Psychology of Persuasion Notes

8/11/2019 Psychology of Persuasion Notes

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INFLUENCE The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini

The principles consistency, reciprocation, social proof, authority, liking, and

scarcity

People simply like to have reasons for what they do

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 that

precedes it.

Sell the suit first, because when it comes time to look at sweaters, even

expensive ones, their prices will not seem as high in comparison.

The house !"ve got them spotted for looks really great after they"ve first

looked at a couple of dumps.#

!n each case, there was a common thread in the accompanying message.

The goods that were enclosed were to be considered a gift from the

organisation$ and any money ! wished to send should not be regarded as

payment but rather as a return offering.

%nother conse&uence of the rule, however, is an obligation to make a

concession to someone who has made a concession to us.

The techni&ue is a simple one that we can call the re'ection-then-retreat

techni&ue. Suppose you want me to agree to a certain re&uest. (ne way to

increase your chances would be first to make a larger re&uest of me, one that

! will most likely turn down. Then, after ! have refused, you would make the

smaller re&uest that you were really interested in all along. Provided that you

have structured your re&uest skilfully, ! should view your second re&uest as a

concession to me and should feel inclined to respond with a concession of my

own, the only one ! would have immediately open to me compliance with

your second re&uest.

)or a variety of reasons the percentage of successful door-to-door sales

increases impressively when the sales operator is able to mention the nameof a familiar person who recommended# the sales visit.


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!f a customer refuses a purchase ask for referrals

(nce we have made a choice or taken a stand, we will encounter personal

and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment.

)or the salesperson, the strategy is to obtain a large purchase by starting with

a small one. %lmost any small sale will do, because the purpose of that small

transaction is not profit. !t is commitment.

*ook at it his way when a person has signed an order for your merchandise,

even though the profit is so small it hardly compensates for the time and effort

of making the call, he is no longer a prospect he is a customer.

The tactic of starting small with a little re&uest in order to gain eventual

compliance with related larger re&uests has a name+ the foor-in-the-door

techni&ue.

(nce you"ve got a man"s self-image where you want it, he should comply

naturallywith a whole range of your re&uests that are consistent with this view

of himself.

%pparently the mere knowledge that someone viewed them as charitable

caused these women to make their actions consistent with another"s

perception of them.

The enormously successful %mway orporation, for instance, has hit upon a

way to spur their sales personnel to greater and greater accomplishments.

embers of the staff are asked to set individual sales goals and commit

themselves to those goals by personally recording them on paper.

Something special happens when people personally put their commitments on

paper+ They live up to what they have written down.

/-, /0-, or 100 words or less# testimonial contests

...express their opinions with a visible show of hands rather than by secret

ballot. (nce 'urors had stated their initial views publicly, they were reluctant to

allow themselves to change publicly, either.


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persons who go through a great deal of trouble or pain to attain something

tend to value it more highly than persons who attain the same thing with a

minimum of effort#

throwing a lowball#

2uring this time, the dealer knows, customers automatically develop a range

of new reasons to support the choice they have now made.

3e can learn, from the way the other witnesses are reacting, whether the

event is or is not an emergency.

3e will use the actions of others to decide on proper behaviour for ourselves,

especially when we view those others as similar to ourselves.

Thus the most influential leaders are those who know how to arrange group

conditions to allow the principle of social proof to work maximally in their

favour.

%s a result, the !ndian realised, it was possible to kill tremendous numbers of

buffalo by starting a herd running toward a cliff. The animals, responding to

thundering social proof around them and never looking up to see what lay

ahead did the rest.

(nce again we can see that social proof is most powerful for those who feel

unfamiliar or unsure in a specific situation and who, conse&uently, must look

outside of themselves for evidence of how best to behave there.

4ach new prospect is visited by a salesperson armed with the name of a

friend who suggested ! call on you.# Turning the salesperson away under

those circumstances is difficult$ it"s almost like re'ecting the friend. The

Shaklee sales manual insists that employees use this system without fail+ !t

would be impossible to overestimate its value. Phoning or calling on a

prospect and being able to say that r. So-and-so, a friend of his, felt he

would benefit by giving you a few moments of his time is virtually as good as a

sale /0 percent made before you enter.#


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5esearch has shown that we automatically assign to good-looking individuals

such favourable traits as talent, kindness, honesty, and intelligence.

Several studies have demonstrated that we are more likely to help those who

dress like us.

%nother way re&uesters can manipulate similarity to increase liking and

compliance is to claim that they have backgrounds and interests similar to

ours.

any sales training programs now urge trainees to mirror and match# the

customer"s body posture, mood, and verbal style, as similarities along each of

these dimensions have been shown to lead to positive results.

on'oint efforts toward common goals steadily bridged the rancorous rift

between the groups.

ompliance professionals are forever attempting to establish that we and they

are working for the same goals, that we must pull together# for mutual

benefit, that they are, in essence, our teammates.

...like the new-car salesman who takes our side and does battle# with his

boss to secure us a good deal.

known by the company we keep#

5esearch has shown that an attractive model posing with an automobile will

make the car appear more desirable. Some advertisers apparently believe

that the same holds true for all sorts of items

!t is the extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the

command of an authority that constitutes the chief finding of the study

!t was found that with each increase in status, the same man grew in

perceived height by an average of a half inch, so that as the professor# he

was seen as two and a half inches taller than as the student#

The percentage of compliance when he was in uniform 67


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Three and a half times as many people swept into traffic behind the suited

'aywalker.

)inely styled and expensive clothes carry an aura of status and position, as

do trappings such as 'ewellery and cars

People seem to be more motivated by the thought of losing something than by

the thought of gaining something of e&ual value

The deadline# tactic

...invoke the scarcity principle three separate times in 'ust five words that

read, 4xclusive, limited engagement ends soon8#

The advertising copy included the statement, a book for adults only,

restricted to those 1 years and over#

Those who learned of the age restriction 91: wanted to read the book more

and 9: believed that they would like the book more than did those who

thought their access to the book was unlimited

The customers who received this last sales presentation learned that not only

was the availability of the product limited, so also was the news concerning it

the scarcity double whammy

The fact that the news carrying the scarcity of information was itself scare

made it especially persuasive

%s we have seen in the case of political freedoms and 9especially pertinent to

the present discussion: chocolate-chip cookies, people see a thing as more

desirable when it has recently become less available than when it has been

scarce all along

The results showed that those whose cookies became scare through the

process of social demand liked them significantly more than those whose

cookies became scare by mistake. !n fact, the cookies made less available

through social demand were rated the most desirable of any in the study


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The feeling of being in competition for scarce resources has powerfully

motivating properties

Scarcity plus rivalry

The 'oy is not in experiencinga scare commodity but inpossessingit

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Psychology of Persuasion Notes