Influence (rev) : The Psychology of Persuasion

Rating:
Summary: an OK book, if your audience lacks worldliness
Review: most of the tactics lack sophistication

therefore, most people would detect your manipulations, thwarting your efforts

as an example, consider the crude application of "scarcity"

when supplies are low, an on-line bookstore uses this message:

"hurry! only 3 left"

it is quite amusing, as only the left side of the bell curve would fall for such an obvious ploy

after all, books are commodities---you can get them just about anywhere, at any time

SOLUTION: motivate others with appeals to self interest

other methods lack effectiveness, assuming, of course, that you are dealing with others of reasonable intelligence (minimum IQ of 100...50th percentile)

Sincerely,

Mr. Mehoff (member of MENSA)



Rating:
Summary: This book should be banned!
Review: No, not because it's a bad book... It's phenomenal. It should be banned because Robert's tactics are insanely effective, and I'd hate to see this book land in the hands of my competitors!

I couldn't put the darned book down until I was finished!

Some of the priceless pearls of wisdom you'll gain from the book once that Amazon.com box reaches your doorstep, include:

- How to make a price (or problem) appear extremely small and insignificant to your prospects and customers...

- Why people in large crowds almost never help a person in need... (Understanding this single psychological trait could literally save your life if you are ever in a life-and-death situation!)

- How you can turn a lost sales opportunity into an endless gold-mine of profits (I was especially floored by this suggestion!)

- Why you should think twice before signing any petition, survey or other written document (Once you read about this subtle, "harmless" mind-game, you'll know how to avoid being duped into many foolish purchase decisions.)

- What makes people do weird, kooky things like join cults, never admit they're wrong, adopt strange habits and more.

- Which simple psychological "trigger" enabled Joe Girard to seize the Guinness World Record for selling the most cars in one year (it's so incredibly simple - you'll hit yourself in the head and wonder why you're NOT doing this in your business right now!)

- A hard-to-spot manipulation tactic that cops and interrogators use to get people to voluntarily confess crimes

- How a shocking study revealed that ordinary, well-adjusted people can act in unbelievable and cruel ways when you add this single element to the mix.

- How using one simple word can make up to 93% of people to do what you want (And it's probably not what you think!)

- Why you should think twice about traveling four days after this certain activity occurs

I could go on and on and list all the great benefits of this book... Heck, if you just took ONE insight from this book and applied it to your business and your life, you would:

* Earn back many times your investment in this valuable book because these psychological tactics have the power of an ATOM BOMB!

* Save hundreds (but more likely - thousands) of dollars in unwanted purchases by catching car salesmen, door-to-door sellers, TV advertisers, and more at their own games (that is, if they are using these influential tactics in dishonest ways.)

You will also find that this book is an incredibly entertaining read - unlike most psychology/marketing/sociology books.

I read 7-14 books a week and it is rare that I am moved by a book as much as I am with Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion.

Grab your copy now... Not knowing about these psychological triggers could COST you thousands of dollars in unwanted purchases and thousands of dollars in lost sales opportunities.

To your success and prosperity!
Paul J. Heldt
Axis International Publishing, Inc.
Arvada, Colorado

Rating:
Summary: A WMD in the battle to gain permission.
Review: This study of compliance (a study of the factors that cause one person to say yes to another person) was among the most fascinating, useful, and, quite frankly, "scary" books I've ever read. I've always known that asking for permission has allot to do with "how" you ask, I just didn't know how much. This author shows us scientifically "how much", and it's a disturbing amount.

Clearly, the workings of the mind are a mysterious and universally interesting science; from how it operates the way it does, to why, it's when science can tell us how to operate the mind "remotely" that things get very, very interesting. Robert Cialdini, in this extensive study, shows us how various practitioners of compliance (from salespeople, to fund-raisers and advertisers) deliberately use what tools they have (for good or evil) to increase their chances of getting us to comply with their will.

The author breaks down the basic means by which to obtain compliance into 6 different categories: reciprocity, commitment/consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity. In each section you'll find a wealth of well researched, sometimes funny, always interesting, facts and experiments that show how our basic instincts, societal conditioning, and even our physiology, respond to basic permission requests. I was repeatedly shocked to learn just how automatic many of those responses were.

From a study that shows how many people associate "expensive" with value. In the first chapter of the book the author give an example of a jeweler who accidentally doubled instead of halved the price of some jewelry they had that was not selling well. After a leaving the shop for a short time, to the jewelers surprise, the accidentally marked up items had all been sold.

Or how about a study that demonstrates that people are more likely to agree to a request if a reason is given. One proof had a group simply ask if they could cut in line, another group asked to cut in line and then gave a ridiculous reason. The latter group enjoyed something like a 3X success rate. Simply adding a "becuase" enhanced the chances of success geometrically.

The "contrast principal" gives an example from the retail world where Salespeople are often instructed to sell the most expensive items first. Having paid a lot for a suit, for example, most people will pay more for shirts and ties than if they started with those relatively inexpensive items first. Car salesmen will sell the car first, then load you up on the optional extras.

There are dozens and dozens of additional examples; details on the efficacy of "walking someone down in price", to why giving dirt cheap gifts make airport Krisha's so successful in their pitches. I'd love to include more, but can't for lack of time.

Suffice it to say, this book will give you a very interesting and valuable education on the art of gaining permission, as well as some useful tools in defending yourself from others battling to gain yours.

Enjoy,

Christian Hunter
Santa Barbara, California



Rating:
Summary: Best Book On Behavioral Psychology
Review: Robert B. Cialdini's excellent "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" is the book that has totally enlightened me and has stood me in good stead since I first chanced upon it in 2002. I read the book from cover to cover in one sitting and the result is awesome self-discovery.

The author of this book hit the nail on its head on "Behavioral Psychology" via the generous sharing of visionary ideas pertaining to the plethora of hang-ups plaguing the human mind, not least highlighting the dirty tricks that are being played on us in the squalor of the real world and tactics to overcome them. In fact, this book is a must-read as it will save you from many mistakes and pitfalls in life, monetary or otherwise, that you know not even existed.

Read this book if you were given the opportunity to read just one Behavioral psychology book in life. You won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: excelent book, buy it!!!!!
Review: I read this in college and its one of those books that have a profound effect on you, it certainly had in me. I would compare this tract to something like "Random Walk Down Wallstreet" which if you read just one book on the subject these books should be that one book. It had another profound impact on me that I am assidiously looking for books like this, I spend to much time on Amazon.com for these books.

Read the other reviews of this book, as of this writing there are 130 posted reviews. But some of them give away the content of the book, Isn't there a rule for that? It says in the rules that no one can reveal the plot twists so as to not spoil it for everyone, but some do. As said before once you read it, you can't put it down.

Rating:
Summary: A CLASSIC on INFLUENCE and PERSUASION
Review: This book is a classic in the area of influence.

It deals with only 6 tools of persuasion, but it does a mightily good job out of it.

The tools, or weapons, as they are called in this book are: reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity. The examples of these tools, as used in practice, provided in this book are enlightening and eye-opening.

Whether or not you are involved in influence and persuasion professionally - you will find it very useful to recognize when someone might attempt to use these tools of influence and persuasion on you.

After all these "weapons" are the tools used in sales, advertising, and marketing and you're bound to encounter them in your life.



Rating:
Summary: How to get your way
Review: This is the sort of book one is inclined to wish one had read carefully at a young age. All successful people have developed skills to get what they want. As a young man for a while I got my way with a particular person by advising "A" when what I really wanted was "Not-A". But Robert Caldini's great book lays it all out systematically, and I guess I now regard the A/Not-A device as an example of abnormal psychology at work.

Caldini starts by saying: "I can admit it freely now. All my life I've been a patsy." An "easy mark...." This "long-standing status as a sucker" made Cialdini interested in the "psychology of compliance." Why do requests put one way mostly fail while a slightly different approach often wins? For nearly three years Cialdini combined experimental studies with "systematic immersion into the world of compliance professionals - sales operators, fund-raisers, recruiters, advertisers, and others."

There are thousands of different tactics used by those aiming to get someone to say "yes", but the majority fall within six basic categories, each of which is governed by a "fundamental psychological principle that directs human behaviour and, in so doing, gives the tactics their power." The principles are consistency, reciprocation, social proof, authority, liking and scarcity. This list deliberately does not include "the simple rule of material self-interest" since this is an obvious motivator not worthy of detailed examination. (As an economist, I am put well and truly in my place by this observation. One assumes that, as in the famous story, Cialdini chose to experiment on economists rather than rats since one gets to like rats after a while.)

Chapter one is entitled "Weapons of influence." Animals and people (even economists!) operate with certain automatic rules that usually produce a good result. Often in this book Cialdini introduces experiments from animal or people studies to buttress the psychological arguments. In this chapter he discusses how mothering behaviour in turkeys is triggered by the "cheep-cheep" sound of young turkeys, a response often observed in the Thornton household, incidentally.

A reflex of many people, especially it seems Americans on holiday, is to use the rule "expensive = good." In fact the example that starts chapter one is of a seller of jewelry who accidentally doubled instead of halved the price of some jewelry it was proving hard to move. After a short absence from her shop, to her surprise she found that the previously difficult-to-move items had all been sold.

Another rule is that people are more likely to agree to a request if a reason is given - "People simply like to have reasons for what they do." So if you need to go to the top of the queue, give a good reason, and most of the time people will let you in. In fact, the research cited shows it was the use of the word "because" rather than the inherent strength of the reason that produces this result.

Then there is "the contrast principle." An example from the retail world illustrates. Salespeople in retail stores are often instructed to sell the most expensive item first. Having paid a lot for a suit, for example, most people it seems pay more for shirts and ties than if they started with those relatively inexpensive items first. Car dealers first sell you the car, then add the optional extras. With a different use of contrast, real estate salespeople start by showing you the undesirable properties first - they have a set of these, called "set-up" properties.

The process of using "weapons of persuasion" is subtle, not crude. "With proper execution, the exploiters need hardly strain a muscle to get their way ... the approach is not unlike that of the Japanese martial art form called jujitsu."

And now to the principles themselves. Each chapter starts with a nice quote, that I have reproduced.

Reciprocation - "Pay every debt, as if God wrote the bill." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The rule of reciprocation "possesses awesome strength." This is not basically related to liking - people are programmed to respond positively to a request if they have previously accepted a gift even from a stranger. The famous case is the Krishna organisation whose members give people a flower or a book before asking for a donation - works like a charm apparently.

Retailers know the power of the "free gift" - eg the cubes of cheese in food halls, the wine tasting in wine shops or at wineries, the Amway phenomenon, the power of the Tupperware party.

Politics works like this also - "logrolling" being a powerful American example, Lyndon Johnson being the master of this game. The power of the political donation in Australian politics shows this is not just an American trait, although I suspect reciprocation reaches its highest art form there.

A more subtle version of reciprocation comes when one feels bound to respond to a concession. "Will you buy my raffle tickets for $10?" "No" "Will you but two chocolate bars for $2?" Often one does, the original requestor having made a concession one is forced to match.

The most stunning example given by Cialdini concerns the Watergate break-in. Apparently G Gordon Liddy first presented an absolutely outrageous plan. When he was told "no" he later came back with a less costly but still outrageous plan. After a second "no" he finally came up with a stupid but even less expensive plan which several apparently sane men approved.

This chapter ends with a section on "How to say no."

There is another famous quote that says something like: "No good turn goes unpunished." Cialdini does not discuss this apparent contradiction of the reciprocation principle - perhaps it is another example of abnormal psychology.

Commitment and Consistency - "It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end." - Leonardo da Vinci.

Two Canadian psychologists have shown that , immediately after placing a bet, punters become far more confident about the chances of the horse they back Humans have, Cialdini asserts, a "nearly obsessive desire to be (and to appear) consistent ..." This is another example of a trait that in many circumstances is useful and adaptive. "Without it our lives would be difficult, erratic and disjointed." Too much thinking is difficult. But there is a more perverse attraction of mechanical consistency. "Sometimes it is not the effort of hard, cognative work that makes us shirk thoughtful activity, but the harsh consequences of that activity. Sometimes it is the cursedly clear and unwelcome set of answers provided by straight thinking that makes us mental slackers."

But the forces making for consistency can readily be exploited. Cialdini provides a nice example of how toy stores use this principle to boost post Christmas sales. (Coles Meyer, if you do not know this trick, now is the moment.) But what is it that produces the "click that activates the whirr of the powerful consistency tape?" "Commitment" is the answer. If we take a stand, we are likely to behave in ways stubbornly consistent with that stand.

Telephone marketers routinely ask: "How are you feeling this evening, Mr Jones?" Apparently, once you have said you feel fine, it is hard to refuse to give to the anti-cancer fund or to help a third-world orphan, even thought the initial question and answer were for all appearances a stylized exchange. The researchers have, incidentally, tested whether or not it is the politeness of the initial approach that does the work - no it is not, it is his initial response that has committed Mr Jones.

Cialdini goes on to examine the far more serious issue of how to get prisoners of war (POWs) to cooperate with their captors. The Chinese did a far better job of this than the North Koreans during the second world war - by asking first for a minor act of compliance (which was rewarded) and gradually upping the ante. An important part of the process was that the minor commitment initially achieved was made public - people's written and public commitments being far more powerful than private, unwritten ones. And small inducements are often far more powerful than large ones - since if the inducement is large one will feel one has been paid for the act of compliance, not accepted it as a firm commitment.

This chapter looks quite deeply into the techniques used as well as their application in business situations - eg when people sign on to challenging KPIs. Again it ends with a section on how to say no.

Social proof - "When all think alike, no one thinks very much" - Walter Lippman

TV producers use canned laughter, bar-people often "salt" their tip jar at the start of a shift and evangelical preachers have been known to seed their audiences with "ringers" who are programmed to come forward and commit at the right moment. Cialdini examines the famous case of a cult that has wrongly predicted the end of the world. When this did not occur, the group had to establish another truth, which in this case was a crusade to persuade the world about their peculiar beliefs.

The principle of "social truth" works especially well in conditions of shaken confidence and uncertainty - in the previous example when the beings in flying saucers did not arrive on schedule.

This example leads on to a far more horrible case, that of the murder of Catherine Genovese in New York City in 1964. "For more than half an hour thirty-eight respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a women in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens." No-one called the police during the murder, and only one witness called after the women was dead. Everyone was stunned and the witnesses themselves could not explain their inaction. The newspapers seized on the theme of an "uncaring" society.

Two psychologists examined the case. To them the really odd thing was that there were 38 witnesses, none of whom did anything. They found two reasons for the lack of action. When there are more than one person witnessing a crime, personal responsibility is diluted. This is a common issue - eg when a group is asked to do something without someone nominating who is responsible. "(Shared responsibility is no responsibility") But the second reason is more interesting and involves what psychologists call the "pluralistic ignorance effect." At times of uncertainty, people naturally look round to see how others are reacting. If others seem calm and unruffled, one is inclined to act the same way and to convince oneself that the event in question is not really an emergency.

The chapter goes on, covering another example of the consequences of "social proof" - the well documented case of sudden jumps in apparently accidental deaths in the period immediately after a newspaper or TV account of a suicide

A final horrible example concerns the mass suicide in Jonestown.

Learning how to resist the automatic pilot of social proof might be vital. There is also a message for anyone in danger in a crowded situation - do not issue a general cry for help, but try to focus on one person and ask him for explicit help.

Liking - "The main work of a trial attourney is to make a jury like his client" - Clarence Darrow.

Most of us prefer to say yes to the requests of those we like. This principle works, however, when used by total strangers - eg if he pays one a compliment such as "That is a great suit/haircut/car, etc. This much is obvious, but Cialdini goes on to apply it to important matters like the impact of school desegregation upon racial tension, the "good cop/bad cop" situation and the behaviour of sports fans.

How to say no is handled deftly, as usual. ("Say no")

Authority - "Follow an expert" - Virgil.

Again the simple point is obvious, but we learn of more subtle and insidious effects involving the use of fake titles, film stars advertising coffee and trappings of con-men such as flash cars.

Scarcity - "The way to love anything is to realize it might be lost" - GK Chesterton.

This is a ripper chapter, containing as it does the scheme used by the author's brother to fund his way through collage and some severely practical advice on how to deal with toddlers and teenagers.

The scarcity principle is understood by all of us, even economists, who associate scarcity with high prices. But what would you think of a collage student who purchased second hand cars, gave them a cut and polish and advertised them for sale at a distinctly higher price than he had paid? His secret weapon was to ask everyone who responded to his ad to arrive at, say, 2 PM. The first guy to arrive was shown the car and while he was looking another prospective buyer would arrive. Then another. The first guy would be told a queue is forming and given a few more minutes to make up his mind. You could imagine the anxiety that built up in the potential buyers' minds. If the first guy did not buy, the second one almost always did.

This chapter goes on to provide advice on coping with the "terrible twos" and the teenage years based on the theory of "psychological reactance" that is linked to scarcity in some interesting but non-obvious ways. The link concerns the loss of freedoms, and withdrawal of privileges is a classic case of loss of freedom leading to psychological reactance."

.Cialdini relates this to the Russian counter-revolution that restored Gorbachev to power ("Freedoms once granted will not be relinquished without a fight.") Another case concerns the close bonding between Romeo and Juliet in the face of parental opposition to their relationship. ("... the teenager will sneak, scheme, and fight to resist ... attempts at control.") Another interesting example concerns directions to a jury to ignore a particular piece of evidence - the conjecture in this case is that such directions may in fact make the jury give greater weight to the banned evidence.

I have provided a far longer account of this book than I intended at outset. To a mere economist, who is drilled to assume the simplest possible mental models of behaviour - "maximising welfare, "simple self-interest" - both the examples as well as the logic and clever experiments are full of interest. If it is too late for you to benefit, give this book to a much loved member of the younger generation.


Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I picked this book up because somebody online recommended it, and the topic interested me. This has been one of the best books I've ever bought. Dr. Cialdini told me things I already knew, just had never put any actual thought into. After having read most of the book I was able to apply the material into my life and I think it helped me from making a bad decision related to my higher education. I highly recommend everyone read this!