Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

by Robert B. Cialdini

compliance: Just what are the factors that cause one person to say yes to another?

And which techniques most effectively use these factors to bring about compliance?

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. —Leonardo da Vinci

A fundamental characteristic of these patterns is that the behaviors composing them occur in virtually the same fashion and in the same order every time.

The second important thing to understand is that we, too, have our preset programs, and although they usually work to our advantage, the trigger features that activate them can dupe us into running the right programs at the wrong times.

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.

because,

guide their buying: expensive = good. Research shows that people who are unsure of an item’s quality often use this stereotype.

Price alone had become a trigger feature for quality, and a dramatic increase in price alone had led to a dramatic increase in sales among the quality-hungry buyers.

Notice, as in the case of the turquoise-jewelry buyers, it was someone who wanted to be assured of good merchandise who disdained the low-priced item. I’m confident that besides the expensive = good rule, there’s a flip side, an inexpensive = bad rule that applies to our thinking as well. After all, in English, the word cheap doesn’t just mean inexpensive; it has also come to mean inferior.

a higher price typically reflects higher quality.

“If an expert said so, it must be true.” As

be convinced just by the expert’s status as “expert.”

We resist the seductive luxury of registering and reacting to just a single (trigger) feature of the available information when an issue is important to us.

Take for instance the principle of social proof, which asserts that people are inclined to believe or do what they see those around them believing or doing.

There is a principle in human perception, the contrast principle,

The point is that the same thing—in this instance, room-temperature water—can be made to seem very different depending on the nature of the event preceding it.

It is more profitable for salespeople to present the expensive item first; to fail to do so not only loses the force of the contrast principle but also causes the principle to work against them.

The rule says that we should try to repay what another person has provided us. If

The result was the lowering of the natural inhibitions against transactions that must be begun by one person’s providing personal resources to another.

Clearly, the pull of reciprocity can be both lifesaving and lifelong.

The rule of reciprocation was so strong it simply overwhelmed the influence of a factor—liking for the requester—that normally affects the decision to comply.

I’d recommend retaining that (earned) influence by saying something such as, “Listen, if our positions were ever reversed, I know you’d do the same for me.” The benefits should be considerable.

Survey researchers have discovered that sending a monetary gift (e.g., a silver dollar or a $5 check) in an envelope with a mailed questionnaire greatly increases survey completion rates, compared to offering the same monetary amount as an after-the-fact reward.

In general, business operators have found that after accepting a gift, customers are willing to purchase products and agree to requests they would have otherwise declined.

The beauty of the free sample, however, is that it is also a gift and, as such, can engage the reciprocity rule.

a promoter who provides free samples can release the natural indebting force inherent in a gift, while innocently appearing to have only the intention to inform.

there is a set of conditions that magnifies that force even more: when the first gift is customized, and thereby personalized, to the recipient’s current needs or preferences.

customizing it to the recipient’s current needs can also supercharge the gift’s impact.

matching the gift to the need made the difference.

In short, problem-free may not feel as good to people as problem-freed.

A person can trigger a feeling of indebtedness by doing us an uninvited favor.

there is an obligation to give, an obligation to receive, and an obligation to repay.

the rule is extremely powerful,

personalized or customized to the recipient’s current preferences or needs.

applies even to uninvited first favors,

an individual often agrees to a request for a substantially larger favor than the one he or she received.

we should accept initial favors or concessions in good faith but be ready to redefine them as tricks should they later be proved as such.

Once they are redefined in this way, we should no longer feel a need to respond with a favor or concession of our own.

The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost. —G. K. Chesterton

When something becomes less available, our freedom to have it is limited, and we experience an increased desire for it.

assuming a cause-and-effect relationship between desire and merit is a faulty supposition.

we can see that information may not have to be censored for us to value it more; it need only be scarce.

Sometimes they try to overpower it by providing evidence that, despite any reluctance, change is the right move to make. They might do so by including information that the recipient should feel obligated to the persuader from a past favor (reciprocity) or is a nice person who deserves agreement (liking) or that many others have made the change (social proof) or that experts recommend it (authority) or that the opportunity to take action is dwindling (scarcity).

early on, mentions a drawback to the suggested change.

“But you are free to decline/refuse/say no” or a similar phrase, such as “Of course, do as you wish,” significantly increased compliance.

People say yes to someone they consider one of them.

Members of these groups favor the outcomes and welfare of fellow members over those of nonmembers. “We”-group members also use the preferences and actions of fellow members to guide their own, which enhances group solidarity. Finally, such partisan tendencies have arisen, evolutionarily, as ways to advantage our “we”-groups and, ultimately, ourselves.

The experience of acting together in unison or coordination is a second fundamental factor leading to a sense of unity with others.

They are commitments, opportunities for reciprocation, the compliant behavior of similar others, feelings of liking or unity, authority directives, and scarcity information.