Influence - The Psychology of Persuasion

Editor's Notes

1. Rober B Cialdini, PH.D., Regents' Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University. Influence, psychology of persuasion. Sold over 2 million copies, translated into 22 languages. Most important book written for marketers in last 10 yrs – j of market research .
2. What are the psychological principles of persuasion?
3. So many brands are trying to occupy into our mental space.
4. Information explosion. Knowledge expanding very fast. Every eight years human knowledge doubles.
5. Ads and Ads, every where. It is mind boggling.
6. So many choices!
7. Many ways to quench the thirst.
8. Which psychological principles influence the tendency to comply a request?
9. Let us see ‘How animals make decisions ’.
10. Mother turkey responds to and takes care of the chick which quacks. Only healthy, normal turkey baby quacks effectively, it provides sustainability advantage to the specie.
11. Peahen picks up the peacock with best mane.
12. But it is not only a bird that instinctively feeds the young one, even human does so (though we call it as freewill!).
13. Cats fight, so do the women.
14. Males of many species fight to prove one’s supremacy. So do male of human specie.
15. Though, heart of heart, we know that our behavior in a particular situation may not be the most appropriate one, because even the best stereotype and trigger-features may not work best every-time. We accept their imperfections because, there is no other choice, without them we would stand frozen – cataloging, analyzing, calibrating- as the time to take action sped away.
16. We tend to comply to a request if it is followed by ‘because’, because we are programmed to comply to a request, if it is followed by ‘because’; whether the reason given is sound or not. According to a study, 90% respond positively to a request if it is followed by ‘because’ (reason), compared to 60 % if not followed by reason, even if the reason is flimsy.
17. Second common stereo-type is – ‘expensive is better’.
18. According to a study, same wine when labeled with a higher price tag was tasted, brain areas for pleasure lit up more than when it was labeled with a less price tag.
19. We evaluate worth of a thing in comparison to something else. Light thing weights less after lifting and heavier one; wife looks less attractive after watching Charlie’s angel or after watching a attractive model; a person is more ready to pay a little more for a shirt after purchasing a suit, he is more likely to buy a shirt after purchasing a suit, rather than the other way. Property-dealer shows a ‘set-up’ property, which is lousy, and quotes an inflated price for it, then later he shows the genuine property, which he really intends to sell. Car dealer after selling car, starts selling accessories, one after the other usually in decreasing price order, as the price of accessory appears to be nothing compared to car which he has already purchased.
20. Anything out of reach entices us. Grass is always greener on the other side. That takes us to the next rule – Scarcity, rule of the few.
21. Most straightforward use of scarcity principle occurs in the ‘limited number’ tactic – short supply, discount available only today. Salesman tells customer the item you are assessing is sold out – let me check in the store. Price has increased; this is the last piece available. Sales people create a contest type situation by telling that other buyer is coming soon, there is something physical about the desire to have a contested item. In an experiment, Florida State University students, when surveyed, rated the quality of their campus cafeteria food unsatisfactory. Nine days later, according to a second survey, they had changed their minds. Something had happened to make them like their cafeteria's food significantly better than before. Interestingly, the event that caused them to shift their opinions had nothing to do with the quality of the food service, which had not changed a bit. But its availability had. On the day of the second survey, the students had learned that, because of a fire, they could not eat at the cafeteria for the next two weeks.
22. We all are conditioned to ‘not to question authority ’. Our teachers, priests, grandparents, uncles/aunts were supposed to be always right. We are all taught from childhood that obedience to proper authority is right and disobedience is wrong. The essential message fills the parental lessons, the school house rhymes, stories, songs of our childhood and is carried forward in the legal, military and political system we encounter as adults. Notions of submission and loyalty to legitimate rule are accorded much value in each.
23. Titles are symbols of authority – a person with a title of professor is estimated to be two and half inches taller than when he is presented as a student. Children judge bigger coin as of big denomination, adults are not different; person in a business suit is more likely to be followed on a zebra crossing (with red light on) than a person in workman clothes. Status is another trap, motorist will think twice before honking to a luxury car than to a common car.
24. "All things being equal, you root for your own sex, your own culture, your own locality ... and what you want to prove is that you are better than the other person. Whomever you root for represents you; and when he wins, you win."
25. Halo effect – good looking people are automatically assigned favorable traits as talent, kindness, honesty and intelligence, without knowing of our. Aggressive acts of an attractive child are considered less naughty. More than attractiveness is ‘similarity’ in appearance, tastes, background, dress sense, religion, political views, habits like smoking, etc. Compliments – we are phenomenal suckers for flattery. We tend, as a rule, to believe praise and to like those who provide it, oftentimes when it is clearly false. Earlier days if a messenger brought good news he was rewarded, and got himself even killed for bringing good news. Unfortunately, this bias continues till today, that is why people will try o hush up the problems. Therefore, if one person tells there is problem, there are many who keep quite. Weatherman giving good-weather forecast is liked. Association is another way of making it likeable – Olympics, cricket, natural, celebrities. Luncheon techniques- a well fed stomach has a more accepting/favorable head. We, all, manipulate visibility of our connections with winners and losers to look good to the others. Celebrity endorsements to sell products are examples ‘how likeability is used by marketers.
26. People adapt their actions according to what they see other people do. People don’t necessarily do what they see many others do. It’s more accurate to say that people tend to do what they see many other people do. People tend to buy what other people who are just like them have bought. Ambiguity and similarity are two main forces that drive us to follow social proof. People don’t want to be unique; they want to be like somebody else.
27. Most people call ‘canned laughter’ stupid, phony and obvious, yet it is employed many laughter shows – because it makes people laugh more often and longer. It increases humorous and appreciative response – it is most effective for poor jokes. The tendency to see an action as more appropriate when others are doing it normally works quite well. We tend to do what others do , because we make fewer mistakes by acting in accord with social evidence than contrary to it. Bartenders, beggars, and charity organizations ‘salt’ their tip jars to stimulate heavy tips/donations. Advertisers use words such as largest selling, fastest moving . 95% people are imitators, only 5% are initiators. People are more persuaded by the action of others than by any proof we can offer. In emergency, a person is likely to get help from a lone bystander than a when in a crowd, because crowd feels somebody would do it. Therefore in emergency, if you request a particular person for help you are more likely to be helped rather than if you request everybody to help you. We are more likely to follow the lead of a similar (to us) person than a dissimilar – ads by regular-looking people to sell products. Children learn best from other children, or making them role models.
28. Werther effect – Followed by the book, ‘The Sorrow of Young Werther’ by Goethe, incidence of suicides increased so much so that some countries had to ban the book. Research indicates that even today a well-publicize suicide story increases the rate of suicides in that geographical area. With in two months of well-publicized suicide story 58 more people kill themselves. Following such a story, not only the number of suicides but number of accident related deaths also increase. A widely publicized aggression has nasty tendency to spread to similar victims, no matter whether the aggression is inflicted on the self or the others.
29. That takes us to our next principle – Consistency.
30. Commonly heard phrases - I am man of my word. Once I have made a (right or wrong!) decision, I stick to it. We simply convince ourselves that we have made the right choice and, no doubt, feel better about our decision. According to research, desire for consistency is a central motivator of our behavior . "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.” Sealed within the fortress walls of rigid consistency, we can be impervious to the sieges of reason. Inconsistent are considered mentally unstable.
31. People become more confident of a horse winning after laying down a bet on it – though it is the same horse, same track, and same field. Once we have made a choice or taken a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressure to behave consistently with that commitment. When a restaurant started requesting people to inform the restaurant if they change their plans, it dropped the cancellation by 20%. Consistency provides us with a reasonable and gainful orientation to the world. Most of times, we will be better off if our approach to things is well laced with consistency. Without it our life will be difficult, erratic and disjointed. Consistency works as a shield against thought, it should not be surprising that this trait can be exploited and we get fooled due to ‘our own need to be consistent. Consistency is usually associated with strength, inconsistency as weak; we want to look virtuous.
32. Commitment is the key. We take stand – prove or disprove it. A strategy that involves making a statement or taking some action will trap people to be complaint later due to ‘consistency trap’. Some of such traps are straight forward, others are subtle. Survey on whether you will donate for cancer, later followed by 700% increase in donations. Once a small purchase is made, it paves way to a bigger purchase. Study involving first people to agree on signing a petition on ‘safe driving’ or ‘beautiful California’ made them accept to put a big billboard on safety in front of their homes – first is due to small commitment and second they have changed perception of themselves. Once an active commitment is made, self image is squeezed from both sides by consistency pressures. People made to write a statement, whether they believed or not, acted favorably later. If people are made to believe that they are viewed in a particular fashion by others, made their action consistent with the expected behavior. Why I like…… drive has found to be useful in getting commitment from customers. People become highly loyal to choices after putting it down on paper. Written commitments about stop smoking or losing weight work better if written down shared with friends etc. to work really well. More effort it goes into a commitment, greater is its ability to influence the attitude of the person who made it. Person who go through a great deal of trouble or pain to attain something tends to value it more highly that the person who attain the same thing with minimum effort. Inner responsibility is more important factor in consistency than strong rewards or punishment – study on school boys ’not to play with robot for they will be punished produced less consistent behavior when they were told ‘because it is wrong’. Get a large favor by first getting a small one (small commitments manipulate a person’s self-image and position them for large commitment).
33. Many of you must have heard fable of ‘ The ant and the dove’ .
34. This brings us to next, and most important, persuasion principle – Reciprocation.
35. A professor sent charismas cards to perfect strangers, 70% returned the greetings.
36. In an experiment, Rating of painting(s) increases if the evaluator is offered a coke, and subsequent buying of raffle from the attendee increased by two times. This rule possess awesome strength – rule of reciprocity is so strong that it simply overwhelmed the influence of a factor – liking for the requester – that normally affects the decision to comply. People we might ordinarily dislike – unsavory or unwelcome sales people, disagreeable acquaintances, representative of strange or unpopular organizations – can greatly increase the chance that we do what they wish merely by providing us with a small favor prior to their requests. Benefactor-before-beggar strategy has used very effectively by Hare Krishna Society to amass huge money through donations. Store make people taste and then sell, Amway BUG was very successful campaign.
37. Even an unwanted favor, once received, can produce indebtedness to repay. This rule can trigger unfair exchange – often exploited by marketers or unscrupulous people – internal discomfort and external shame put people on a lot of psychological pressure and they end up returning small favor with a big one.
38. Reciprocal concession – large-request than small request sequence, works wonder, ask for 10$ raffle followed by 2 $ chocolate, which one can sell easily. If you don’t buy give me name of reference who might buy.