Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion — In-Depth Summary
Book by Robert B. Cialdini
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion — In-Depth Summary
This Book consists of seven chapters, the first chapter introduces the basis for weapons of Influence used by compliance professionals. The next six-chapter builds on top of chapter one (So make sure to read chapter one first). Each chapter introduces one principle of persuasion listed as below:
6 Psychology Principle of Persuasion
Principle 1: Indebtedness
Principle 2: Commitment and Consistency
Principle 3: Social Proof
Principle 4: Liking
Principle 5: Authority
Principle 6: Scarcity
Chapter 1: Weapons of Influence
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler” — Albert Einstein
“because”
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. People simply like to have reasons for what they do. Humans are so accustomed to this behavior, just by merely using the word “because” without providing any concrete reason, it will yield the same result.
“stereotyping”
One of the stereotypes we commonly have is “You get what you pay for”, we have seen that rule borne out over and over again in our lives. Before long, we had translated the rule to mean “expensive = good.” When we find ourselves wanting a quality product without much knowledge of the product, we readily relied on price to determine a product’s merit. Exploiters might mimic trigger features for our own brand of automatic responding.
Why don’t we evaluate properly?
We are living in an extraordinarily complicated stimulus environment, we can’t be expected to recognize and analyze all the aspects of everything even for one day of our life. We just do not have the time, energy, or capacity for it. Instead, we use shortcuts such as stereotypes, our rules of thumb to classify things according to a few key features and then to respond mindlessly when one or another of these trigger features is present.
“contrast”
Contrast principle tells us that our perception of things were affected when the order of things presented one after the other is different. Simply put, if the second item is fairly different from the first, we will tend to see it as more different than it actually is. So if we lift a light object first and then lift a heavy object, we will estimate the second object to be heavier than if we had lifted it without first trying the light one. The contrast principle is well established in the field of psychophysics and applies to all sorts of perceptions besides weight.
In many stores, sales personnel were instructed to sell the costly item first. This is because when they sell costly item first, the subsequent item that are expensive when stand alone will not seem excessive. If an inexpensive product was introduced first, the subsequent item might seem more expensive than it actually is, the rules work both ways.
Example: Automobile dealers use the contrast principle by waiting until the price for a new car has been negotiated before suggesting one option after another that might be added. The trick is to bring up the extras independently of one another so that each small price will seem petty when compared to the already determined much larger one.
Disclaimer
All information above are the summary of the book: “Influence: The Psychology Principles of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini” There are a lot more interesting and eye-opening techniques used by compliance professionals that are not mentioned in this summary. Find out more by buying this book at Amazon.com