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Influence: Science and Practice (5th Edition) [Paperback]

Robert B. Cialdini
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (82 customer reviews)

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Book Description

August 8, 2008 0205609996 978-0205609994 5th

Influence: Science and Practice is an examination of the psychology of compliance (i.e. uncovering which factors cause a person to say “yes” to another's request).

 

Written in a narrative style combined with scholarly research, Cialdini combines evidence from experimental work with the techniques and strategies he gathered while working as a salesperson, fundraiser, advertiser, and in other positions inside organizations that commonly use compliance tactics to get us to say “yes.” Widely used in classes, as well as sold to people operating successfully in the business world, the eagerly awaited revision of Influence reminds the reader of the power of persuasion.

 

Cialdini organizes compliance techniques into six categories based on psychological principles that direct human behavior: reciprocation, consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity.


Frequently Bought Together

Influence: Science and Practice (5th Edition) + Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials) + Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
Price for all three: $45.34

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Here's what people are saying about the material in INFLUENCE: Science and Practice:


“This marvelous book explains in clear, practical language the ways in which we become persuaded. It offers excellent insights for those who sell, but even more importantly for all of us who negotiate and buy.” –ROGER FISHER, Director, Harvard Negotiation Project, Co-author of “Getting to Yes.”


“For marketers, it is among the most important books written in the last 10 years.” –JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH


“The best sales tip I ever got was encouragement to read INFLUENCE by Dr. Robert Cialdini. It was so profound and insightful, I read it three times in a row.” –GREG RENKER, President, Guthy-Renker


“It would be marvelous reading for students taking Social Psychology.” –DAVID MYERS, Hope College


“The book is tremendously entertaining and very popular with students. It makes excellent reading for a Consumer Behavior or Advertising class.” –ALAN J. RESNIK, Portland State University


“INFLUENCE should be required reading for all business majors.” –JOURNAL OF RETAILING


From the Back Cover

Over 1.5 million copies sold!

What factors cause someone to say yes? And which techniques most effectively use these factors to bring about such compliance? In his bestselling book, Robert Cialdini, former salesperson, fundraiser, and advertiser, and current professor of social psychology, examines the science and practice of persuasion and compliance. Praised for its enjoyable writing, practical suggestions, and scientifically documented content, prior editions have been widely read by business professionals, fundraisers, and those interested in psychology. The new edition includes:

•  twice as many first hand accounts of how the book’s principles apply to business and personal lives;

•  updated coverage of popular culture and new technology; and

•  more on how compliance principles work in many cultures.

 

Here’s what people are saying about INFLUENCE: Science and Practice:

“This marvelous book explains in clear, practical language the ways in which we become persuaded. It offers excellent insights for those who sell, but even more importantly for all of us who negotiate and buy.”

–ROGER FISHER, Director, Harvard Negotiation Project, Co-author, Getting to Yes

 

 “Bob Cialdini is the most brilliant student of influence and negotiation I’ve encountered. If everything were on the line in a negotiation, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have advising me.”

–TOM PETERS, The Tom Peters Group

 

“This book is the de facto standard to learn the psychology of persuasion. If you don’t read it, I hope you enjoy pounding your head against the wall and throwing away marketing dollars.”

–GUY KAWASAKI, CEO, Garage.com

 

“His book should be in every sales and marketing person’s briefcase and reread frequently.”

–R. CRIAG WILSON, Sr. Vice President, Sales Manager, Northern Trust

 

 

Robert B. Cialdini is a well known and influential speaker who gives frequent speeches on The Power of Ethical Influence to such organizations as IBM, the Mayo Clinic, and NATO. He is currently Regents’ Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University, where he has also been named Graduate Distinguished Research Professor. He is past president of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology. He attributes his longstanding interest in the intricacies of social influence to the fact that he was raised in an entirely Italian family, in a predominantly Polish neighborhood, in a historically German city (Milwaukee), in an otherwise rural state.

 


Product Details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Pearson; 5th edition (August 8, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0205609996
  • ISBN-13: 978-0205609994
  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ROBERT B. CIALDINI, Ph.D
Influence, Negotiation, Communication, Management, Leadership, Sales

Harvard Business Review lists Dr. Cialdini's research in
Breakthrough Ideas for Today's Business Agenda.

"Influence" has been listed on the New York Times Business Best Seller List.

Fortune Magazine lists Influence in their "75 Smartest Business Books."

Extensive scholarly training in the psychology of influence, together with over 30 years of research into the subject, has earned Dr. Cialdini an international reputation as an expert in the fields of persuasion, compliance, and negotiation.

His books including, Influence: Science & Practice, are the results of more than 30 years of study into the reasons why people comply with requests in business settings. Worldwide, Influence has sold over 2 million copies. Influence has been published in twenty-five languages. His most recent co-authored book, Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive, has been on the New York Times, USA Today & Wall Street Journal Best Seller Lists. Additionally, CEO Read lists Influence in their 100 Best Business Books of All Time.

In the field of influence and persuasion, Dr. Cialdini is the most cited living social psychologist in the world today.

Dr. Cialdini received his Ph.D from the University of North Carolina and post doctoral training from Columbia University. He has held Visiting Scholar Appointments at Ohio State University, the University of California, the Annenberg School of Communications, and the Graduate School of Business of Stanford University. Currently, Dr Cialdini holds dual appointments at Arizona State University. He is a W.P. Carey Distinguished Professor of Marketing and Regents' Professor of Psychology, where he has also been named Distinguished Graduate Research Professor.

Media coverage of Dr. Cialdini and his research include:

* Dateline NBC
* CNBC
* CNN
* ABC
* Washington Post
* New York Times
* On Wall Street
* Forbes Magazine

* Chicago Tribune
* USA Today
* London Times
* Scientific American
* Los Angeles Times
* Psychology Today
* Selling Power

* Sales and Marketing Magazine
* Leader to Leader Magazine
* The Atlantic Journal
* The Denver Post
* The New York Times
* Harvard Business Review
* Fortune Magazine



Dr. Cialdini is President of INFLUENCE AT WORK, an international consulting, strategic planning and training organization based on the Six Principles of Influence.

Dr. Cialdini's clients include such organizations as Google, Advanta, IBM, Washington Mutual Group of Funds, Coca Cola, KPMG, AstraZeneca, Ericsson, Kodak, Merrill Lynch, Nationwide Insurance, Pfizer, Northern Trust, Prudential, The Mayo Clinic, Glaxo Wellcome, Harvard University - Kennedy School, The Weather Channel, the United States Department of Justice, and NATO.

Customer Reviews

Both my husband and I greatly enjoyed reading the book. reading mama  |  22 reviewers made a similar statement
One of the best books that explains why people do things, and how to get them to do what you want. Count 2Zero  |  12 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
103 of 104 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book with ideas that anyone can benefit from. June 30, 2010
By Kevin
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This was a great book. I come from a technical background, and as most people know engineers are horrible at influencing others. But this book taught me a lot of simple ideas that are applicable in helping to motivate others to my point of view and also how to recognize when others are using these techniques and how to defend against them.

The book has 6 different concepts and it goes into the psychology of each (at a high level), some examples of it, and a few testimonials from readers. It was a quick read and held my attention throughout.

As a side note, in case you are comparing editions. The "Influence Science and Practice" seems to be the most recent version. The "Influence psychology of persuasion" book looks like the same book with an earlier copyright. Skimming through the chapters of both they look like the exact same text, so you probably don't need both.
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45 of 45 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly Influential, Powerful, and Useful! October 1, 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
"Influence" by Robert Cialdini is one of the most wonderful and influential books I've ever read! Other books have been written on the topic, but Cialdini's is the best and most influential of them all.

"Influence" deals with the study of persuasion, compliance, and change - a subject that has application for every area of life. Cialdini presents the latest research on influence in a compelling way, clearly stating the 6 principles of influence and providing wonderful illustrations of each principle from advertising, psychology and other fields. If we understood these 6 principles better, we would be less subject to manipulation from others (for example, the manipulation to buy things we don't need or to buy more than we need). We might, in turn, also be able to understand how to influence others for good.

The 6 principles of influence are:

1. The Rule of Reciprocation: "We should try to repay in kind what another person has provided us."

2. Commitment and Consistency: "Once we make a choice or take a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment."

3. Social Proof: "We determine what is correct by finding out what other people think is correct."

4. Liking: "We most prefer to say yes to the requests of people we know and like."

5. Authority - we have a deep-seated sense of duty to authority

6. Scarcity - something is more valuable when it is less available

I find that in my own life, these 6 principles are remarkably powerful and have the ability to explain a lot of the behavior I observe as a father, teacher, and priest. We would all benefit from memorizing and mastering these six principles. They are simple but extremely powerful. My daughter read this book when she was 14 or 15, and I had to wrestle with her to get it back because she loved it so much! I only hope she doesn't begin using the principles against me!

One of the best parts of the book is the wonderful examples of each principle that Cialdini provides. An experiment to demonstrate the principle of authority, conducted by Stanley Milgram, is the classic example. In this experiment, two volunteers show up to help with an experiment, purportedly to test the effect of punishment on learning and memory. A researcher in a lab coat with a clipboard explains the experiment to the volunteers and that one is to take the role of the Teacher, who will administer increasingly higher levels of electric shock to the other volunteer, the Learner. Every time the Learner got a question incorrect, the Teacher was to administer a higher level of shock. However, the real experiment was to test how willing the Teacher was to administer pain to the innocent Learner, who was not really another volunteer but an actor pretending to be in increasing stages of pain. The results shocked everyone, for Milgram discovered that about two-thirds of the subjects were willing to administer the highest level of electric shock. The reason? Their deep-seated duty to authority.

Influence is filled with many such fascinating and useful examples of how our lives are influenced by others. I highly recommend the book to all readers, for influence is something common to us all, for good or for evil.
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32 of 35 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Each edition sells July 5, 2009
Format:Paperback
Isn't it amazing how each new edition of this great book sells even better than the previous one? And it does so for for one reason, the information works.

"Influence" by Robert Cialdini teaches us the basics of how people are influenced. It breaks influence into six key factors:
1. Reciprocation
2. Consistency and Commitment
3. Social Proof
4. Authority
5. Liking (the person who is trying to influence us)
6. Scarcity

Each of the above points is detailed in a chapter. Academic studies and examples are given in a very engaging fashion. Some of the studies are for the birds. For example, mother turkeys, who are known to be caring parents (as far as birds go), tend to respond only to the "cheep-cheep" sound of their chicks.

Hearing the cheep-cheep, the mother turkey coddles and cares for the young turkey chick. It is a short-cut response that nature has given turkeys to know how to behave. It tends to work well in nature. But, tricky scientists recorded the cheep-cheep sound and placed the recording into a stuffed Polecat, the natural enemy of the turkey, and found that the mother turkeys adopted the stuffed polecat. Coddled it and cared for it.

That was quite amazing, as the usual response of a mother turkey to a stuffed Polecat without the cheep-cheep recording is an outright assault on the Polecat. This reflexive behavior tends to work most of the time, but sometimes is inappropriate. The mother turkey is responding in what Cialdini refers to as a "click, whir" method. Once some reactor sets off a signal (click), the mother turkey plays its own internal tape (whir) which signifies the appropriate response.

Only, sometimes, the response is not appropriate. And, some predators have learned the mimic strategy to trick their prey. Now, this may be useful if your goal is to be adopted by a turkey (or maybe its something that could protect you from a wild turkey attack!), you say, but how does this apply to me?

The answer is that people themselves have "click, whir" behavior. Because people wish to avoid the work of making decisions, they have internal tapes they run which tell them how to respond under various conditions. Most of the time our internal tapes are appropriate. But, sometimes, they are not. And some human predators have learned to exploit our "click, whir" behavior. Often, these predators come in the form of salespeople.

Cialdini discusses how to say "No" to each of these six influence factors by being aware of how influence works and reading your internal gut feeling.

This book is excellent reading for anyone who wants to learn how to influence others. Job hunters, managers, and marketers will benefit from reading this book. Although I do not suggest you try to use this knowledge in a devious way, knowing how to approach asking for a request is useful. Investors can benefit also.

For example, "social proof" states that we often look to others to determine what is correct behavior in a situation. We most look to others to deem what is correct in times of uncertainty. This can lead to "pluralistic ignorance." Everyone is assuming that the other guy knows what he is doing and we follow. Manias and gross overvaluation of publicly-traded stocks come to mind. And, this is why publishers of bestselling books are quick to point out "Over 1 million copies sold!" on their book covers. One million readers can't be wrong, can they?

In an attempt to avoid the hard work of thinking, we follow the herd off the cliff, blindly assuming where everyone else is going must be safe. As stated in "Influence" 95% of people are followers and only 5% of people are leaders.

Often, we are most likely to follow "experts." This is the authority factor above. We tend to believe and follow anyone who we assume is an expert. However, following experts can also lead to problems.

"Influence" points out that about 10% of medication administered by hospitals may be in error. This is a serious problem and can obviously lead to death.

Why is it that hospitals have such a problem with errors in medication? Despite the training and knowledge of R.N.'s, they tend to unquestioningly follow the instructions of the doctors. Even if the instructions don't make sense.

Cialdini tells the story of a man who complained of an earache. He had an ear infection and the doctor prescribed eardrops for him. On the prescription, the doctor wrote, "Place drops in R ear." As the doctor was in a hurry, he abbreviated "Right" with R.

Sure enough, the trained nurse obediently followed the instructions and placed the required number of drops in the patient's anus. Neither the patient nor the nurse questioned the instructions, as they came from an authority.

Cialdini's website InfluenceAtWork.com also has great information. I couldn't stop reading. I learned that the brain waves of most people engaged in difficult thinking mirrors the brain activity of having your hand thrust in ice-cold water.

Even if you never feel the need to be adopted by a mother turkey, maybe Cialdini's "Influence" will keep eardrops out of your anus, help keep you from buying things you later regret, and help you understand how influence works. I highly recommend this book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting way of presenting
The comic book format made this book an easy read and the information sinks in quicker. However, this is complex subject matter and a deep understanding of influence st work will... Read more
Published 14 days ago by Dan
5.0 out of 5 stars Very readable and applicable
This book is very interesting from start to finish. I plan to apply many of the principles I learned in this book to my job.
Published 29 days ago by Brad J. Rawlins
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Classroom Text
I am a college professor, who teaches an upper-level non-major course in Persuasion and Propaganda. I've used this book for 3 semesters now, and the students LOVE it and learn SO... Read more
Published 29 days ago by Sheila
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book
If you are in the sale business. Read this a dozen times. You will be much more successful. I was.
Published 1 month ago by Russell W. Fischer
2.0 out of 5 stars ugh...
I should have "read" the description a little better. My fault... It captures the concept of the "real" book in a comic format. Read more
Published 1 month ago by John T. Adams
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read
A lot of self development books are boring after the first few pages, but this book offers page after page of good advice using real life stories. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Liam A Boyle
3.0 out of 5 stars Not sure I'd want to finish reading the book
Same information that I've read about in other books.

Also, the topic drag on and on. I'd rather read a book that gets to the point. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Valerie Miller
4.0 out of 5 stars Tricks and trappings of the mind.
I found the book to be educational and enlightened. The rating I gave this book is four stars. I could not rate it higher, because I found the concept of mass suicide reporting to... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Michael Hubbard
5.0 out of 5 stars Influence for the realworld
Influence: Science and Practice has been awarded by the Ne York, acclaimed by Charlie Munger, Daniel Pink, RIchard Thaler and others. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Anthony McLean
4.0 out of 5 stars good book
I thought it was a good book but I'd recommend that one read it along with books like, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, (Stone & Hill) How to Get People to do Things,... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jack L. Tofari
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I Think you hit the nail on the head with your conclusion. Although they may give that kind of arrangement based on the fact that we like to choose and we usually compromise right in the middle.
Aug 13, 2012 by brn lm |  See all 3 posts
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