The 7 Elements of Influence that you need to know

As a young eager professional starting my career there was a lot I didn’t know, sadly I didn’t recognise this at the time and thought myself wise. Not much has changed since then other than I now have a better grasp of how wise I have become, or better said, how ignorant I remain.

Realising how green I was, my boss at the time gave me a book that has helped develop me and expand my knowledge of perhaps the most important facet of human psychology. Influence.

The book is Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini. If you find the rest of this post interesting then I highly recommend the book.

With the knowledge that humans are all roughly the same Cialdini uncovered 7 elements that influence almost every decision that we humans make and most of the time we aren’t even aware of them.

Luckily he also discovered how you can identify, leverage and break free of these 7 elements.

1. Reciprocity

This is one of the most powerful elements of influence and is so heavily ingrained into our culture that we learn it from the earliest age and adhere to it our whole lives. Reciprocity is unwritten but universal and can be used in good and ugly ways.

Good

If you provide utility to someone without that person compensating you directly or having agreed rates of repayment then that person will feel the full weight of reciprocity. e.g. If you lend someone $5 then they will feel the need to repay you. Obvious but important to remember.

Ugly

When a person specifically targets you with a free service or product to invoke reciprocity with the specific objective of guiding your actions to a pre-set conclusion. e.g. If someone gives you a little flower as a gift on the street and then asks you for a $1 [payment/donation.

Breaking free

Although physiologically you may feel trapped and under extreme pressure to comply when someone corners you with reciprocity you should always ask yourself these questions.

Was this a trick?

Did they do this to corner me into a decision?

Do I actually owe them anything?

If the answer to any of these questions is no. You can smile, thank them for their generous gift and continue about your day without fear of being smitted by the reciprocity gods.

For further reading please see this article by Dan Riek

2. Commitment & Consistency

We are influenced by people that keep their word and who are consistent in their behaviours. Because we wouldn’t have been able to trade justly or safely without this important element of influence. If someone is always late to your meeting or always cancels appointments with you they will be seen as unreliable and perceived that way for all of their actions.

“If Sarah is consistently late to our meetings how could I possibly trust her consistently do X?!”

You could read commitment as meaning we keep our word.

“Daniel said he would run an ironman this year but didn’t, how am I to believe that he will keep any of the pledges he makes?”

Misuse

Vietnam era Chinese prisoner of war camps would routinely have their inmates enter competitions to win small prizes like cigarettes etc. To win you had to write a an essay on why China is better than America. They would then read these out and post them around the camp so that person would be viewed and treated like traitor. When everyone views and treats you as a traitor you start to act consistently with this perception. Also known as Halo & Horns effect.

Breaking free

Cialdini says you should listen to Stomach signs, your heart of heart and special vulnerabilities. This means that if you:

Feel a tightening of your stomach it could be a sign that you are being coerced,

Think deeply then right answer is typically your first feeling before the rational brain kicks in

Feel a specific vulnerability is being exploited and this could be age, race, gender or upbringing related

You should feel vindicated in calling out the influencer and explaining which element of influence they are using.

“Stop using the commitment & consistency element of influence psychology on me you naughty person/corporation you!”

3. Social Proof

We look to those similar to us to gauge our own potential and capabilities. The premise is that if someone is like us then their actions and behaviors (as a collective) are correct and their achievements are attainable. In the Internet age this is particularly prevalent and actually drives the share prices of some tech companies through the roof.

The most popular site becomes a self perpetuating engine for growth as others base their opinion of the quality and suitability of a technology or company on how many people use it. We all want to join the crowd and WhatSnapIn to twittresters on our Facestergram.

There are 5 types of social proof:

Expert – Dentists endorsing toothpaste

Celebrity – Rory Mcilroy endorsing golf clubs

User – Amazon reviews

Wisdom of the crowds – Queuing for an ATM

Wisdom of your friends – James said that Amazon Echo has changed his life

For further reading on this I would recommend Ed Hallen’s easily digestable blog on this.

This rule is often used by corporations and people alike but if the information they give you is true then it can of course an valid influencing factor in your decision making process.

Breaking Free

If, however, the information given to you by these purveyors of Social Proofing is not true then you should give it the heed it deserves. That is to say, none.

Cialdini actually suggests that we don’t just ignore we should counter attack. We should actively not buy products from those misusing this tool and write letters of complaint to bring about a change in this misleading consumer manipulation tactic. I actually fully agree. Cheap & sleazy marketers should be called out.

4. Liking

People like people like themselves and people buy from people. In short if someone likes you and trusts you then they are more likely to assume you are trustworthy and consistent. If you demonstrate commitment & consistency then people like you even more.

This is the most obvious of the influence elements so I won’t labour on it other than to talk through how to break free.

Breaking free

Whilst difficult, Cialdini recommends that you should always look to separate the person you are dealing with from the products, services or actions that they are suggesting. This is especially important with people who you like a lot as they could be your biggest weakness.

Liking should never overide the gut feeling that the commitment and consistency rule brings about and vice versa for dislike. Again see Halo & Horns effect

5. Authority

There is a good reason why cops wear uniforms and it isn’t that everyone looks good in black.

A number studies into this have been done including Ron Jones’s The third wave which was made into a popular movie. It is quite frankly disturbing what people will do when they believe the person asking them to do it is in a position of authority.

This could be the Valentines Day massacre where Al Capone’s gangsters dressed like policeman to round up and murder members of an apposing gang or fake experiments where those conducting the experiment dress in lab coats to be perceived as medical professionals (think cosmetics sections in department stores). There are thousands of examples of this but how do you break free?

Breaking free

Cialdini says that other than being aware of those that have potential authority over us we should always ask ourselves two questions:

“Is this person truly an expert”

“How truthful can we expect the expert to be here?”

Think about toothpaste commercials. The dentist clearly knows their stuff but if they are being paid to feature in a commercial can you really trust they are being truly subjective?

6. Scarcity

People are much more invested in not losing something than they are in gaining that very same thing over again. Elder Shafir describes an aspect of this as tunneling i.e. if we focus too heavily on one thing there is less mind to focus on other things.

That combined with our propensity to view anything that is either rare or running out as much more valuable becomes a very powerful driver.

Breaking free

Cialdini concluded that the pull of the Scarcity driver is not around experiencing the object or service but in possessing it. The value people place on an item or service after obtaining it is not influenced by how much we coveted it so with this in mind we should always consider the utility of an item or services about our desire to obtain it.

i.e. If Starship (formally Jefferson Airplane) are going to perform their last ever gig in London’s Hyde park and I can get tickets that are already sold out I should first and foremost consider whether I would still watch them if this wasn’t their last performance and tickets were easy to obtain.

For further reading see this article by Amy Novotney on the work of Princeton Scholar Elder Shafir

7. Contrast

Contrast or “perceptual contrast” is the element of influence that essentially uses our perception of difference in a way that makes one thing seem very different when viewed in comparison than it would be viewed alone.

Almost a sub-element to scarcity contrast takes scarcity in another direction by contrasting positive and negative propositions in order to drive action to something that would be less negative/positive or more negative/positive on it’s own.

I will leave you with this famous letter that highlights influence at it’s finest.

Dear Mom and Dad:

It has been three months since I left for college. I have been remiss in writing and I am very sorry for my thoughtlessness in not having written before. I will bring you up to date now, but before you read on, please sit down. You are not to read any further unless you are sitting down, okay.

Well then, I am getting along pretty well now. The skull fracture and the concussion I got when I jumped out of the window of my dormitory when it caught fire shortly after my arrival are pretty well healed by now. I only spent two weeks in the hospital and now I can see almost normally and only get those headaches once a day.

Fortunately, the fire in the dormitory and my jump was witnessed by an attendant at the gas station near the dorm, and he was the one who called the Fire Dept. and the ambulance. He also visited me at the hospital and since I had nowhere to live because of the burnt out dormitory, he was kind enough to invite me to share his apartment with him. It’s really a basement room, but it’s kind of cute. He is a very fine boy and we have fallen deeply in love and are planning to get married. We haven’t set the exact date yet, but it will be before my pregnancy begins to show.

Yes, mother and dad, I am pregnant. I know how very much you are looking forward to being grandparents and I know you will welcome the baby and give it the same love and devotion and tender care you gave me when I was a child. The reason for the delay in our marriage is that my boyfriend has some minor infection which prevents us from passing our premarital blood tests and I carelessly caught it from him. This will soon clear up with the penicillin injections I am now taking daily.

I know you will welcome him into the family with open arms. He is kind and although not well educated, he is ambitious. Although he is of a different race and religion than ours, I know that your oft-expressed tolerance will not permit you to be bothered by the fact that his skin color is somewhat darker than ours. I am sure you will love him as I do. His family background is good too, for I am told his father is an important gunbearer in the village in Africa from which he comes.

Now that I have brought you up to date, I want to tell you there was no dormitory fire; I did not have a concussion or a skull fracture; I was not in the hospital; I am not pregnant; I am not engaged. I do not have syphillis, and there is no African American in my life. However, I am getting a D in sociology and an F in science; and I wanted you to see these marks in proper perspective.

Your loving daughter,

Ms. Evil Genius

If you enjoyed what you just read please pay it forward by liking, commenting and sharing this with your network, reading influence by Cialdini and by reading my other posts below. Otherwise just one of those actions would be most welcome.

Daniel works for LinkedIn. He is passionate about people, technology, health and family. His opinions and posts are his own and do not reflect the views of LinkedIn.

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/danieldavey

Twitter: @MrDDavey

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