Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

by Robert B. Cialdini

Research shows that messages are more likely to be successful if recipients can first be made to feel positively toward the messenger. Three of the seven principles of influence—reciprocation, liking, and unity—seem particularly appropriate to the task.

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.

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.

the word because triggered an automatic compliance response from Langer’s subjects, even when they were given no subsequent reason to comply.

Psychologists have uncovered a number of mental shortcuts we employ in making our everyday judgments. Termed judgmental heuristics, these shortcuts operate in much the same fashion as the expensive = good rule, allowing for simplified thinking that works well most of the time but leaves us open to occasional, costly mistakes.

Accident investigators from the US Federal Aviation Administration noted that, frequently, an obvious error made by a flight captain was not corrected by the other crew members and resulted in a crash. It seems, despite the clear and strong personal importance of the issues, the crew members were using the “If an expert says so, it must be true” rule in failing to attend or respond to the captain’s disastrous mistake.5

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.

despite the enormous needs prevailing in Ethiopia, the money was sent to Mexico because, in 1935, Mexico had sent aid to Ethiopia when it was invaded by Italy.

Various types of organizations have learned to employ the power of a small gift to spur actions that would have been otherwise withheld.

Take the case of the medical controversy surrounding the safety of calcium-channel blockers, a class of drugs for heart disease. One study discovered that 100 percent of the scientists who found and published results supportive of the drugs had received prior support (free trips, research funding, or employment) from the pharmaceutical companies; but only 37 percent of those critical of the drugs had received any such prior support.

Besides customizing a gift to a recipient’s preferences, customizing it to the recipient’s current needs can also supercharge the gift’s impact.

Most of us find it highly disagreeable to be in a state of obligation. It weighs heavily on us and demands to be removed.