Influence - The Psychology of Persuasion Robert B. Cialdini ISBN 0-688-12816-5

Patrick Mueller
2007/01/13

I read this book after starting Malcolm Gladwell's "Tipping Point". I realized I wanted to know a little more about persuasion, and Cialdini's book seem to have good reviews, and more importantly, was available at my local library.

The book is similiar to Gladwell's in terms of talking about an interesting topic that affects us all, and describing experiments and their results to back the thesis of the argument. Specially, the experiments are psychological, and those are always fun and interesting.

I thought it would be useful to summarize the book's main points here, for future reference. Each section below maps to a chapter in the book.

I highly recommend the book. It's really a fun read, and will shine some light on how we are duped by people all the time. And how to counter that duping. And maybe do some duping ourselves.  :-)  The experimental results are interesting, and the real life examples are things we can all relate to. I didn't agree with all of the analysis, but that's beyond the point. I'm not interested in why we do what we do so much, as the fact that we do it in the first place.

Spoiler Alert

Book summary follows.

Quick Summary of Principals

Reciprocation: The Old Give and Take .. and Take

If you give people something, they will feel obligated to give you something back, just to be polite. Another twist on this is to ask for something big, that you know that someone won't give to you, and then come back with a smaller request. You just 'gave' them something ... they will be more likely to comply with the smaller request. People do not like to be in debt to other people, and will expend more than the debt is worth to remove the debt.

Commitment and Consistency: Hobgoblins of the Mind

People like to maintain the status quo. Start by getting someone you wish to persuade to accept something small. Over time, they will want to remain consistent and you can persuade them on larger topics. Another twist is that if it costs you some pain to get something, you'll value it more than if it didn't cost you some pain

Social Proof: Truths are Us

We are all sheep; we'll follow the crowd.

Liking: The Friendly Thief

Being nice earns it's rewards. This includes physical attractiveness, being similiar to the persuadee, giving compliments. Good cop / bad cop is a twist on this. Also beware of "shoot the messenger"; it works in reverse as well.

Authority: Directed Deference

People are more easily persuaded by those who are authorities or appear to be so.

Scarcity: The Rule of the Few

People see more value in objects if they think there aren't many of them, or that the may be hard to get later.