5 Key takeaways from Influence
Intro
We all want to be persuasive, successful people in our day-to-day lives. Whether it's at work or in our personal relationships, having the ability to influence others can be a powerful asset. Robert B. Cialdini's book "Influence" provides readers with five key takeaways that can help you become a master of influence and persuasion. In this blog post, we'll discuss these five key takeaways and how you can use them to your advantage in any situation. So if you're looking for ways to increase your influence, read on for some invaluable tips!
1.Our Brain Loves Shortcuts, and They Can Be Used to Manipulate Us.
Everyone has a set of psychological shortcuts that help us make decisions quickly and easily. These shortcuts are found in both turkeys, who only care for their chicks if they cheep a specific sound, and humans, who are much more willing to do someone a favor if they provide any reason at all.
Compliance professionals, such as advertisers or salesmen, can use these shortcuts to manipulate people into making decisions in their favor. This could include using the "price indicates quality" shortcut against consumers or using the power of authority to get people to believe something is true.
Six basic psychological principles can also be used for persuasion: reciprocity, commitment & consistency, social proof, liking & familiarity, authority & scarcity. By understanding how these principles work and how people use them in everyday life, it becomes easier to recognize when we're being manipulated into making certain decisions that may not be in our best interests.
2. Humans have an overpowering need to return favors.
The idea of reciprocation is deeply embedded in our social fabric and has been for centuries. We all understand that if someone does something nice for us, we are obligated to do something in return. This concept is commonly referred to as the psychological rule of reciprocation and can be seen in everyday interactions or even between countries.
Take Joe from a 1971 study for example, who gave out Cokes to people he encountered in order to get them to buy raffle tickets from him. It wasn't that these people were so taken with Joe after receiving a free soda, but rather they felt they had to repay the favor even if it was just buying a ticket.
It's important to be aware of this rule, especially when it comes to strangers offering favors that seem too good to be true. While some may be genuine, it's always best practice to question their motives before accepting any offers.
Read this: 5 Key takeaways from The Paradox of Choice
3. Banning Something Makes it Very Desirable
It's a phenomenon we're all familiar with - the moment something is taken away from us, it suddenly becomes that much more desirable. We may have never given a second thought about a toy, or relationship, or even a type of detergent before - but the moment there's an obstacle placed in our way, we can't help but want it more.
That's the 'Romeo and Juliet effect', named for the iconic couple who were star-crossed lovers, forbidden from being together. It's not just limited to love though; this effect has been observed in children wanting toys they can't have, college students wanting speeches that are too difficult to understand, juries wanting insurance cases to be decided in their favor and members of Dade County wanting phosphate-based detergents after they were banned.
The science behind this phenomenon is simple enough: humans hate missing out on opportunities. And when those opportunities are taken away from us, that hate is replaced by an even stronger desire to possess them.
This brings us to our next point: We want to stay true to our word. When we make commitments, we are more likely to follow through on them. This is because of our need for consistency, which is an important part of social belonging and trust. We don't want to be seen as someone who breaks their word - it could have a negative impact on how people perceive us. So even if a commitment may not be in our best interest, we may still do it simply out of a desire to be consistent with ourselves. This can lead to situations where we end up buying more from them than we planned!
4. We Want to Stay True to Our Word
We all want to stay true to our word when we make a commitment, whether it's to a cause or a neighbor. An example of this can be seen on a beach, when people are watching out for a neighbor's belongings after being asked, and even chasing down someone who attempted to steal them. This behavior is driven by our need for consistency; it makes life easier if we stick with what we said or did previously.
In the 1950s during the Korean War, Chinese interrogators used the power of commitment and consistency in their efforts to get American prisoners to collaborate. As an example, they would encourage small concessions - such as writing statements like "America is not perfect" - that would have an effect on the prisoners' self-image and ultimately lead them to make bigger commitments.
The power of commitment and consistency has been used in sales techniques as well, such as the foot-in-the-door technique which takes advantage of even small commitments that could shape our self-image and behavior. Commitment and consistency can be powerful tools when it comes to influencing human behavior.
5. People who are similar to us can greatly influence our choices.
We all have a tendency to emulate others, especially people that are similar to us. We want to follow their opinions, fashion choices, and more; which means that we can be easily swayed by what they do or say. This phenomenon has been seen in cases of suicide being highly publicized in the media; there is an increase of people opting to make their deaths seem accidental, which is known as the Werther effect. This effect is strongest for people similar to the individual whose suicide was reported.
This phenomenon doesn’t just extend to suicides but also into the world of marketing and advertising. Marketers often use fake interviews with “regular people” in order to promote products, but this should be avoided as it misleads consumers into thinking that others like them approve of the product when they may not actually do so.
Conclusion
Overall, 'Influence' by Robert B. Cialdini is an important book that demonstrates how our brains can be manipulated with shortcuts and reciprocity, and how bans and commitments can influence behavior. It also shows the power of similarity in influencing decisions. With this knowledge we can better understand why people make the decisions they do and make better decisions ourselves.