurs propres fins, ce principe est détourné. Ayant reçu je me sens en dette vis-à-vis du donateur. Le donateur peut en réalité ne m'avoir rien donné de réel, m'illusionner sur la qualité de son don, pour recevoir de ma part ce qu'il recherche. Il abusera du lien, fort, de dépendance qu'il a créé à dessein. Pire encore, la victime se sent soulagée, satisfaite d'avoir répondu à de telles exigences !
Comment dire non ? La technique la plus efficace consiste à accepter le don pour ce qu'il est fondamentalement, mais surtout pas pour ce qu'il représente. Si je reçois une faveur de quelqu'un, je me devrai, dans le futur, de le lui rendre; ce qui est conforme aux règles sociales. L'idée ici c'est que la réciprocité ne doit pas se traduire par une faveur reçue ne doit pas recevoir une faveur, mais qu'un piège (déguisé sous la faveur), lui, ne doit pas recevoir de faveur en retour.
- Deuxième thème : l'engagement et la cohérence ("commitment and consistency")
"Il est plus facile de résister au début qu'à la fin" Léonard de Vinci, cité par l'auteur.
Etude de cas des prisonniers américains lors de la guerre de Corée détenus par les Chinois. Autorisations données d'écrire à leurs parents à la condition de critiquer, à la marge, le système, ses défauts etc. Commençant par cela, puis appâtés par des récompenses modestes, les militaires prisonniers se trouvaient à la fin comme étant collaborateurs de la dénonciation de leur Nation, servant les intérêts de leurs ennemis. Ayant commencé une certaine action, il est non seulement difficile de s'en déprendre (cohérence avec soi), mais l'esprit humain va se créer des explications rationnelles a posteriori qui remplaceront celle qui initialement avait su nous engager.
"It appears that commitments are most effective in changing a person's self-image and future behavior when they are active, public, and effortful." (p.92)
Excellent schéma page 104. La publicité motive l'engagement comme pilier de sa décision. Ensuite viennent se créer d'autres piliers qui supportent la décision, puis le pilier de la publicité disparait; la décision finale est encore plus solidement ancrée et poursuivie.
Symptôme : quand votre estomac vous alerte. Attention. Il s'agit d'un organe sensible qui sent lorsqu'il y a manipulation d'une telle sorte. Dire non, c'est prendre conscience du piège dès le début, ce petit engagement que l'on vous réclame et qui ensuite en amène un autre bien plus important qu'il ne faut pas accepter en refusant le principe de cohérence avec le premier engagement donné.
- Troisième : Preuve sociale ("social proof")
"Since 95 percent of the people are imitators and only 5 percent initiators, people are persuaded more by the actions of others than by any proof we can offer." (p.118)
La conformité sociale est un puissant ressort de conditionnement dans toutes les situations d'incertitude. Illustration qui peut un jour nous servir tous. Commencement de gêne dans l'épaule gauche suivie d'un engourdissement, fatigue, le coeur. Vous vous asseyez, adossé à un mur, un arbre ... La parole vous vient de plus en plus difficilement et il vous faut appeler de l'aide. La foule passe, vous ignore. Parce qu'il y a la foule, que l'incertitude est partagée collectivement vous concernant, elle est renforcée dans son indécision et vous ignore alors que vous vous mourrez.
Solution : interpellez une personne. "Vous au costume bleu, venez à mon aide; appelez les secours, mon coeur ne va pas." Sortez l'individu de la foule.
L'auteur étudie également avec beaucoup de pertinence les suicides. Je pense aux suicides dans le monde du travail ( Suicide et travail : que faire ? ) mais l'auteur évoque à la fois ceux de certaines sectes, et aussi de ceux qui surviennent après un suicide par accident volontaire (avion notamment).
"First, we seem to assume that if a lot of people are doing the same thing, they must know something we don't. Especially when we are uncertain, we are willing to place an enormous amount of trust in the collective knowledge of the crowd. Second, quite frequently the crowd is mistaken because they are not acting on the basis of any superior information but are reacting themselves, to the principle of social proof." (p.163)
- Quatrième thème : "Liking" (Attirance)
"Research has shown that we automatically assign to good-looking individuals such favorable traits as talent, kindness, honesty, and intelligence. Furthermore, we make these judgments without being aware that physical attractiveness plays a role in the process." (p.174).
Aussi, ce thème exprime le désir de s'identifier au succès des autres (cf. l'identification à une équipe de sport avec les dérives positives - coupe du monde de football en 1998- mais aussi négative - ces derniers jours à Vancouver).
- Cinquième : L'autorité ("authority")
Thème bien connu : "l'habit ne fait pas le moine".
Etude de l'expérience de Milgram.
Etude également de fautes médicales produites du fait même de l'autorité. Expériences très instructives et parfois amusantes comme celle-ci. Un médecin demande à ce que l'infirmière mette des gouttes dans l'oreille droite d'un patient pour le soigner d'une otite. Il abrège "droite" : "Place in R ear" (mettez dans l'oreille droite). L'infirmière, lisant cette instruction, a mis des gouttes sur l'anus du patient. Elle avait lu "Place in rear".
Impressionnante perception : la même personne se faisant passer pour un étudiant, un assistant, un professeur devant des étudiants gagne en taille quelques centimètres en fonction de son supposé niveau hiérarchique.
- Sixième : la rareté ("scarcity")
Ce qui est rare est recherché (principe de toute collection, de timbres, de pièces de monnaie, de cannettes de bière etc.)
Cet ouvrage est remarquable.
Robert B. Cialdini est docteur en psychologie, professeur de psychologie et de marketing à l'Université de l'Etat d'Arizona, auteur de plusieurs ouvrages sur le thème de l'influence.
Pourquoi sommes-nous enclins à dire "oui". Cet ouvrage fruit de 35 années de recherche et d'expériences nous apprend quelques mécanismes fondamentaux, de manière claire, explicite, consciente, et nous donne pour chacun d'eux le moyen de dire "non", affirmant ainsi notre liberté.
- Premier thème : la réciprocité (reciprocation)
"Je reçois donc je donne". Utilisé par les manipulateurs (l'auteur illustre son exposé par plusieurs exemples dont celui du savoir-faire de la secte Krishna pour capter de l'argent dans le public) à leurs propres fins, ce principe est détourné. Ayant reçu je me sens en dette vis-à-vis du donateur. Le donateur peut en réalité ne m'avoir rien donné de réel, m'illusionner sur la qualité de son don, pour recevoir de ma part ce qu'il recherche. Il abusera du lien, fort, de dépendance qu'il a créé à dessein. Pire encore, la victime se sent soulagée, satisfaite d'avoir répondu à de telles exigences !
Comment dire non ? La technique la plus efficace consiste à accepter le don pour ce qu'il est fondamentalement, mais surtout pas pour ce qu'il représente. Si je reçois une faveur de quelqu'un, je me devrai, dans le futur, de le lui rendre; ce qui est conforme aux règles sociales. L'idée ici c'est que la réciprocité ne doit pas se traduire par une faveur reçue ne doit pas recevoir une faveur, mais qu'un piège (déguisé sous la faveur), lui, ne doit pas recevoir de faveur en retour.
- Deuxième thème : l'engagement et la cohérence ("commitment and consistency")
"Il est plus facile de résister au début qu'à la fin" Léonard de Vinci, cité par l'auteur.
Etude de cas des prisonniers américains lors de la guerre de Corée détenus par les Chinois. Autorisations données d'écrire à leurs parents à la condition de critiquer, à la marge, le système, ses défauts etc. Commençant par cela, puis appâtés par des récompenses modestes, les militaires prisonniers se trouvaient à la fin comme étant collaborateurs de la dénonciation de leur Nation, servant les intérêts de leurs ennemis. Ayant commencé une certaine action, il est non seulement difficile de s'en déprendre (cohérence avec soi), mais l'esprit humain va se créer des explications rationnelles a posteriori qui remplaceront celle qui initialement avait su nous engager.
"It appears that commitments are most effective in changing a person's self-image and future behavior when they are active, public, and effortful." (p.92)
Excellent schéma page 104. La publicité motive l'engagement comme pilier de sa décision. Ensuite viennent se créer d'autres piliers qui supportent la décision, puis le pilier de la publicité disparait; la décision finale est encore plus solidement ancrée et poursuivie.
Symptôme : quand votre estomac vous alerte. Attention. Il s'agit d'un organe sensible qui sent lorsqu'il y a manipulation d'une telle sorte. Dire non, c'est prendre conscience du piège dès le début, ce petit engagement que l'on vous réclame et qui ensuite en amène un autre bien plus important qu'il ne faut pas accepter en refusant le principe de cohérence avec le premier engagement donné.
- Troisième : Preuve sociale ("social proof")
"Since 95 percent of the people are imitators and only 5 percent initiators, people are persuaded more by the actions of others than by any proof we can offer." (p.118)
La conformité sociale est un puissant ressort de conditionnement dans toutes les situations d'incertitude. Illustration qui peut un jour nous servir tous. Commencement de gêne dans l'épaule gauche suivie d'un engourdissement, fatigue, le coeur. Vous vous asseyez, adossé à un mur, un arbre ... La parole vous vient de plus en plus difficilement et il vous faut appeler de l'aide. La foule passe, vous ignore. Parce qu'il y a la foule, que l'incertitude est partagée collectivement vous concernant, elle est renforcée dans son indécision et vous ignore alors que vous vous mourrez.
Solution : interpellez une personne. "Vous au costume bleu, venez à mon aide; appelez les secours, mon coeur ne va pas." Sortez l'individu de la foule.
L'auteur étudie également avec beaucoup de pertinence les suicides. Je pense aux suicides dans le monde du travail ( Suicide et travail : que faire ? ) mais l'auteur évoque à la fois ceux de certaines sectes, et aussi de ceux qui surviennent après un suicide par accident volontaire (avion notamment).
"First, we seem to assume that if a lot of people are doing the same thing, they must know something we don't. Especially when we are uncertain, we are willing to place an enormous amount of trust in the collective knowledge of the crowd. Second, quite frequently the crowd is mistaken because they are not acting on the basis of any superior information but are reacting themselves, to the principle of social proof." (p.163)
- Quatrième thème : "Liking" (Attirance)
"Research has shown that we automatically assign to good-looking individuals such favorable traits as talent, kindness, honesty, and intelligence. Furthermore, we make these judgments without being aware that physical attractiveness plays a role in the process." (p.174).
Aussi, ce thème exprime le désir de s'identifier au succès des autres (cf. l'identification à une équipe de sport avec les dérives positives - coupe du monde de football en 1998- mais aussi négative - ces derniers jours à Vancouver).
- Cinquième : L'autorité ("authority")
Thème bien connu : "l'habit ne fait pas le moine".
Etude de l'expérience de Milgram.
Etude également de fautes médicales produites du fait même de l'autorité. Expériences très instructives et parfois amusantes comme celle-ci. Un médecin demande à ce que l'infirmière mette des gouttes dans l'oreille droite d'un patient pour le soigner d'une otite. Il abrège "droite" : "Place in R ear" (mettez dans l'oreille droite). L'infirmière, lisant cette instruction, a mis des gouttes sur l'anus du patient. Elle avait lu "Place in rear".
Impressionnante perception : la même personne se faisant passer pour un étudiant, un assistant, un professeur devant des étudiants gagne en taille quelques centimètres en fonction de son supposé niveau hiérarchique.
- Sixième : la rareté ("scarcity")
Ce qui est rare est recherché (principe de toute collection, de timbres, de pièces de monnaie, de cannettes de bière etc.)
Cet ouvrage est remarquable.
Ken Flemming
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Book for Entry-level Psychology
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 9 March 2013Verified Purchase
I didn't even know what I was missing out on in Psychology until I read this book. I had taken a course in college that was not the most interested and I learned things like Pavlov's test with the dog and the bell and steak, where the dog's mouth would water when the bell was rang even if the dog were not presented with a steak. Those types of lessons were interesting but really didn't hit home with me as a person.
Robert Cialdini nails it with Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. It is such a useful book in daily life: whether you are a normal consumer who is trying to avoid the guilt of sales pitches or a business owner, who is trying to utilize the teachings to take your product to the next level. We are all being manipulated by psychology at every moment, whether we like it or not. I have recently discovered that all of my favorite entrepreneurs, such as Mark Zuckerberg, had majored (or minored) in Psychology in school. Psychology is something that makes us stronger and more complete people for understanding.
I will go through some sections of the book that I found particularly helpful:
-Salespeople who offer a gift before they give you their pitch have subconsciously commanded a returned gift from you because of the theory of reciprocity: gift given is extremely powerful and it always makes the other person feel obligated to give back, even if it is in a different form like signing a petition or buying a product that is presented. As a consumer, you don't want to feel bad for objecting the gift because know you know the power and tactic that they are trying to use on you and you understand that there are no feelings hurt. I turn down these types of offers with a smile on my face now because I'm no sucker.
-Social proof: we are all taking other people's advice without even know it. If you see a homeless person on the street who may have fainted, yet everyone around is walking and going about their day normally, you will think that the person laying on the street is fine. Obviously, someone would have called the cops or an ambulance if there were something wrong. This is the fallacy: because nobody has called since everyone thinks that everyone else already has called. This is a good tactic to know to report these types of problems, like someone screaming for help, for instance. It is also good if you are a victim, so that you can call out to a specific person and point to them and ask them to call a doctor or a police officer, etc. This will better your chances of survival if you are in a dire situation where there are many observers but nobody knows what to do. Also, we purchase items because other people have purchased them. If there is only one can of soup on the shelf at the store it must be good, since others have been buying it as opposed to the other brands. The same goes for tipping at a bar or restaurant's tip jar: more people will feel the need to tip if they are not the only one doing it. I have heard that even some bars put their own starter money in the jar to alleviate the feeling of the tipper being an outsider and will cause more people to tip.
-Attractive people are more likable and agreeable. They are even more likable, still, if they dress in the same style as yourself and match your tone of voice and body language. This is important to know because people will work with you more if they see a little of themselves in your, or if you are so attractable that it is welcoming to them.
-Scarcity is powerful in controlling something's desirability: we often feel more want for something just because of its limited availability and if it is selling out quickly. We feel that we won't have a chance to have it again: which is wrong, yet we let ourselves think this way anyway. Salespeople are notorious for making products seem less available than they really are, just to elicit the sense of urgency when buying. Many times, after a product is bought, the consumer doesn't even remember what made them want it so much in the first place. It is usually scarcity that is a big factor.
Whichever side of the spectrum you are on: provider or consumer, you will find yourself in situations that are made easier with the knowledge that is in this book. It is like knowing how to play chess instead of just letting others take advantage of you on the playing board. If you want to win in life, you will need to know your fair share of psychology. I would argue that this book is a few Psychology courses wrapped into one: because a psychology course will probably reference material from this book anyway and not make it as interesting or understandable. I gave this book to my girlfriend so that she wouldn't get taken advantage of (because women are often an easier target for salespeople). I have also referenced it more than once and wouldn't mind reading it over again. The theories definitely stick and it is one of the books you will remember most in your life.
-Ken Flemming
Author, How to Get a Job in Video Games
Robert Cialdini nails it with Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. It is such a useful book in daily life: whether you are a normal consumer who is trying to avoid the guilt of sales pitches or a business owner, who is trying to utilize the teachings to take your product to the next level. We are all being manipulated by psychology at every moment, whether we like it or not. I have recently discovered that all of my favorite entrepreneurs, such as Mark Zuckerberg, had majored (or minored) in Psychology in school. Psychology is something that makes us stronger and more complete people for understanding.
I will go through some sections of the book that I found particularly helpful:
-Salespeople who offer a gift before they give you their pitch have subconsciously commanded a returned gift from you because of the theory of reciprocity: gift given is extremely powerful and it always makes the other person feel obligated to give back, even if it is in a different form like signing a petition or buying a product that is presented. As a consumer, you don't want to feel bad for objecting the gift because know you know the power and tactic that they are trying to use on you and you understand that there are no feelings hurt. I turn down these types of offers with a smile on my face now because I'm no sucker.
-Social proof: we are all taking other people's advice without even know it. If you see a homeless person on the street who may have fainted, yet everyone around is walking and going about their day normally, you will think that the person laying on the street is fine. Obviously, someone would have called the cops or an ambulance if there were something wrong. This is the fallacy: because nobody has called since everyone thinks that everyone else already has called. This is a good tactic to know to report these types of problems, like someone screaming for help, for instance. It is also good if you are a victim, so that you can call out to a specific person and point to them and ask them to call a doctor or a police officer, etc. This will better your chances of survival if you are in a dire situation where there are many observers but nobody knows what to do. Also, we purchase items because other people have purchased them. If there is only one can of soup on the shelf at the store it must be good, since others have been buying it as opposed to the other brands. The same goes for tipping at a bar or restaurant's tip jar: more people will feel the need to tip if they are not the only one doing it. I have heard that even some bars put their own starter money in the jar to alleviate the feeling of the tipper being an outsider and will cause more people to tip.
-Attractive people are more likable and agreeable. They are even more likable, still, if they dress in the same style as yourself and match your tone of voice and body language. This is important to know because people will work with you more if they see a little of themselves in your, or if you are so attractable that it is welcoming to them.
-Scarcity is powerful in controlling something's desirability: we often feel more want for something just because of its limited availability and if it is selling out quickly. We feel that we won't have a chance to have it again: which is wrong, yet we let ourselves think this way anyway. Salespeople are notorious for making products seem less available than they really are, just to elicit the sense of urgency when buying. Many times, after a product is bought, the consumer doesn't even remember what made them want it so much in the first place. It is usually scarcity that is a big factor.
Whichever side of the spectrum you are on: provider or consumer, you will find yourself in situations that are made easier with the knowledge that is in this book. It is like knowing how to play chess instead of just letting others take advantage of you on the playing board. If you want to win in life, you will need to know your fair share of psychology. I would argue that this book is a few Psychology courses wrapped into one: because a psychology course will probably reference material from this book anyway and not make it as interesting or understandable. I gave this book to my girlfriend so that she wouldn't get taken advantage of (because women are often an easier target for salespeople). I have also referenced it more than once and wouldn't mind reading it over again. The theories definitely stick and it is one of the books you will remember most in your life.
-Ken Flemming
Author, How to Get a Job in Video Games
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