A psychology book called Influence looks at the main methods that “Compliance Professionals” might influence others. Numerous empirical research from the disciplines of psychology, marketing, economics, anthropology, and social science support the results of the book. Influence comes to the conclusion that you can use the strategies employed by compliance experts. You can apply the concepts from Influence to influence others in particular.
Robert Cialdini
At Arizona State University, Robert Cialdini has the title of Regents Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing. He taught marketing, business, and psychology as a visiting professor at Stanford University and the University of California, Santa Cruz. The Society for Personality and Social Psychology established the Robert B. Cialdini Prize in his honour for psychological studies that use field techniques to demonstrate societal significance. In April 2019, he was chosen to join the National Academy of Sciences.
A well-known rule of human nature is that giving a justification for your request will increase your chances of success. Ellen Langer, a Harvard social psychologist, used this phenomena as an example by requesting a little favor from individuals in line for a library copy machine. The request changed depending on the situation. She began by apologizing and adding, “I have five pages. I’m in a hurry, may I use the Xerox machine?” She was really successful in this situation. 94% of those who were approached in this manner gave her permission to move on. Only 60% of people responded when she said, “Excuse me. I’ve got five pages.” Please let me use the Xerox machine.
Compliance Professionals Who Use “Because”
There is a group of persons that are quite familiar with the locations of the tools of automatic influence. They consequently use them well and frequently to achieve their goals. They continually ask other people to do things their way during social interactions. They have astonishing success rates. The key to their success is how they formulate their demands and equip themselves with one or more of the social environment’s available influencers. They could only need one well-chosen word to activate a potent psychological principle and trigger an automatic behavior for success.
The Contrast Principle
The contrast principle, which also applies to other concepts besides weight, is a well-known idea in the field of psychophysics. When a less attractive woman joins us in conversation with a more attractive one at a cocktail party, we will see the second woman as less appealing than she actually is. This approach has the advantage of being almost invisible, which you can use to your advantage. Those who use it can profit from its influence without giving the impression that they rigged the game to their advantage.
Application
Retail clothing stores are a great illustration of how to persuade others using the contrast principle. Let’s imagine a man walks into a store selling men’s clothing and declares his desire to purchase a sweater and a three-piece suit. Which would you show him first, if you were the salesperson, to increase the likelihood that he would spend the most money? Clothing retailers train their salespeople to focus on the expensive item first. The inverse can seem more logical: A man might be hesitant to spend much more money on a sweater if he recently spent a lot of money on a suit. This assumption, however, ignores the influence of the contrast principles. When the man peruses the sweaters after you sell the suit,
Their costs won’t seem as great in contrast. Although a man could object to paying $95 for a sweater, it does not appear extravagant if he has just purchased a $495 suit.
The Six Principles of Persuasion
- The first persuasive tool is reciprocity.
People feel obligated to repay others for the actions, presents, or services they have previously received. You have a duty to invite a friend to a party you are hosting if they ask you to their party. If a coworker helps you out, you should return the favour. People are therefore more inclined to accept an offer from someone they owe money to in the context of a social obligation.
The Model Technique
The example technique is a powerful tool that makes use of reciprocity as a weapon. Amway Corporation is a rapidly expanding business that produces and sells personal care and household goods through a huge nationwide network of door-to-door neighbourhood sales. A few years ago, the business was a basement-based enterprise, but today it generates annual revenues in the billions of dollars. They employ the free sample in a gadget known as the BUG.
The BUG is a collection of Amway goods, including bottles of window cleaning, detergent, or shampoo, as well as spray canisters of deodorizers, insecticides, and shampoo. These things are delivered to the customer’s home in a plastic bag or a tray that has been expressly made for the purpose.
The salesperson is then instructed to leave the BUG with the customer “for 24, 48, or 72 hours, at no expense or obligation to her,” according to the private Amway Career Manual. Just let her know you want her to test the goods. Nobody can refuse that offer.
The Amway salesperson returns and picks up orders for the products the consumer wants to buy at the conclusion of the trial period. The salesman can then take the remaining product pieces in the BUG to the following potential client down the line or across the street and begin the procedure again since few customers eat up the full contents of even one of the product containers in such a brief period of time.
A lot of Amway distributors have multiple BUGs active in their areas at once. The consumer who accepted and used BUG items was forced to deal with the reciprocity rule’s effects. Many clients feel compelled to order the things that they have already consumed a portion of from the salesperson.
- The second persuasive tool is scarcity.
Simply put, people want more of the things they work so hard to obtain. Thoughts of losing something tend to push people more than those of getting something as valuable.
Consider the 2003 British Airways announcement that they will stop running their twice-daily Concorde route between London and New York due to the flight’s declining profitability. Sales for the one flight that was available soared. Notice how the Concorde itself had not changed.
Nothing changed, including the speed of the flight, the quality of the service, or the price of the ticket. Instead, this flying path has merely turned into a limited resource. As a result, more people sought it.
Similar to this, leaflets urging young women to conduct self-examinations for breast cancer are much more effective when they emphasize what stands to be lost rather than what will be gained. One of the most powerful arguments is, for instance, the possibility of losing a breast if you don’t self-examine.
We may apply the scarcity concept to areas beyond the world of physical commodities once humans realise how highly we value scarce information. The idea is applicable to knowledge, communications, and messages. From this vantage point, we can see that knowledge merely needs to be scarce for us to value it more; it doesn’t need to be suppressed. The scarcity principle states that if we believe we can’t find the knowledge elsewhere, we will find it more persuasive.
- Authority is the third persuasive tool.
The foundation of the authority weapon is the notion that people heed the advice of reliable, informed authorities.
For instance, physiotherapists who hang their medical degrees on the walls of their consultation rooms may be able to convince more of their patients to adhere to prescribed exercise regimens. Similar to the above, people are more inclined to provide change for a parking metre to a total stranger if they are dressed professionally as opposed to casually.
Concerningly, con artists dress themselves in official titles, attire, and accoutrements. They become better suited to persuade you as a result. Each of these representations of authority has a unique history that is worth exploring separately.
Titles
According to the authors, titles are paradoxical. Although they are challenging to obtain legally, they are the most straightforward authority symbol to counterfeit. It is conceivable for someone to take on a label without making any effort and gain automatic deference. This veneer is regularly used by con artists and TV commercial actors to their advantage.
Clothes
Clothing is the second type of authority symbol that can automatically result in compliance. Even while a title is more concrete, the mantle of authority can be just as easily faked. Con artists can change their appearance to match the situation, whether it be hospital white, priestly black, army green, or police blue.
Trappings
In addition to its role in uniforms, clothing can signify a more generalized sort of authority when worn for ornamentation. A sense of rank and position is conveyed through expensive, well-designed clothing. Expensive jeweler and automobiles can likewise be used to achieve the same result. It has a special significance in the United States because of “the American love affair with the automobile.”
We prefer to maintain the consistency of what we have previously said or done. This weapon, like the other influence weapons, is hidden deep within us. With calm power, our desire for consistency governs our behaviour. Simply put, it is our almost obsessive drive to appear and act in accordance with what we have already done.
We will experience pressure from both personal and interpersonal sources to act in accordance with our decision or stance after we have made it. We will react under those influences in a way that supports our initial choice. By looking for and requesting small, manageable starting commitments, consistency can be brought about.
Few individuals are ready to build an unattractive wooden board on their front lawn to support a Drive Safely campaign, according to a well-known series of studies.
However, four times as many homeowners in a nearby community with a similar demographic said they would be ready to build this awful billboard. The only distinction is that they had previously decided to post a brief postcard in each other’s front windows 10 days prior.
They expressed their support for the Drive Safely campaign with this postcard. That little card served as the catalyst for a much larger but still steady transformation, increasing by 400% as a result of the first commitment.
How Major Toy Companies Boost Sales in January and February
Before Christmas, toy companies begin their hunt of new year sales. At this point, they create and release eye-catching TV commercials for specific specialty toys. Naturally, the kids want what they see. Then, parents promise their kids that they will receive this toy for Christmas. However, parents are unaware that the businesses purposefully understock the stores with the offered items.
Most parents discover that those items are sold out and are forced to make do with other toys of comparable worth. Of course, the toy companies make it a point to give the merchants a lot of these alternatives. Then, following Christmas, the businesses begin running the toy’s commercials again. The kids are more desirous of those toys than ever thanks to these advertisements.
Then, kids would remind their parents to keep their word. Parents frequently purchase this toy themselves in order to maintain consistency.
Cold callers are exploiting your health against you
The process starts with callers requesting you to donate to a charity by enquiring about your present health and well-being. This introduction is not just being made by the caller to appear friendly. Instead, they are eagerly awaiting your explanation that everything is alright. Any somewhat favourable reaction will trigger the caller’s next line of assault.
When you publicly declare that everything is OK, it is much simpler for the caller to pressure you into helping people for whom things are not fine. The idea behind this strategy is that people who have just said they are doing or feeling fine would find it hard to answer in a way that doesn’t take their preferred situation into account.
Like is the fifth persuasive strategy.
Saying yes to someone you like is preferred. According to the science of persuasion, likeability is influenced by three key elements. We enjoy the company of those who are like us, compliment us, and work with us to achieve our shared objectives.
Personal appearance
It is widely accepted that attractive people are more successful in social situations. Recent data, however, suggest we might have overestimated the scope and magnitude of that advantage. According to research, we immediately attribute positive attributes to attractive people, such as talent, friendliness, honesty, and intelligence. Furthermore, we draw these conclusions without realising that physical appearance is a factor.
Studies have shown that attractive people are more persuasive in influencing an audience’s ideas and are more likely to receive assistance when they are in need. This result holds true regardless of the participants’ gender.
Similarity
To be appealing, you must look better than the average individual. The weapon of liking can also be used by the normal person, though, in other ways. We favour those who are like us. This observation appears to be true regardless of whether there is a connection in beliefs, character traits, upbringing, or way of life. Therefore, people who want to appear like the chosen person in a number of ways should do so in order to promote conformity.
One strategy is to dress similarly to your target person. Claim that they have comparable backgrounds and interests as you to promote liking and compliance is another way requesters can take use of similarities.
Compliments
We have an incredible weakness for flattery. Even while there are some restrictions on our gullibility, especially when we know the flatterer is trying to deceive us, we typically trust praise and enjoy the people who give it, even when it is obviously untrue.
Associations are a tool used by compliance professionals to influence societal purchasing habits. Because of this, models are virtually always used in product advertisements. The advertiser thinks the model will lend the product her attractiveness and desirability. The advertiser is making the assumption that we will react to the product in the same manner that we react to the alluring models that are featured alongside it.
Advertisers can also profit from the association principle by associating famous people with certain products. Professional athletes are compensated for endorsing products that may be directly related to their work (like sports shoes) or completely unrelated (soft drinks). The establishment of a link is crucial for the advertising. The relationship need not be logical—it only needs to be fruitful.
Consensus is the sixth persuasive strategy.
People often turn to the acts and behaviours of others to establish their own when they are unsure. To create the idea that tipping is customary, bartenders frequently “salt” their tip jars with a few dollar bills at the beginning of the night. A similar strategy is also used by church ushers, and evangelicals frequently introduce “ringers” to their audience who give witness and money.
Advertisers enjoy telling us which products are “fastest-growing” or “best-selling” because it spares them the need to explicitly persuade us of the quality of the product. They merely need to say that many other people share this opinion. For customers, this evidence is frequently sufficient. The repeated listing of viewers who have previously made donations takes up an excessive amount of time for charity telethon producers. Giving is the correct thing to do, is the message being sent.
People are more convinced by other people’s acts than by any evidence we can provide because 95% of people are imitators and only 5% are initiators. We can therefore conclude that when a situation is ambiguous, people will follow the majority’s lead.
In the process of evaluating the reactions of other people to resolve our confusion, however, we are apt to overlook a small but crucial fact. Those individuals are presumably also looking at the societal evidence.
The tendency for everyone to be watching what everyone else is doing, especially in ambiguous situations, might result in an interesting phenomena known as “pluralistic ignorance.” Each individual decides that nothing is wrong because no one is worried, which is known as pluralistic ignorance. The risk could be growing in the meantime. The truth is that one person would respond, unaffected by the seeming serenity of others.
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