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Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition Paperback – December 26, 2006
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The widely adopted, now classic book on influence and persuasion—a major national and international bestseller with more than four million copies sold!
In this highly acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Dr. Robert B. Cialdini—the seminal expert in the field of influence and persuasion—explains the psychology of why people say yes and how to apply these principles ethically in business and everyday situations.
You’ll learn the six universal principles of influence and how to use them to become a skilled persuader—and, just as importantly, how to defend yourself against dishonest influence attempts:
- Reciprocation: The internal pull to repay what another person has provided us.
- Commitment and Consistency: Once we make a choice or take a stand, we work to behave consistently with that commitment in order to justify our decisions.
- Social Proof: When we are unsure, we look to similar others to provide us with the correct actions to take. And the more, people undertaking that action, the more we consider that action correct.
- Liking: The propensity to agree with people we like and, just as important, the propensity for others to agree with us, if we like them.
- Authority: We are more likely to say “yes” to others who are authorities, who carry greater knowledge, experience or expertise.
- Scarcity: We want more of what is less available or dwindling in availability.
Understanding and applying the six principles ethically is cost-free and deceptively easy. Backed by Dr. Cialdini’s 35 years of evidence-based, peer-reviewed scientific research—as well as by a three-year field study on what moves people to change behavior—Influence is a comprehensive guide to using these principles effectively to amplify your ability to change the behavior of others.
- Print length336 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarper Business
- Publication dateDecember 26, 2006
- Dimensions5.31 x 0.84 x 8 inches
- ISBN-10006124189X
- ISBN-13978-0061241895
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Robert Cialdini has done the impossible: he has improved a masterpiece. The new version of Influence is a marvelously rich and engaging account of the subtle power that people exert on each other.” — Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize laureate and author of Thinking, Fast and Slow and Noise
“If there is only one book you’ll ever read, if there is only one expert whose advice you’ll trust, it should be this book and this author, Robert Cialdini.” — Angela Duckworth, author of Grit and founder and CEO of Character Lab
“This is the most important book ever written about the science of persuasion, and it just keeps getting better. I can’t imagine a more fascinating, more practical read.” — Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and Originals and host of the TED podcast WorkLife
"Anyone who wants their abilities in communication or negotiation to be at their highest level has to read Robert Cialdini's book Influence. Your knowledge base is simply incomplete without it." — Chris Voss, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Never Split the Difference
“Influence is now even more practical and powerful. The new principle of unity alone is a game changer. Bravo!” — BJ Fogg, Ph.D., founder of Stanford’s Behavior Design Lab
“The clouds have parted for everyone who wants to dent the universe. A new edition of what is already indispensable just got more so.” — Guy Kawasaki, chief evangelist of Canva and creator of the Remarkable People podcast
"In this update of his classic book, the world's most practical social psychologist shares his wisdom and reveals his charm. There's dynamite here. Please use what you learn with care!" — Richard Thaler, Nobel Prize laureate and author of Nudge and Misbehaving
“If you could read just one book on how to be more effective in business and life, I’d pick Influence. It’s a tour de force that Cialdini has somehow made more marvelous.” — Katy Milkman, professor at the Wharton School, host of the Choiceology podcast, and author of How to Change
“A phenomenal book! Whether you seek to boost sales, strike a better deal, or improve your relationships, Influence offers scienti?cally tested principles that can change your life.” — Daniel L. Shapiro, Ph.D., founder and director of the Harvard International Negotiation Program and author of Negotiating the Nonnegotiable
“Influence richly deserves its status as the de?nitive book on the subject. I learned so much from this revised edition, and so will you.” — Tim Harford, author of The Data Detective (US)/How to Make the World Add Up (UK)
“Prepare to be dazzled. Bob Cialdini is the godfather of in?uence, and the original version of this book is already a classic. Whether you’re trying to in?uence or understand how others in?uence you, this book will show you how.” — Jonah Berger, professor at the Wharton School and author of Contagious and The Catalyst
“A remarkable effort and achievement. Influence remains the brilliantly written treatise on fundamental principles of human behavior, with the addition of a timely new principle.” — Jeffrey Pfeffer, Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and author of Power: Why Some People Have It—and Others Don’t
“Influence is a modern business classic that has profoundly shaped the ?elds of marketing and psychology. Robert Cialdini’s new edition makes a brilliant book even better, with robust new insights and examples.” — Dorie Clark, author of Reinventing You and executive education faculty, Duke University Fuqua School of Business
“The new Influence is nothing short of a masterpiece. The writing is both timeless and worth reading immediately.” — Joe Polish, founder of Genius Network
“Influence is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the decision-making process. It is simply essential reading in the canon of psychology and behavioral ?nance.” — Barry Ritholtz, chairman and chief investment of?cer of Ritholtz Wealth Management
“Cialdini has made a classic even better. This updated edition of Influence af?rms its place as one of the most important books on business and behavior of the last ?fty years. The new additions are terri?c.”
— Daniel H. Pink, author of When, Drive, and To Sell Is Human
"Influence is the only book I’ve assigned to my organizational behavior students at Stanford for the last twenty-?ve years. Students love it, and, years later, rave about how helpful it is has been throughout their careers. The new version is even more useful and nuanced— and even more fun to read." — Robert I. Sutton, professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and author of seven books, including New York Times bestsellers The No Asshole Rule and Good Boss, Bad Boss
“Like every psychologist I know (and like many thousands of others who are curious about how the world works), I got my start learning about persuasion with Bob Cialdini’s Influence. This revised edition builds so meaningfully on the worn ?rst edition sitting next to my desk—Influence will continue to clarify and inspire the art and science of persuasion for years to come.” — Betsy Levy Paluck, professor of psychology and public affairs, deputy director of the Kahneman-Treisman Center for Behavioral Science and Public Policy, Princeton University
"Robert Cialdini is a pioneer in translating complex scientific work into a fun and digestible form that the rest of us can understand and benefit from. In this updated version of Influence, Cialdini updates what was already a powerhouse book with the latest, cutting edge research and new narratives to masterfully draw the reader in. Influence was always a must read and, now, it is even more so." — Annie Duke, author of Thinking in Bets and How to Decide
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, PhD is an award-winning behavioral scientist and author. He is the president and CEO of Influence at Work, focusing on live and virtual keynotes, streaming and online corporate training.
In acknowledgement of his outstanding research achievements and contributions in behavioral science, Dr. Cialdini was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. He has over 230 professional and scientific publications. Robert Cialdini is Regents' Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University.
Dr. Cialdini is known as the foundational expert in the science of influence and how to apply it ethically in business and elsewhere, and his Principles of Persuasion have become the cornerstone for any organization serious about increasing their effectiveness in sales, leadership, marketing, management and communication. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author, with more than 5 million copies sold throughout the world. He is frequently referred to as the “Godfather 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
- Publisher : Harper Business; Revised edition (December 26, 2006)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 006124189X
- ISBN-13 : 978-0061241895
- Item Weight : 9.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.31 x 0.84 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #12,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #18 in Marketing & Consumer Behavior
- #366 in Success Self-Help
- #379 in Motivational Self-Help (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author

Dr. Robert Cialdini, thought leader in the field of Influence, has spent his entire career conducting, testing, analyzing, and publishing peer-reviewed scientific research on what causes people to say “Yes” to requests. The results of his research, his ensuing articles, and his New York Times bestselling books have earned him an acclaimed reputation as a respected scientist and engaging storyteller.
Robert Cialdini’s books, including his New York Times Bestselling Influence and Pre-Suasion, have sold more than seven-million copies in 44 different languages.
Dr. Cialdini is known globally as the foundational expert in the science of influence and how to apply it ethically in business. His Principles of Persuasion have become a cornerstone for any organization serious about effectively increasing their influence. As a keynote speaker, Dr. Cialdini has earned a world-wide reputation for his ability to translate the science through valuable and memorable stories. These on-stage stories are both dramatic and indelible leading to long-term applications. Because of all of this, he is frequently regarded as “The Godfather of Influence”.
Dr Cialdini is Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University. Dr. Cialdini received his PhD from University of North Carolina and post doctoral training from Columbia University. He holds honorary doctoral degrees (Doctor Honoris Causa) from Georgetown University, University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Wroclaw, Poland and University of Basil in Switzerland. 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.
Dr. Cialdini is known globally as the foundational expert in the science of influence and how to apply it ethically in business. His Principles of Persuasion have become a cornerstone for any organization serious about effectively and ethically increasing their influence.
In acknowledgement of his outstanding research achievements and important contributions to world knowledge , Dr. Cialdini has been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.
As a keynote speaker, Dr. Cialdini has earned a world-wide reputation for his ability to translate the science through valuable and memorable stories. These on-stage stories are both dramatic and indelible leading to long-term applications.
Because of all of this, Robert Cialdini is frequently regarded as “The Godfather of Influence”.
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# Why should the voting of a Jury member secret while the Jury is discussing a case?
# Why does a commitment made in public or by writing have such a powerful effect on the person who makes it?
# Why do we need to shout help and ask for specifics when we really need help?
# Why people commit more suicides after listening about suicides or disasters in the media?
# Which factors cause a person to like another person?
# Why do some people associate themselves so closely to their sport team that if their team is consistently losing they feel as losers as well?
# Which tricks do car sellers play to trick us to buy something right here right now?
# Why a TV commercial with a renowned actor playing a doctor selling pills has the same power as if he was a real doctor?
After studying all the tactics used by sales people, and the myriad techniques they use to manipulate, Cialdini came with six basic weapons of influence, each one governed by a psychological anchor or shortcut in human behaviour: 1/Consistency, 2/ reciprocation, 3/ social proof, 4/ authority, 5/ liking, and 6/ scarcity. Each of them is analysed in an individual chapter, where we are shown the psychological shortcut that produces automatic auto-pilot reactions that are used by manipulators, why these anchors sit comfortably in the human psyche from an Evolutionary Psychology and Sociology point of view, and in which precise ways they work, work better and can be enhanced or downplayed. Examples from many lab tests, natural psychology tests, scientific bibliography and Cialdini's own personal life are used to explain these mechanisms with simplicity.
Cialdini wants normal people, no matter we are a seller or not, to understand how our psyche works, because the trickster can be tricked and our psyche works using mechanisms that can be exploited and manipulated easily against us by anybody, for good and for evil. This is not a book on how to use or manipulate people and isn't directed to marketers or sellers specifically. A good part of Cialdini's work was done by infiltrating training programs from sales people and Cialdini mostly address the majority of people who don't use compliance techniques. However, he doesn't hold a grudge, nor want us to, against "compliance practioners" as he calls them (sales operators, fund-raisers, charities street workers, recruiters, advertisers, real-estate and travel agents, among others) are just people using the knowledge of our psyche without lying or masquerading anything. When they do, Cialdini advices war: "I he proper targets for counteraggression are only those individuals who falsify, counterfeit, or misrepresent the evidence that naturally cues our shortcut responses (...) The real treachery, and the thing we cannot tolerate, is any attempt to make their profit in a way that threatens the reliability of our shortcuts."
"Influence" is an useful book, not only to be learn and be aware of the tricks that compliance professionals play on us, but also of the ways people use them in our private lives to get something from us even if it is just approval, lack of a reprimand, or just sex. Most importantly the section "How to say no" in each chapter tell us, exactly, what to do or how to recognise the manipulators, the psychological anchors discussed in the chapter, and how to respond and react so our decision is o-u-r decision.
The book reads well, in simple English and is very entertaining and easy to understand.You will certainly get a few aha! moments as you can put into perspective what happened while booking a time with your hairdresser, your beauty salon, dealing with a charity worker that stops you in the street with a compliment, while a shop attendant shows you different stuff, dealing with a travel agent, dealing with your Real Estate agent, or while certain TV ads that do not make sense rationally but do make sense, totally, to your subconscious.
There are too many people including quotes in their books, but the ones Cialdini uses at the beginning of each chapter are spot on, as they summarise each chapter to perfection.
SOME CRITIQUE
>>> Cialdini is a bit reiterative at times, goes for pages unnecessarily, and although I loved most of the examples that Cialdini mentions, there are too many and he could have cut a few without the book losing interest or quality.
>>> Probably because the book was written in the 1980s, some stuff is really well-known nowadays and doesn't need of long explanations, or won't surprise anybody. I would say that people with a basic degree of education would not be saying what what what?! when reading about the bystander factor, the halo effect and the good cop-bad cop dynamics, or that our titles are something that can be used to trick people and that people who don't have them will attach to those to get a bit of the spark.
>>> The book has not aged well with regards to a few points:
1/ Some contextual facts that were common in the 80s are are no longer in use, or even legal in some parts of the world, like door-to-door sales. We live in the world of the Internet, online stores, publicity everywhere we look at, constant spam and marketing on networking sites, and the use of our private meta-data by corporations to sell us things or know what we want to buy. I would have loved seeing an analysis on how the shortcuts presented in this book have morphed to adjust to the needs of the online world and market, if some of these shortcuts are now more prominent than others, and if new shortcuts have been added to the six mentioned here.
2/ The bibliography used and referenced is still mostly from the 70s and 80s, with a few additions from the 90s. It would have been great adding a modern bibliography in a "further reading" sort of chapter when the book was revised.
3/ The use of some vocabulary is no longer OK. Referring to primitive cultures is no longer acceptable or accepted without discussion and calling animals infrahumans it is an anthropocentric adjective that doesn't connect with the reality of the environment and the planet we live in. I would call a shark or alligator a suprahuman!
4/ Some social practices have changed dramatically in the last decades, even though Cialdini thought that they would not as they have a function in the human psyche. Well, it seems no longer. For example the hell-week practices in Universities, which were in decline in my University before I entered mine and banned when I was in. They might be alive in the American Fraternity Societies, but there is something called Open University that works quite well, is everywhere and expanding, and people don't need to be part of a group or enter any building that often. The world is quite different nowadays more than people in the 80s would have imagined.
RENDERING FOR KINDLE
The book has a word index at the end, but it is not linked in the Kindle edition of the book. The author advises using the search tool to find them. Well, Kindle's search tool is not the most accurate sensitive sort of search tool. Kindle books should be sold cheaper if indexes or features that were in the hard-copies are not available in the electronic edition.
IN SHORT
This is a great reading overall, informative, entertaining and useful for our daily life, to notice things to stop us from buying something we don't want to buy right now or just not to act in a way that feels is not you but we are being pushed into and is not in our best interest. Entertaining and eye-opening this might be a bible for manipulators, but also a bible to counter-attack those who want to bend our will for their own benefit. We should learn about how influence works because automated stereotyped behaviour works better now than in the 80s, as the pace of modern life is faster and more stressful, and we have less time and energy to pause and think for a second to ask ourselves what we really want. This being the case, we can be manipulated more easily today than 30 years ago.
"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.
Top reviews from other countries
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…
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.
Recommended? YES. Buy it now if you haven’t read it.
Table of contents:
1 Weapons of Influence
2 Reciprocation: The Old Give and Take…and Take
3 Commitment and Consistency: Hobgoblins of the Mind
4 Social Proof: Truths Are Us
5 Liking: The Friendly Thief
6 Authority: Directed Deference
7 Scarcity: The Rule of the Few
Notes:
Below are my key takeaways and some interesting points, but I’m telling you. Buy it. Read it. Trust me.
* Expensive implies quality. Example: gems in a jewel case that weren’t selling were marked up and then sold at a “discount” to the markup (a price higher than the original price), and they sold like hotcakes.
* Power of contrast. Example: If you go into a men’s store they’ll try and sell you an expensive suit before the sell you the expensive jumper because the contrast makes the sweater appear more affordable.
* Reciprocity. Example: If someone buys you something (say, a Coke), you’re more likely to buy something from them (say, raffle tickets).
* Concession. Example: If someone tries to sell you something and you pass (say $5 of $1 raffle tickets), they’ll try and sell you something less, that you’ll end up buying because you feel bad (1 $1 raffle ticket). Another term used here is “reject then retreat.”
* Commitment leads to consistency leads to collaboration. Example: During the Korean war, the Chinese got American soldiers to make public commitments of various things. Then they made those commitments even more public, which the American soldiers had to stand by to be consistent. That consistency then led them down a path of minor forms of collaboration – without them really thinking about it as such.
* Writing something down, even privately, strengthens your commitment to something.
* People like and believe in commitment because their image and reputation are on the line (i.e. the Chinese concentration camp example above).
* People like more what they struggle to get, even if it’s not that good. Example: frats (hey, it’s in the book, don’t hate the messenger).
* People like to feel they have control over a decision – even if they really don’t.
* The power of social proof, or the idea that if others do it it’s good. Example: introverted pre-schoolers who saw introverted kids become social in a movie were more inclined to go play. Another example: cults. People follow the crowd because they believe in the “wisdom” of the crowd.
* Convince and you shall be convinced. Example: cults, where people who convince or convert others become more convinced (that’s why so many are evangelical).
* Assign responsibility if you want things done. Example: a stabbing that took place over many minutes had 38 witnesses…it happened cause everyone figured someone else would call the police.
* The power of copycats that’ll play on social proof. Example: if you find a wallet of someone like you and you’re more likely to return it (it’s true). Another (scary) example: more suicides when the press publicizes a suicide…more fatal “accidents” too.
* Liking is an important part of influence. Attractiveness, similarity (identity and context), compliments, contact & cooperation all can make someone more influential.
* The reason good cop/bad cop works is because the subject feels someone is on their side.
* Associations are powerful. Bearers of good news get treated well, and bad news get treated poorly. Examples: weathermen (or Roman messengers reporting lost battles!)
* People tend to defer to authority/experts. Examples: experiments involving shock therapy where people listened to a guy in a lab coat to inflict pain on another human being (incredible how strong this is).
* The power of connotations and context over content, and how it can imply authority. Titles and clothing do this.
* Gaining trust. Example: a waiter who advises against a more expensive item early in the meal will gain the trust of everyone at the table, and then he can suggest more expensive items and more items through the course of the meal.
* Scarcity is powerful. There’s a psychological reaction…people don’t want to lose their freedom and don’t want to lose. This plays to a second point: competition. Invite 3 used car buyers at the same time and you’ll sell the car faster. A cookie is more attractive if there are two of them than if there are 10 of them. (Always as yourself when something is scarce: will the cookie taste as good if there are 10 of them?). Plus, if you saw that the number went from 10 to 2, you want it even more. It can even lead to revolt…when something is given and then taken away, people get mad; if something is never given at all, they don’t know what they’re missing.
* “It appears that commitments are most effective in changing a person’s self-image and future behaviour when they are active, public, and effortful.”
* “The most influential leaders are those who know how to arrange group conditions to allow the principle of social proof to work maximally in their favour.”
* “Social proof is most powerful for those who feel unfamiliar or unsure of a specific situation and who, consequently, must look outside of themselves for evidence of how to best behave there.”
- Reciprocation
- Commitment and consistency
- Social Proof
- Likeability
- Authority
- Scarcity
Each principle is explained in detail and illustrated with real examples from both academic research as well as everyday life. Cialdini is very engaging and makes each chapter into a compelling story. A few of the examples may be well known to the reader, such as the famous shock experiment in the 60s into the effect of authority on compliance, but the author uses his examples perfectly, and it is his skill as a writer that makes the book so fascinating and the subject matter so vivid.
I particularly enjoyed the chapter on Commitment and Consistency, which was a real eye-opener, especially some of the research examples. You can't help thinking how on earth are people so easily swayed into making big commitments purely by agreeing to almost trivial commitments first? But now I'm aware of the principle I have noticed it myself first hand.
So why only four stars? My only niggle with the book is the author's somewhat negative or defensive stance on the subject. I bought the book hoping to learn how to be a better, more influential leader and manager, and in many respects the book met my expectations. But Cialdini's stance is very much that each principle of persuasion is a "weapon of influence" to be defended against by the unsuspecting victim. The epilogue certainly emphasises this view, and each chapter contains a section on how to recognise and defend against that compliance tactic.
I can certainly see why this might be useful. There are plenty of unscrupulous tricksters out there trying to dupe us one way or another, and it is definitely wise to be vigilant to their tactics. But in general I felt that these are the minority of cases and that Cialdini projects a slightly too negative tone at times. Instead I would have liked him to explain how the majority of leaders employ the principles of persuasion for good. That minor point aside, "Influence" is an excellent book and well worth reading.
The book is divided into five main chapters: "Reciprocation", "Commitment and Consistency", "Social Proof", "Liking", "Authority" and "Scarcity". Together they compose Cialdini's "weapon of influence." Each chapter is filed with a plethora of examples illustrating the breadth of these "weapons" in society. For example, in the chapter on scarcity, the reader will be given examples ranging from collectible dollar bills, misbehaving toddlers, personal firearms, rebellious juries, the Soviet Union, a $3.3 million dollar TV showing of the Poseidon's Adventure and more. At the end of each chapter, Cialdini teaches the reader to identify when each "weapon of influence" may be influencing our decision and how to react accordingly.
The book has an incredible breadth of examples spanning 50 years of psychological research and a tone which keeps the reader engaged and well informed, but the structure does break down at times. Chapter subsections are a little unclear and often times examples seem to overlap certain categories. Moreover, it's difficult to tell whether certain examples are still relevant today given that the research may have been conducted decades ago(It's disappointing to see no examples relating to the impact of the internet or social media.) However, for the most part, the reader will quickly recall personal experiences with certain "weapons" and even potentially even have used some unsuspectingly.
For the student of Economics, Cialdini's examples vividly demonstrate the immense impact factors can have on actors (which are presumed to behave rationally) and touches on topics currently being researched in both the field of collective choice and behavioral economics.













































