Rating: 
Summary: If you buy it, you have fallen victim of methods therein.
Review: The big title "Ph.D" beside his name follows the Authority method (chapter 6). The quoted comments are blantant use of the Social Proof method (chapter 4). If you buy other books of Dr. Cialdini, you fall victim to the Commitment and Consistency principle (chapter 3). But indeed, this book says very little that has not been said in Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People"
Rating: 
Summary: Your only hope is to read this book
Review: Cialdini presents in extremely convincing and readable form a series of ways persuasion professionals (such as salespeople and politicians) can take advantage of our unconscious mental shortcuts to make us compliant. Successful advertisers already know these tricks! Since those persuasion professionals who haven't read this book yet are reading it now, the rest of us had better pay attention for our own good. Cialdini's examples sound eerily familiar and on-target. My only complaint about this book is that I am dubious whether the self-defense techniques he presents are adequate to the task. I think I need to read this book a couple more times
Rating: 
Summary: Knowledge is power.
Review: If you are interested in learning what the
tools of persuasion are and how they are used, this is an excellent reference and
a very easy read.
Some examples from the book:
Find out how G. Gordon Liddy sold a $ 250,000
breakin to his fellow watergate co-conspirators
(Hint: It's the same technique as for used
car sales)
Going to the hospital? Find out why you may
be at risk from and susceptible to authority
as simply stated as the title, "Doctor".
Why was Jim Jones so successful at Guyana?
How was he able to single handedly mastermind
his infamous massacre?
What do weathermen and professional athletes
have in common?
Educate yourself about the tools of persuasion.
Learn how to recognize when those tools are
being used and strategies for avoiding being
manipulated. Learn how to use these tools to
your advantage.
To paraphrase, "Manipulation happens". We can
either accept it and move on, or we can educate
ourselves, be aware of when and how it happens
and of what we can do to prevent it or use it
to our advantage. Robert Cialdini's book is
an excellent reference towards that end.
Rating:
Summary: Could have saved me $1100!
Review: See page 54 of this book to find out how I wasted eleven hundred bucks on a fire heat-detection system for my home when I could have gotten the equivalent protection for less than a hundred. Where do suckers come from? Anywhere from Yale to jail. Learn how the promoters use our instinctive responses against us. Then, (hopefully) you'll be able to defuse the tactics that turn us all into compliant drones
Rating: 
Summary: Why do you USE people?
Review: I imagine that you have also read Machiavelli's "The Prince", Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People", Sun Tzu's "Art of War", and Musashi's "Five Rings." Since you applied the art unsuccessfully, you thought you couldn't go wrong by studying the science of making USE of other human beings. I once thought the same way as you!
Indeed, Cialdini may be a genius; he may also be an evil genius. What are the consequences of this science and do we really want this science to be applied to you and me? What does it make of human dignity and does such a science make us more vulnerable to our use? These are questions I have been thinking about since I read this book several years ago.
I want to give "Influence" a 10, but I am compelled to judge its usefulness to us as human beings. A book, unlike a person, is a tool for our use. But a tool's usefulness must also be judged by whether it leads us to a greater realization of what is best in us and not what is worst. Unfortunately, this book teaches a human being how to use another human being. And our reading it will not be a self-defense against its operation on us. Most of us are too busy in our lives to think about how we are being used by one another in everything that is done to us.
Nonetheless, we will need to guard our senses against such seductions for these methods insult our dignity as ends unto ourselves. We need to be more vigilant because Cialdini has unloosed terrible things from Pandora's box! The Professor continues to strip-mine our existence in order to obtain the same techniques by which we will transformed into one-dimensional beings that are easily administered ala Kafka's "Metamorphisis" and Marcuse's "One Dimensional Man".
Otherwise, we shall become ever more herd-like in our thoughts and our decisions. We will become less rational, less free, and less human. "Group think" will become a problem for us all, just as it has been a problem for 40 years in black America as told in "Black and Right: The Bold New Voice of Black Conservatives in America," edited by myself, Brad Stetson, and Joseph Conti.
Rating:
Summary: I'm ready for hand-to-hand combat with any boy scout!
Review: I couldn't put Cialdini's book down. He offers great examples of influentinal situations. He often uses psychological research to make his point. As a researcher, I believe that the use to research to demonstrate issues is an effective way to get your
message across. The issues dealt with in this book are a must for all in any
occupation. Everyone needs to know how to handle telemarketers and not
let their antics influence us. I'm ready to conduct a few influential experiments
of my own. My friends, family, and husband better beware! BUY this book and
learn how to arm yourself with an arsenal of information which will allow you
to enter any situation as a WIN-WIN
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating study of how we interact with others
Review: I read Cialdini's book when it was first published over 10years ago. It was a landmark book into the study of how humansinteract and respond to others. Being involved in sales and marketing for over twenty years, I had an excellent laboratory to try out some of the concepts in the book. They are frighteningly effective.
A must read for sales and marketing oriented individuals to help you communicate better with your customers and clients.
Also an effective self defense weapon against those unscrupulous individuals who will take advantage our natural responses to influencing events.
Rating:
Summary: A must 4 ANYONE who wants to be more persuasive & effective
Review: Cialdini is a master at making science "useable" though his
entertaining writing and illustrative stories. He has
forever changed my perspective on influence. Because of his
work, I am "armed" with effective information that makes me
infinitely more persuasive AND a better consumer.
Those people who do not read this book are simply...at a
disadvantage.
Rating:
Summary: I used to be a people pleaser
Review: I used to agree with other people to avoid making waves. Because of this book, I understand why I was compliant and I am more truthful in my responses to others. This book really made me understand why I was persuaded to do things I didn't want to do. A book called Optimal Thinking: How To Be Your Best Self also made a huge impact on me. Optimal Thinking helped me to let go of what is out of my control, make the most of what is in my control and get the best results in every situation. So I recommend each of these books. Read them side by side and you will be your best when noone is around and with other people.
Rating:
Summary: Must read for former cult members!
Review: I found Cialdini's "Influence" to be one of the most valuable books I have ever read. While most will heap praise on Cialdini's ability to help us understand compliance techniques used in a business -marketing context, I'd like to focus on the insight it provides in terms of the psychological and mental manipulation used by cults. Indeed, Cialdini even provides examples dealing with Jim Jones' Peoples Temple, and the Hare Krishnas. As a former cult member myself (Maharaji's Elan Vital-formerly known as Divine Light Mission), I felt the book really helped me in gaining a greater understanding of how the process of the cult's mental manipulation took hold in my life. And in that understanding, I'm able to regain at least some of the freedom that I lost in the cult. The freedom to say yes when I want to. The freedom to say no when I want to. Most of all...the freedom to be myself. My thanks to Robert Cialdini!
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