INFLUENCE The psychology of persuasion
by Robert Cialdini
Now Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University, Cialdini is the daddy of the study of the psychology of influence. He started his career as a researcher by joining various firms of what he calls ‘compliance professionals’ - sales people, fundraisers, marketers, etc - and being trained in their tactics for a few months before moving on to the next.
In this book - first published in 1984 but updated in 2021 - he describes seven powerful principles of influence and persuasion.
1. Reciprocation - if you did me a favour, I owe you one in return
2. Liking - we are influenced by people we like or who like us. This derives from many things including physical attractiveness, similarities, compliments, association and our own identification amongst others
3. Social proof - we use the judgement of others as a short cut , especially if we are uncertain
4. Authority – those in positions of credible authority can heavily influence us. This has long since moved beyond simple hierarchical authority as we make our own assessments of expertise and trustworthiness
5. Scarcity - we want what is scarce because a) scarcity tells us others have wanted it) and b) we fear losing opportunity
6. Commitment and consistency – we like to look, and be, consistent in our decision-making. So once we’ve committed to something, we are reluctant to change our minds, even in the face of quite strong counter-evidence. This extends to things that are related - we don’t like making decisions that implicitly contradict other decisions we’ve made
7. Unity – the power of perceiving ourselves as part of in-groups
It’s a long book but Cialdini writes quite entertainingly, using lots of examples and stories. He repeatedly explores how these tools can be misused and how we can guard against being unduly influenced by them, although I found this a little unconvincing. I imagine the book has been devoured by many an advertising exec, not all of whom will have been scrupulous in applying them as ethically as Cialdini suggests