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Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

4.15 of 5 stars 4.15 · rating details · 11,976 ratings · 517 reviews

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 ha...more

Paperback, 336 pages

Published December 26th 2006 by HarperBusiness (first published 1984)

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Nov 20, 2008 sundeep rated it 5 of 5 stars

Summary: This book can’t be summarized. It can only be very, very strongly recommended.

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. Tru...more

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Dec 01, 2008 Mark Cheverton rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: business, marketing

Required reading for all marketing professionals. The book details the most common approaches to influencing the decisions of others, backed up by the authors time spent infiltrating direct marketing companies and the like. Offers handy hints on how to spot when you're being manipulated and how to handle it.

A very enjoyable read, should leave you much more aware of how you're being played next time you're in the market for a used car.

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Aug 09, 2007 David rated it 5 of 5 stars

Social Proof - People will do things that they see other people are doing. For example, in one experiment, one or more accomplices would look up into the sky; the more accomplices the more likely people would look up into the sky to see what they were seeing. At one point this experiment aborted, as so many people were looking up, that they stopped traffic.

Scarcity - Perceived scarcity will generate demand. For example, saying offers are available for a "limited time only" encourages sales.

Likin...more

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Feb 12, 2008 Liz rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was assigned in my Social Influence class and I loved it! Cialdini has done tons of interesting research and is clearly very accomplished in the Psych field, yet he can write a book that everyone (non-Psych majors included) can understand. Each social tactic is explained thoroughly and he uses a lot of stories as well as his own experiments to back it up. I love how he peppers his anecdotes with his sense of humor ("Looking somewhat embarrassed because his father seemed to be raving wh...more

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Dec 23, 2008 Alex Allain rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is an absolutely incredible book. One of those books that frame how you see the world--particularly how you interpret the behavior of others.

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May 16, 2013 Sean Mcmahon added it

In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert B. Cialdini lists six different methods which one can use to persuade people. He lists the six tools of persuasion as: reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proofs, attraction, authority, and scarcity. The first tool, reciprocation, draws its power from the desire to repay in kind a favor which was shown to us. The desire to repay a favor stems from the feeling of indebtedness which the receiver of the favor has from receiving the gi...more In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert B. Cialdini lists six different methods which one can use to persuade people. He lists the six tools of persuasion as: reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proofs, attraction, authority, and scarcity. The first tool, reciprocation, draws its power from the desire to repay in kind a favor which was shown to us. The desire to repay a favor stems from the feeling of indebtedness which the receiver of the favor has from receiving the gift. In fact, the feeling of indebtedness is often so uncomfortable for people that they are willing to repay a small favor with a significantly larger one. Thus, in order to engage the power of reciprocation is necessary for a compliance professional to create a feeling of indebtedness in the prospect. While requested favors may be more effective, it is not necessary for the favor even to be solicited. The mere giving of an unsolicited favor often creates a strong sense of indebtedness. A certain Indian religion has exploited this by thrusting a flower into the hands of a passersby before often successfully requesting a donation. However, reciprocation does not necessarily require a favor be performed. Often it is more effective if a concession is made instead. Cialdini calls this technique the “rejection-than-retreat,” which he defines as asking for something larger than desired and then reducing one’s request to what is actually desired. Rejection-than-retreat is often more effective because the victim often feels responsible for the final outcome and feels more satisfied with the final outcome.

The second weapon of persuasion is commitment and consistency. People have an inherent desire to be consistent. Once someone has taken a stand, they “will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment.” In fact, people will begin to believe in a difficult choice once it has been made. To illustrate this, Cialdini notes that people feel far more confident after placing a bet than immediately before it. Though the odds have remained constant, the mere act of making a decision causes the individual to believe in his choice. In other words, a decision or a commitment can cause an individual to modify his understanding of himself. Once modified, the individual will seek to act consistently with this new image. If someone can modify an individual’s perception of himself, he can persuade (often without any effort) the individual to act in a certain manner as a result of his desire to act consistently. Hence, it is necessary to understand how to obtain a commitment that will change someone’s self-image. Cialdini notes that commitments which are written are far more effective than verbal ones in part because they require more effort. The most effective form of commitment is one that is public, written and effortful. Similarly, the individual must take responsibility for the commitment; it cannot be the result of some external pressure. If the initial commitment is too great to be successfully requested, a smaller commitment will often lead to a larger one simply because even the smaller commitment modifies the manner in which an individual views himself. No doubt the most desirable aspect of commitment and consistency is its lasting nature. Once inner change has occurred future actions will likely be consistent with such change.

Social proof is the third weapon of persuasion. Cialdini defines social proof as looking towards others to determine what is correct. The author quotes one individual who notes, “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.” The truth of this is blatantly clear even in the most banal situations. Cialdini offers the example of eating a messy entrée at a dinner party. Most often individuals will look at their comrades to determine the proper manner in which to consume the meal. Social proof however is not merely looking at the aggregate around an individual. Instead social proof is following the people who are similar to us. While it is possible for social proof to occur with the dissimilar, it is far more likely to occur among those who are similar. Social proof is most effective in advertising certain products. Claims which suggest that the majority of the populace uses or endorses a product causes individuals to associate value with the product. In other words, if so many people use a certain product, its must be good.

The fourth method of persuasion is attraction or liking. It is self-evident that people are more often likely to say yes to those whom they like. To prove this truism, Cialdini offers the anecdote of an extraordinarily successful car salesmen who sent monthly greeting cards to his previous thirteen thousand clients. The card contained the simple message “I like you.” Even though the card was clearly mass distributed (the message was printed rather than handwritten), it was extremely effective in causing people to like the car salesman. As a result, they referred their friends to him thereby drastically increasing the car salesman’s sales. Considering the powerful force of attraction in persuading people, it is necessary to determine how to create this attraction. One of the most effective manners of doing this through association. When something positive is placed in proximity to something else, it borrows the positive thing’s positive benefits. In fact, the connection between the two objects does not even need to be logical, it only needs to be positive. As a result, placing attractive models next to cars causes the customer to believe that the car is more attractive than it actually is. Remarkably, many individuals also engage in the association principle as a part of their identity. When a sports team wins, its fans consider the team’s victory their own. In other words, by associating with a victorious team, the individual borrows its positive effects.

The fifth tool of persuasion is authority. Cialdini notes that authority is very useful in bringing about compliance. The author cites a disturbing study in which individuals administered tremendous pain to someone merely because they were directed to by an authority figure. Remarkably, the individual administering the pain was clearly distraught by his role. Though distraught, he continued administering the pain since the authority figure commanded him to do so. Now it is self-evident that for authority to be persuasive, it must be recognized. Authority is most often recognized by titles and by dress. Titles, even when they are fake, impress upon individuals the aura of authority which individuals will rarely question. Interestingly, one’s title and one’s status are often closely related. The taller one is, the more important one’s status is presumed to be and vice versa (association principle!). Of course, since authority commands so much persuasion, individuals often seek to replicate the symbols of authority, often titles, clothing, and automobiles.

The final method of persuasion is scarcity. When something is more scare, it is often considered more valuable. More importantly, scarcity is useful in bringing about a decision. Scarcity interferes with one’s prior access to something causing one to react against the interference by increasing the desire for the thing as well the individuals efforts to acquire it. Interestingly not only is a commodity desired more when it is scarce, individuals desire a scarce commodity more when there is competition for it. When scarcity is coupled with competition, the desire for something drastically increases. The scarcity principle does not only apply to commodities but also information. Cialdini noted that when a scarcity of information was coupled with a scarcity of product, the demand for the product was much greater than the scarce product by itself.
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Dec 21, 2012 Jenny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: decision-making

Persuasion - making judgments based on costs e.g. cost of jewellery in an unfamiliar town,
reciprocity - hare krishnas giving out flowers,
ambit claims e.g. liddy's proposal for watergate was after 2 more expensive and sillier proposals,
consistency - e.g. lowball selling i.e. commit to buying a product then take away one of the things that made it attractive e.g. trade in value, social proof = cult after space saucer didn't appear - become more committed as now staked everything on faith, more...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Loy Machedo rated it 5 of 5 stars

Loy Machedo’s Book Review – Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

I first bumped into Robert Cialdini’s work with “Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive”. I found that book to be absolutely impressive and so, when I got to know he had also authored “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”, I was more than eager to read it. And without a doubt, I can tell you, I am glad I did.

Harvard Business Review lists Dr. Cialdini's research in "Breakthrough Ideas for Today...more Loy Machedo’s Book Review – Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

I first bumped into Robert Cialdini’s work with “Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive”. I found that book to be absolutely impressive and so, when I got to know he had also authored “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”, I was more than eager to read it. And without a doubt, I can tell you, I am glad I did.

Harvard Business Review lists Dr. Cialdini's research in "Breakthrough Ideas for Today's Business Agenda" as he breaks down the Science of Influence into 6 key principles of persuasion.

1) Reciprocity - People tend to return a favor. Example the pervasiveness of free samples in marketing or The good cop/bad cop strategy where the criminal or suspect tends to open up to the cop who is nice to him. And as an act of reciprocity, returns the kindness by giving the required information.
2) Commitment and Consistency - If people commit verbally or in writing they are more likely to honor that commitment. The reason stems from the pressures that come with being congruent with their self image. Example - Car salesman employ this strategy by raising the price of the vehicle at the last moment works because the buyer has already decided to buy or the Chinese brainwashing on American prisoners to enforce disloyalty towards their country.
3) Social Proof - People will do things that they see other people are doing. Example – If a group of people would look up into the sky; bystanders would then look up into the sky to see what they were seeing.
4) Authority - People will tend to obey authority figures, even if they are asked to perform objectionable acts
5) Liking - People are easily persuaded by other people that they like.
6) Scarcity - Scarcity (real / artificial) will generate demand. Example, Offers with "limited time only" creates more sales.

The whole book has quite a number of examples to state and reinfornce the points of wisdom stated by Caildini which makes the book very compelling everything from having the Hare Krishnas and their flower gift strategy to what telemarketers do to ensure sales to the fake laughter used by sitcoms to create even more laughter.

Overall Rating
I found this book to be a Masterpiece in the Science of Psychology. In fact, I personally felt, this book should be made mandatory for everyone to read – especially the part where the author clearly states, that misusing these techniques will result in a more of a negative result than positive – As I feel quite a number of Sales People with their so called ‘Smart Closes’ think they have achieved a positive result – while the fact remains, they have destroyed themselves slowly and surely.
A great book, A fantastic read and A worthwhile investment. Without hesitation, I would give this book a perfect 10 out of 10.

Loy Machedo
loymachedo.com
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May 27, 2012 Shishir rated it 3 of 5 stars

Six "weapons of influence"

1)Reciprocation - People tend to return a favor. Thus, the pervasiveness of free samples in marketing. In his conferences, he often uses the example of Ethiopia providing thousands of dollars in humanitarian aid to Mexico just after the 1985 earthquake, despite Ethiopia suffering from a crippling famine and civil war at the time. Ethopia had been reciprocating for the diplomatic support Mexico provided when Italy invaded Ethopia in 1937.

2)Commitment and Consistency - I...more

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Sep 02, 2011 Gina rated it 3 of 5 stars

I don't understand why so many people rated this book so highly.

--It panders to the audience by using overly simple language and repeating the same idea 5 times to make sure that the reader really understood. Example (from memory): "People are heavily influenced by society. Society shapes our choices. Our choices are influenced by the people around us. There are countless examples of one's choices being swayed by his or her peers." Thanks, I got it the first time.

--The first and second "weapons...more I don't understand why so many people rated this book so highly.

--It panders to the audience by using overly simple language and repeating the same idea 5 times to make sure that the reader really understood. Example (from memory): "People are heavily influenced by society. Society shapes our choices. Our choices are influenced by the people around us. There are countless examples of one's choices being swayed by his or her peers." Thanks, I got it the first time.

--The first and second "weapons of influence" were interesting and thought-provoking. Reciprocity and consistency. The third to sixth weapons were just plain obvious. Social proof, i.e. a group's preference influences your own? No shit. Liking, i.e. someone similar to be more persuasive to you? OK, obvious. Authority, i.e. power leads to persuasive ability? [sarcastic] Wow! Scarcity, i.e. perceiving scarcity leads to increased desire of a resource? Mildly surprising.

--The author must have read about the device of repitition just before writing this book and used the book for practice. The amount of times that he used "click, whirr" to illustrate the metaphor or playing a tape in our heads to produce automatic action made me want to scream! (Also, casette tapes were out of style by the time I was in high school...)

--His choice phrase for people who consciously used these "weapons of influence" were ... wait for it ... "COMPLIANCE PRACTITIONERS"!!! Just call them "influencers" or something less vomit-inducing, buddy.

--The author "updated" the edition for the printing in 2007. He should have just done a reprint with a new foreward or something, because the result of the update is a total failure. 90% of the references are still from the mid-80's or before. A discussion about the future of communicating with computer has one puny line added to it about how everyone uses the Internet now.

To be fair, some of the conclusions drawn and the research presented were very interesting. But the feel of the writing was so juvenile and repititive that I can't recommend this book to anyone. I'm sure there are much better books on the topic. (less)

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Jun 27, 2011 Chantal rated it 3 of 5 stars

A classic example of how different books intrigue different people. My friend, Ben, gave me this book because he found it boring. I read it, highlighted it as I read it, and loved it. I love all things social psychology.

I thought it was funny when the author talks about the Mormon temple in Mesa. It was a great illustration of scarcity, but I wonder sometimes if people stop to think when they write that their audience may include the people they talk about.

There was one point while reading this...more

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Mar 08, 2011 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. With the sophisticated mental apparatus we have used to build world eminence as a species, we have created an environment so complex, fast-paced, and information-laden that we must increasingly deal with it in the fashion of the animals we long ago transcended.
Another fascinating book, this time provided by the "Influence Without Authority" class I took through Deere back in April.

An overarching idea of the book is that people don't always use all the available information to make a decision - s...more

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Jan 23, 2011 Laurie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Author Cialdini began the research that would lead to this book when he got tired of being taken advantage of. He’s not unintelligent, yet he would find himself talked into buying things he didn’t want at all. What was happening?

It turns out that there are some basic ways that humans are influenced, and most people follow them without questioning. Some are just the easy way to deal with situations, while some actually create discomfort when one refuses to follow the social conventions. Cialdini...more Author Cialdini began the research that would lead to this book when he got tired of being taken advantage of. He’s not unintelligent, yet he would find himself talked into buying things he didn’t want at all. What was happening?

It turns out that there are some basic ways that humans are influenced, and most people follow them without questioning. Some are just the easy way to deal with situations, while some actually create discomfort when one refuses to follow the social conventions. Cialdini breaks it all down into six methods of getting people to do things the way the user wants them to: reciprocation- if someone does something for you, no matter how small, you must then do what they want you to do, hence all those charities that send you return address labels; commitment and consistency-if they can get you to establish yourself as something, say, someone who likes to go out to dinner by asking you about your habits in a survey, then ask you to buy a coupon book for dining out, you are more apt to buy the thing rather than risk the image built in the survey; social proof- if other people think a certain way, so should you- the canned laughter on sitcoms is the most common use of this; liking- this comes into play in ploys like Tupperware parties, where because the person benefiting is your friend you feel you *have* to buy something, it is brought into play by having the seller be someone attractive and dress like and have similar values to you; authority- 9 out of 10 doctors recommend this drug!; and scarcity- hurry, only 10 left! -or limited edition items.

We’ve all seen these ploys; we’ve all fallen prey to them. The author gives a few suggestions as to how to prevent yourself from doing so in the future. Basically it comes down to being willing to break social rules, like the one of reciprocity. One must remember to think about every interaction where someone wants something from you, rather than running on auto pilot.

It’s an interesting book. Not only does Cialdini have a lot of studies to back up his thesis, but he’s an entertaining writer.
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Oct 04, 2010 Men D. rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've really gotten into pop psychology books lately. This one was exactly what I wanted: insight into persuasion from both an academic psychology perspective (lots of summaries of sometimes outrageous psych experiments, like those conditioning little boys to find toy robots immoral) and a marketing perspective (descriptions of persuasian/compliance tactics from car salesmen, Hare Krishna solicitors, advertisements).

While reading this book, I had to set it aside often to consider (1) the many wa...more

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Dec 28, 2009 Peyton rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: brain-science, business, marketing, psychology

Six categories of weapons of influence. Each based on manipulation of social survival skill.

Seems like I read much of this in Psych 101 when we studied propaganda.

1. Reciprocation. First offer gift to create obligation. Then collect on obligation. Based on reciprocation of support.

2. Commitment and consistency. Based on social importance of keeping commitments and acting consistently. Get people to commit to seemingly innocuous agreement or action, and then lead them to desired commitment. Since...more

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May 19, 2009 Anya rated it 4 of 5 stars

Why do we buy stuff we don't need? Why do we comply with requests that "feel wrong" or make us uncomfortable? In this book, Arizona State professor Robert Cialdini examines the social psychology behind compliance, with the goal of helping us understand the "weapons of mass persuasion" that advertisers and salespeople can so easily use against us.

Cialdini went undercover in the late 1970s/early 1980s to do research about compliance techniques. He apprenticed himself to Amway salesmen and car deal...more

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Jul 08, 2008 Matt Heimer rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this because a Very Influential Person my magazine is profiling said that every consumer should read it. Can you say "hyperbole?" That said, Ciardini offers a tidy survey of post-Stanley Milgram research in human gullibility, and he's funny in a avuncular "professor who seems cool until you talk with him one on one" kind of way. Some of it--particularly a disquisition on the psych-warfare techniques of the Communist Chinese during the Korean War--is disturbingly timely in the Bush era.

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Sep 15, 2012 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: psychology, favorites

I was lucky enough to have taken Dr. Cialdini's Influence: Brainwashing and Conformity Tactics class during my undergraduate days at Arizona State University in 2001. This class and Dr. Cialdini's brilliant public experiments have always stayed with me. I always will remember never to take the drink from the car sales man for fear that I will be more likely to buy a car that I don't want because of the theory of reciprocity. I just recently read the newest edition and it is beautifully written a...more

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Feb 05, 2012 Veronika rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book gives good insight to compliance strategies and main reasons we are persuaded - however I was unimpressed by a few of the examples Cialdini used and the main conclusion he made at the end of the book.

Example 1: After claiming to have been a bigger socialite than he really is to impress a young attractive saleswoman, Cialdini became particularly pugnacious about her "strategy of tricking him into exaggerating his habits" where as this was his fault, not the saleswoman's. When she offer...more This book gives good insight to compliance strategies and main reasons we are persuaded - however I was unimpressed by a few of the examples Cialdini used and the main conclusion he made at the end of the book.

Example 1: After claiming to have been a bigger socialite than he really is to impress a young attractive saleswoman, Cialdini became particularly pugnacious about her "strategy of tricking him into exaggerating his habits" where as this was his fault, not the saleswoman's. When she offered a package that saves him money - since he claimed to go out so often - she was actually offering a favour; the fact that he was bragging - because she was young and good looking - was not her fault at all. He makes this out to be a malevolent trick used by the saleswoman when in fact it was him trapping himself. He could have easily just not lied, despite her being young and attractive, instead of going into a big argument in the end about her "wrong-headed strategy to persuade him to exaggerate his social habits"

Example 2: His friend Sara, who after being offered to be married to her boyfriend (Lets call him Candidate 2) chose to go back to her old boyfriend, Tim, despite him unwilling to marry her: Cialdini says she has been tricked by Tim into going back as he had offered to marry her while she was courted by Candidate Nr. 2 but disregarded of the marriage after she chose him. I don't see this example as a properly researched one - the reasons we chose mates is a lot more complicated than who is willing to marry us. Just because Candidate Nr. 2 was willing, does not necessarily make him a more attractive potential partner. There are a lot of other things to consider. What's more Cialdini said she was genuinely happier in the end - so was this not a good deal? He had also not considered she may have only had Candidate Nr. 2 around to put Tim into a competitive situation and to profit from the scarcity rule... Tim, who is obviously for some reason or another - clearly unknown to Cialdini - much more valuable to her than Candidate Nr. 2. I also did not like his conclusion that she must chose before her time is up and all her alternatives to Tim disappear.

Finally, I was not particularly impressed with the conclusion of the book: "We should be willing to use boycott, threat, confrontation, censure, tirade, nearly anything to retaliate" to those exploiting our natural triggers to "short cut" the massive amounts of information presented to us: for example dismissing any show that uses fake laughter, not giving any tips to bartenders who "salt" their tip jar and the like....recognising these exploits of triggers and short cuts is one thing, but going to war with them and arguing with every salesperson as he does in various examples of the book would be far more energy and time consuming than it is worth.
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Dec 12, 2011 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars

How does changing your last name to Brown win you an election? Why do crowds of bystanders struggle to help a clear victim? Robert Cialdini's "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" answers these questions and a range of others. It's a fascinating and engaging introduction of psychological factors impacting on individual and group decision-making. Students undertaking a degree in Business, Economics, Marketing or Politics would benefit immensely from reading this book. However, the book does s...more How does changing your last name to Brown win you an election? Why do crowds of bystanders struggle to help a clear victim? Robert Cialdini's "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" answers these questions and a range of others. It's a fascinating and engaging introduction of psychological factors impacting on individual and group decision-making. Students undertaking a degree in Business, Economics, Marketing or Politics would benefit immensely from reading this book. However, the book does suffer from a lack of clear structure and the potential modern-day irrelevance of certain topics.

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. (less)

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Aug 06, 2012 Garrett rated it 5 of 5 stars

Influence demonstrates clearly how compliance professionals can get us to say yes.

It appears the book is written for us, the target of the compliance professional. It efforts to advise how we automatically respond, much like lower animals, to various types of input and suggests methods to keep our necessary shortcuts from leading us in the wrong direction.

All of chapters are powerful, using real life examples and experiments to demonstrate the principle being discussed. For example, when dealin...more

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Jan 26, 2008 Jerry rated it 4 of 5 stars

I put this book under "dangerous knowledge." Cialdini, still a top consultant in this field, has a tiny disclaimer at the end of the book saying how he's aware that this knowledge could be misused, but doesn't go much further.

I see this stuff abused all the time, to spin democracies to go to war, to sell us products and services we don't really need and much, much more.

I've been wanting to start an ethics institute around this topic. Interested? Write me!

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Feb 03, 2013 David rated it 3 of 5 stars

book:Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion|28815] is a book about awareness. Cialdini's thesis is simple: we make dozens of decisions in our lives every day using single points of data. Usually this auto-decision-making process is of no consequence and a useful way to cut through the endless streams of information that surround us. There is simply not enough time to thoroughly analyze every single thing we do, so we use shortcuts.

However, these shortcuts can also be exploited to our detriment....more

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Apr 07, 2009 Marty rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, nonfiction

I started reading this book for work - one of the things I'm supposedly working on this year in my ability to have influence on project decisions and be able to effectively provide input. I figured this would be unspeakably boring and decided to read some vampire stuff at the same time to get me through it.

I actually loved this book, though. He talks about all these methods that people - typically sales professionals - use to influence customers to buy more stuff. And I fall for this shit ALL TH...more

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Sep 15, 2012 Tim Berthold rated it 4 of 5 stars

As useful for the identification of the techniques as for how to notice and counter them.

MY SUMMARY:
These techniques are effective because they tap into our primordial automatic response mechanisms which have been honed over many years to further survival and allow room for higher-level analysis of more complex situations.

The techniques are: reciprocation, consistency, social proof, liking, authority, scarcity.

The epilogue is especially insightful. In the light-speed paced world we now live i...more

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Jan 17, 2011 Dave rated it 4 of 5 stars

To understand why your marketing plans work or don't work, you need to look deep into what goes on in your customer's head. That's where this book takes you. It's a classic work on persuasion that will show you not only why behavior can be altered, but how to do it. The author, Robert Cialdini, is a professor of marketing at Arizona State as well as president of a consulting company specializing in ethical persuasion. Unlike my book on the subject, The Dynamic Manager's Guide to Marketing and Ad ...more

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Apr 04, 2013 Manish rated it 5 of 5 stars

A fantastic book and really found many of the concepts interesting. Here is my summarised review:
Chapter 1 is about power of comparison : better to compare an expensive item in the beginning and then followed by a cheap one so the latter one looks good in comparison. I remember Janet letter to her parents. Looks nice ; on how she influenced her parents for grads d to e
Chapter 2 is about : reciprocacy; I remember krishna and flower story and the story of Amway where the leave free samples for p...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Sassan rated it 5 of 5 stars

A masterful book that I read years ago and that I have to read again. But Dr. Cialdini's book was masterful and it has provided me great knowledge and understanding. In particular of influence that it has had is that it has helped me to understand that after great national tragedies such as school shootings or devastating airplane crashes, the chances of a repeat or similar performance is greatly increased. This is true even in incidents of plane crashes which seem to be accidental. People on th...more

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Apr 20, 2012 Amir rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Brilliant book! I first read Cialdini book several years ago and I try to make it my routine to read it at least every year since then. Professor Cialdini through many fascinating examples leads us on a journey to find how we are being persuaded to act and react in many ways that are not always to our benefits.

Professor Cialdini review in this book six main factors that influence our behaviors: reciprocation, liking, scarcity, authority, commitment/consistency and social proof, the books explai...more

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Jul 28, 2012 Robert rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love these sorts of books the delve into the human psyche and attempt to explain why we do things. If you read this book you will certainly learn something about human nature and most likely it will something you didn't appreciate.

Better understanding why people do things and how others attempt to use human nature against us can only better equip you to deal with these attempts to influence you. The book is easy to read and follows naturally from subject to subject. It is certainly engaging al...more

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About Robert B. Cialdini

Dr. Robert Cialdini has spent his entire career researching the science of influence earning him an international reputation as an expert in the fields of persuasion, compliance, and negotiation.

His books including, Influence: Science & Practice, are the results of years of study into the reasons why people comply with requests in business settings. Worldwide, Influence has sold over 2 million...more

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Books by Robert B. Cialdini

Instant Influence: How to Get What You Want in Any Business Situation

Influence: Science and Practice: The Comic

Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive

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Quotes from Influence: The Psychol...

“A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason. People simply like to have reasons for what they do.” — 12 people liked it

“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies? The result was that once again nearly all (93 percent) agreed, even though no real reason, no new information, was added to justify their compliance. Just as the “cheep-cheep” sound of turkey chicks triggered an automatic mothering response from maternal turkeys—even when it emanated from a stuffed polecat—so, too, did the word “because” trigger an automatic compliance response” — 6 people liked it

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