Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A mother turkey will mother almost anything that makes the cheep-cheep sound of a chick, and predators have learned to imitate that sound to get close. It’s a reflex, a shortcut that usually works and occasionally gets exploited. You run on the same kind of shortcuts, because you can’t reason every decision through from scratch. Consider the copy-machine study: a researcher asking to cut the line got 60% compliance with no reason, but 94% when she added “because I’m in a rush,” and 93% even when the reason was nonsense (“because I have to make copies”). The word “because” was enough to flip the switch. Cialdini’s point is that six of these switches, reciprocity, consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity, run most of your yeses, and professional persuaders have learned to trigger them on purpose. The defense isn’t to kill the reflex. It’s to notice when someone has counterfeited it.

Robert B. Cialdini on SummaryShelf

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion