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Influence by Robert B. Cialdini: A Concise Understanding in 30 Minutes
What is the psychology that drives people to say yes?
Influence ...in 30 Minutes is the essential guide to quickly understanding the psychology of influence as outlined in Robert B. Cialdini's best-selling book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.
Learn the key ideas behind Influence in a fraction of the time:
* Discover the six universal principles to becoming a skilled persuader.
* Understand why people say yes, and learn how to counteract these persuasive tactics when they are used in an exploitive manner.
* Illustrative case studies reveal Cialdini's groundbreaking research in the psychology of influence.
In Influence, Robert B. Cialdini, PhD, best-selling author and expert in the field of influence and persuasion, has compiled over thirty-five years of evidence-based research to offer fundamental insights into the psychology of compliance. Through experimental studies and an immersion in the world of compliance professionals--politicians, fund-raisers, recruiters, advertisers, marketing professionals, and others--Cialdini presents a framework for understanding the world of persuasion.
Widely praised for its actionable insights, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion offers practical knowledge for anyone seeking to ignite personal change and drive success.
Influence ...in 30 Minutes is the essential guide to quickly understanding the psychology of influence as outlined in Robert B. Cialdini's best-selling book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.
Learn the key ideas behind Influence in a fraction of the time:
* Discover the six universal principles to becoming a skilled persuader.
* Understand why people say yes, and learn how to counteract these persuasive tactics when they are used in an exploitive manner.
* Illustrative case studies reveal Cialdini's groundbreaking research in the psychology of influence.
In Influence, Robert B. Cialdini, PhD, best-selling author and expert in the field of influence and persuasion, has compiled over thirty-five years of evidence-based research to offer fundamental insights into the psychology of compliance. Through experimental studies and an immersion in the world of compliance professionals--politicians, fund-raisers, recruiters, advertisers, marketing professionals, and others--Cialdini presents a framework for understanding the world of persuasion.
Widely praised for its actionable insights, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion offers practical knowledge for anyone seeking to ignite personal change and drive success.
32 pages, Paperback
First published January 28, 2013
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October 20, 2026wip - 4?
uncertainty drives people to look to others’ behavior for guidance
notes:
- a patsy – someone who’s all too easy to trick and manipulate.
- our brain loves shortcuts and that can be used to manipulate us
- If a chick emits the distinctive “cheep-cheep” sound, the mother will care for it lovingly. But if the chick does not, the mother will ignore or even kill it! The “cheep-cheep” sound is so persuasive that even a replica of the turkey’s arch-nemesis, the polecat, will elicit tender care from the mother turkey as long as it cheeps loudly. For the mother turkey, the sound is a simple shortcut that allows her to quickly and, in most cases, reliably identify its chicks, triggering its maternal instincts.
- we’re much more willing to do people a favor if they provide us with a reason – any reason. In an experiment to study this phenomenon, a researcher asked people queueing up to use a copy machine whether she could skip the line. She found that if she gave a reason – “May I skip the line because I’m in a rush? ” – 94 percent of people complied with her request. If she gave no reason, only 60 percent complied. But, fascinatingly, if she gave a nonsensical reason – “May I skip the line because I need to make copies” – 93 percent still complied.
- ompliance professionals like advertisers, salesmen and con artists can fool us into using our shortcuts against our own interests. They usually do this to get us to comply with their demands, for example, to buy a product. One example is the commonly abused “price indicates quality” shortcut.
- Has anyone ever given you something on the street, like a flower or a free sample of something? Do waiters at restaurants occasionally bring complimentary sweets along with your bill? As innocent as these gestures may seem, they are actually relatively simple tricks to influence your behavior. You see, the first psychological principle of persuasion is the rule of reciprocation: we feel obliged to return favors.
- Consider that in 1985, Ethiopia was probably one of the worst-off countries in the world, ravaged by poverty, starvation and disease. And yet, in that year, the country’s Red Cross sent 5,000 dollars to aid earthquake victims in Mexico City. Why would this desperately impoverished country send money to another faraway land? Simple: in 1935, when Italy had invaded Ethiopia, Mexico had sent aid to the country, and this was an opportunity to return the favor. In fact, people are so keen to rid themselves of the burden of reciprocity that they will often perform much larger favors in return for small ones.
- Start by getting into the habit of asking yourself if the favors you receive are really genuine, or if they could be attempts to manipulate you. Think about whether you actually want to donate your money to that nonprofit organization, or if you only feel obliged because they handed you a gift on the street.
- What makes rejection-then-retreat such a powerful persuasion technique is that in addition to evoking our desire to reciprocate concessions, it also benefits from the contrast principle: when two items are presented to us one after the other, the difference of the second to the first is magnified. Thus, the one-dollar chocolate bar the boy offered seemed disproportionately cheap compared to the more expensive circus ticket. The dynamic is fairly simple to put to use: if you want something specific from a negotiation partner, start with an offer they are pretty sure to reject. Then retreat from your initial offer to what you really want. Your opponent will probably see this as a concession and feel obliged to make a similar one.
- He started by suggesting a 1-million-dollar scheme involving kidnapping, mugging and prostitution. Though his later second and third proposals were still scandalous and incredibly ill-conceived, the CRP felt they had to “give Liddy something” for his concessions from his first scheme. Also, compared to the initial outrageous 1-million dollar proposal, the 250,000-dollar scheme involving “mere” burglary no longer sounded that bad. As you probably know, the burglars were caught and the resulting scandal eventually forced Nixon to resign.
- There’s a reason advertisers often emphasize that a sale won’t last forever: according to the scarcity principle, when something is hard to obtain, it makes us more inclined to buy it. We humans see opportunities as more valuable if their availability is limited, and this seems to be because we just plain hate missing out. A 1982 study by one of Cialdini’s students showed that when shoppers were told of a limited-time sale on meat, they bought three times more than if there was no time limit.
- The scarcity of both the offer and the information itself made shoppers buy six times more meat than customers unaware of either limit! So when does scarcity become a powerful influence on our decision-making? Two conditions need to be fulfilled: First, we tend to want something more if its availability has decreased recently than if it has remained steady over time. This is why revolutions tend to happen when living conditions deteriorate sharply rather than when they are consistently low; the sudden drop increases people’s desire for something better, so they take to the streets
- For example, a study conducted in the 1970s at the University of North Carolina showed that when college students were told that a speech opposing co-ed dorms was to be canceled and banned on campus, they became more sympathetic to the idea – and this without having heard a single word of the speech! Similarly, courtroom research indicates that juries are also influenced by “censored” information. It has long been known that when juries know that an insurance company will pay the bill, they tend to award larger damages to plaintiffs. Interestingly though, they award even higher damages if they are expressly told by the judge to ignore the fact that the defendant has insurance. The “forbidden” information seems more relevant to them and makes them overreact, just like a forbidden toy seems immensely desirable to any child. And this applies to other things than information, too.
- And having the “commitment” in writing was also an important element in this process; there is something inescapably powerful about written words signed by oneself. The widely known foot-in-the-door sales technique takes advantage of how even small commitments affect our self-image. The first goal of salespeople is to get prospects to make a small purchase that is not even intended to make a profit. Rather, it constitutes a small commitment that changes the prospect’s own perception into one of a customer, making them much more amenable to the larger deal down the line. So the next time a salesperson asks you to buy something, no matter how inexpensive, be careful.
- research has shown that such inner choices are more likely to produce lasting inner change compared to choices made due to external pressure. Compliance professionals like salespeople can use, for example, the lowball trick to try to generate inner change in us.
- even artificial laughter helps convince us that others consider the jokes funny, meaning we probably should too
- why companies often advertise products with lines like “best-selling” or “fastest-growing” – it makes customers feel like others are buying the products too. Social proof becomes a particularly powerful influence when we face uncertainty.
- when young people read that another youngster has committed suicide, they are more likely to take their own lives, while older people are more likely to react to news of suicides by seniors. In a less tragic setting, this dynamic is also why marketers often use advertisements featuring (mostly fake) interviews with “regular people on the street” who endorse a product. “Ordinary people” comprise the largest potential market for any product, and they value an endorsement by a person who seems similar to themselves.
- we comply with people we like
- Attractiveness produces a so-called halo effect, meaning that we tend to see attractive people as smart, kind and honest.
- On the other hand, if we hear about something while eating delicious food, we tend to associate the matter in question with the positive feelings elicited by the food.
uncertainty drives people to look to others’ behavior for guidance
notes:
- a patsy – someone who’s all too easy to trick and manipulate.
- our brain loves shortcuts and that can be used to manipulate us
- If a chick emits the distinctive “cheep-cheep” sound, the mother will care for it lovingly. But if the chick does not, the mother will ignore or even kill it! The “cheep-cheep” sound is so persuasive that even a replica of the turkey’s arch-nemesis, the polecat, will elicit tender care from the mother turkey as long as it cheeps loudly. For the mother turkey, the sound is a simple shortcut that allows her to quickly and, in most cases, reliably identify its chicks, triggering its maternal instincts.
- we’re much more willing to do people a favor if they provide us with a reason – any reason. In an experiment to study this phenomenon, a researcher asked people queueing up to use a copy machine whether she could skip the line. She found that if she gave a reason – “May I skip the line because I’m in a rush? ” – 94 percent of people complied with her request. If she gave no reason, only 60 percent complied. But, fascinatingly, if she gave a nonsensical reason – “May I skip the line because I need to make copies” – 93 percent still complied.
- ompliance professionals like advertisers, salesmen and con artists can fool us into using our shortcuts against our own interests. They usually do this to get us to comply with their demands, for example, to buy a product. One example is the commonly abused “price indicates quality” shortcut.
- Has anyone ever given you something on the street, like a flower or a free sample of something? Do waiters at restaurants occasionally bring complimentary sweets along with your bill? As innocent as these gestures may seem, they are actually relatively simple tricks to influence your behavior. You see, the first psychological principle of persuasion is the rule of reciprocation: we feel obliged to return favors.
- Consider that in 1985, Ethiopia was probably one of the worst-off countries in the world, ravaged by poverty, starvation and disease. And yet, in that year, the country’s Red Cross sent 5,000 dollars to aid earthquake victims in Mexico City. Why would this desperately impoverished country send money to another faraway land? Simple: in 1935, when Italy had invaded Ethiopia, Mexico had sent aid to the country, and this was an opportunity to return the favor. In fact, people are so keen to rid themselves of the burden of reciprocity that they will often perform much larger favors in return for small ones.
- Start by getting into the habit of asking yourself if the favors you receive are really genuine, or if they could be attempts to manipulate you. Think about whether you actually want to donate your money to that nonprofit organization, or if you only feel obliged because they handed you a gift on the street.
- What makes rejection-then-retreat such a powerful persuasion technique is that in addition to evoking our desire to reciprocate concessions, it also benefits from the contrast principle: when two items are presented to us one after the other, the difference of the second to the first is magnified. Thus, the one-dollar chocolate bar the boy offered seemed disproportionately cheap compared to the more expensive circus ticket. The dynamic is fairly simple to put to use: if you want something specific from a negotiation partner, start with an offer they are pretty sure to reject. Then retreat from your initial offer to what you really want. Your opponent will probably see this as a concession and feel obliged to make a similar one.
- He started by suggesting a 1-million-dollar scheme involving kidnapping, mugging and prostitution. Though his later second and third proposals were still scandalous and incredibly ill-conceived, the CRP felt they had to “give Liddy something” for his concessions from his first scheme. Also, compared to the initial outrageous 1-million dollar proposal, the 250,000-dollar scheme involving “mere” burglary no longer sounded that bad. As you probably know, the burglars were caught and the resulting scandal eventually forced Nixon to resign.
- There’s a reason advertisers often emphasize that a sale won’t last forever: according to the scarcity principle, when something is hard to obtain, it makes us more inclined to buy it. We humans see opportunities as more valuable if their availability is limited, and this seems to be because we just plain hate missing out. A 1982 study by one of Cialdini’s students showed that when shoppers were told of a limited-time sale on meat, they bought three times more than if there was no time limit.
- The scarcity of both the offer and the information itself made shoppers buy six times more meat than customers unaware of either limit! So when does scarcity become a powerful influence on our decision-making? Two conditions need to be fulfilled: First, we tend to want something more if its availability has decreased recently than if it has remained steady over time. This is why revolutions tend to happen when living conditions deteriorate sharply rather than when they are consistently low; the sudden drop increases people’s desire for something better, so they take to the streets
- For example, a study conducted in the 1970s at the University of North Carolina showed that when college students were told that a speech opposing co-ed dorms was to be canceled and banned on campus, they became more sympathetic to the idea – and this without having heard a single word of the speech! Similarly, courtroom research indicates that juries are also influenced by “censored” information. It has long been known that when juries know that an insurance company will pay the bill, they tend to award larger damages to plaintiffs. Interestingly though, they award even higher damages if they are expressly told by the judge to ignore the fact that the defendant has insurance. The “forbidden” information seems more relevant to them and makes them overreact, just like a forbidden toy seems immensely desirable to any child. And this applies to other things than information, too.
- And having the “commitment” in writing was also an important element in this process; there is something inescapably powerful about written words signed by oneself. The widely known foot-in-the-door sales technique takes advantage of how even small commitments affect our self-image. The first goal of salespeople is to get prospects to make a small purchase that is not even intended to make a profit. Rather, it constitutes a small commitment that changes the prospect’s own perception into one of a customer, making them much more amenable to the larger deal down the line. So the next time a salesperson asks you to buy something, no matter how inexpensive, be careful.
- research has shown that such inner choices are more likely to produce lasting inner change compared to choices made due to external pressure. Compliance professionals like salespeople can use, for example, the lowball trick to try to generate inner change in us.
- even artificial laughter helps convince us that others consider the jokes funny, meaning we probably should too
- why companies often advertise products with lines like “best-selling” or “fastest-growing” – it makes customers feel like others are buying the products too. Social proof becomes a particularly powerful influence when we face uncertainty.
- when young people read that another youngster has committed suicide, they are more likely to take their own lives, while older people are more likely to react to news of suicides by seniors. In a less tragic setting, this dynamic is also why marketers often use advertisements featuring (mostly fake) interviews with “regular people on the street” who endorse a product. “Ordinary people” comprise the largest potential market for any product, and they value an endorsement by a person who seems similar to themselves.
- we comply with people we like
- Attractiveness produces a so-called halo effect, meaning that we tend to see attractive people as smart, kind and honest.
- On the other hand, if we hear about something while eating delicious food, we tend to associate the matter in question with the positive feelings elicited by the food.
October 6, 2013
Was a good listen. Happy to hear that I've already read most of the recommended reading. Having listened to this I now want to read the full book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews