Influence by Robert Cialdini

 Influence by Robert Cialdini

Exceptional book, a classic of psychology

People are familiar with most, if not all of the principles of influence.
Some of the marketing, selling techniques inspired by those principles have been applied to them on a regular basis.
The six principles of Influence as discovered and researched by Robert Cialdini are :
1.       Reciprocity
2.       Social Proof
3.       Commitment and Consistency
4.       Liking
5.       Authority
6.       Scarcity

I will refer to aspects that have attracted my attention.
At reciprocity, I found it funny how they played with it.

Reciprocity
Cards have been sent to unknown people.
Surprisingly (?) they sent in their turn best wishes, or Christmas cards to "known unknowns" to quote the Donald Rumsfeld- a guy that everyone seems to hate, but I like.
This principle has been used in sales.
Take cars...they throw in a stereo- or they used to, for now they tend to be included, except for German cars where you have to pay extra for anything- and the customer is much more willing to pay an extra two thousand dollars or more for metallic paint, sunroof and other gadgets he doesn't really want.

Authority
Here the experiments have been more horrible than amusing.
It was not Robert Cialdini who did this, but volunteers were called to take part in a study involving electricity, wrong answers and shocks.
In brief, participants were told:
Look, if he gives the wrong answer to a question, he gets an electric shock.
The voltage will increase in time.
So after ten volts, they went higher.
And higher.
The man in the chair started screaming.
But the unexpected, gruesome fact is that most of the participants continued d applied increasing pain to innocent, if ignorant humans.
There is catch that I will not give away...yo can read about it in the book.
The reality is that we obey authority.
This why so many Germans did what Hitler and his acolytes asked them to.

Social Proof
Here again there are some terrifying and other more amusing tales and experiments.
In one incident, a woman was violently attacked and there were nineteen witnesses that could have tried to help but didn't.
They all expected another to intervene.
When large shopping carts
Shopping carts were introduced, decades ago, consumers were not using them, sticking with the old, hand held baskets.
They had to hire staff to use the new shopping carts so that customers would adopt them.
Social proof was at the root of mass suicides in Guyana and elsewhere

As for authority...they use this tool whenever they advertise with actors dressed as dentists saying this paste is sensational, others playing doctors who assure viewers that this cream, or that pill will work wonders.


Magnificent book.

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