did it happen again did you catch yourself buying something you didn't actually need like a lava lamp just because the sales clerk persuaded you to or maybe you donated to a vague cause just because someone accosted you on the street or maybe you somehow got roped into a gym contract that you didn't really want in the first place if so you've likely Fallen prey to a compliance professional someone who knows exactly what buttons to push and which strings to pull to make you comply with their requests well you're in luck because the author Robert B cialdini has been through it all he's always felt like a patsy someone who's all too easy to trick and manipulate and that's why he's dedicated his entire career to the question of why people comply with others requests he has conducted several experiments on the topic but has also gathered data through interviewing compliance professionals as well as by watching them ply their craft so how does this help you these chapters will explain six fundamental principles of manipulation and the most relevant persuasion techniques that compliance professionals employ after reading them you'll not only be able to defend yourself from deceit but also put these techniques to use yourself should you wish to flex your persuasive muscle you'll also learn what the magic words are to be able to skip a line why you should be wary of people doing you unbidden favors and how to make sun worshipers into Bonafide Justice Warriors chapter one our brain loves shortcuts and they can be used to manipulate us turkey mothers are wonderful parents loving protective and nurturing of their young however look a little more closely and you'll see that this tenderness hangs by a single thread if a chick emits the distinctive cheap sound the mother will care for it lovingly but if the chick does not the mother will ignore or even kill it the cheap cheap sound is so persuasive that even a replica of the turkey's arch nemesis the Polecat will elicit Tender Care from the mother turkey as long as it cheaps loudly for the mother turkey the sound is a simple shortcut that allows her to quickly and in most cases reliably identify its chicks triggering its maternal instincts we humans like to think of ourselves as clever which is why the mother turkey's shortcut can seem quite foolish to us but the fact is that we use very similar psychological shortcuts as well this is due to simple necessity the world is a complex place where it's impossible for us to reflect upon the details of every decision we make thus we use Quick shortcuts and most of the time they serve us well one example of such a shortcut is that we're much more willing to do people a favor if they provide us with a reason any reason in an experiment to study this phenomenon a researcher asked people queuing up to use a copy machine whether she could skip the line she found that if she gave a reason may I skip the line because I'm in a rush 94 of people complied with her request if she gave no reason only 60 percent complied but fascinatingly if she gave a nonsensical reason may I skip the line because I need to make copies 93 still complied apparently people have a mental shortcut that deems any reason at all sufficient to Grant a favor more worryingly just as scientists can trick a turkey into mothering a stuffed pole cat so-called compliance professionals like advertisers salesmen and con artists can fool us into using our shortcuts against our own interests they usually do this to get us to comply with their demands for example to buy a product one example is the commonly abused price indicates quality shortcut people usually assume expensive items are of higher quality than cheap ones and while this shortcut is often at least partially accurate a Wily salesman might well use it against us for example did you know that souvenir shops often sell unpopular Goods by raising rather than lowering their prices since dealing with the complexities of life means having to rely on shortcuts we must identify and defend ourselves against the manipulators who would trick us into wrongly using those shortcuts lest we end up looking as foolish as the poor mother turkey the following chapters will introduce you to six basic psychological principles that we use as shortcuts and which can be exploited for persuasion reciprocation scarcity consistency social proof liking and Authority chapter 2. humans have an overpowering need to return favors has anyone ever given you something on the street like a flower or a free sample of something do waiters at restaurants occasionally bring complimentary sweets along with your bill as innocent as these gestures may seem they are actually relatively simple tricks to influence your behavior you see the first psychological principle of persuasion is the rule of reciprocation we feel obliged to return favors this rule forms the foundation of all societies for it allowed our ancestors to share resources safe in the knowledge that they would be reciprocated later and if someone does us a favor and we do not return it we feel a psychological burden this is partially because as a society we are disdainful of those who do not reciprocate favors we label them as Moochers or ingrates and fear being labeled as such ourselves how intense is the desire to reciprocate you ask well it can even be seen in the long-term relations between countries consider that in 1985 Ethiopia was probably one of the worst off countries in the world ravaged by poverty starvation and disease and yet in that year the country's Red Cross sent five thousand dollars to Aid earthquake victims in Mexico City why would this desperately impoverished country send money to another far away land simple in 1935 when Italy had invaded Ethiopia Mexico had sent Aid to the country and this was an opportunity to return the favor in fact people are so Keen to rid themselves of the burden of reciprocity that they will often perform much larger favors in return for small ones for example in a 1971 study by psychologist Dennis Regan a researcher Joe masqueraded as a fellow participant and bought test subjects a 10 cent Coke as an unbidden favor later on it turned out that Joe needed a favor he was trying to sell as many raffle tickets as possible to win a prize would the subjects help him out by buying some on average the subjects who had received the unbidden coke reciprocated by purchasing 50 cents worth of tickets twice the amount compared to if no Coke was given the feeling of indebtedness even seemed to outweigh likability some of the participants bought Joe's raffle tickets even though they said they did not like him obviously this was an example of abusing the reciprocity principle because Joe was the only one making truly free choices in the situation he not only forced a debt onto the subjects by buying them a Coke but also chose the method of reciprocation in the 1970s the Krishna organization in the United States also used this tactic to great effect they gifted flowers to passersby on the street and though generally annoyed people often made donations to the organization to satisfy their need to reciprocate the gift of the flower so how can you fight back as stated earlier reciprocity plays a fundamental role in the way societies and social relationships work so you can't forego the principle entirely but you can learn to identify and resist deliberate attempts to abuse it start by getting into the habit of asking yourself if the favors you receive are really genuine or if they could be attempts to manipulate you think about whether you actually want to donate your money to that non-profit organization or if you only feel obliged because they handed you a gift on the street and don't worry about not reciprocating favors that are really manipulation attempts in Disguise favors warrant favors in return but tricks do not chapter 3. in negotiations starting with an outrageous request and retreating from there can win concessions just as we desire to pay back favors when we're negotiating with someone and they make a concession we'll feel obliged to reciprocate it this is known as the rejection then Retreat strategy the author experienced this firsthand when a boy scout approached him on the street wishing to sell him tickets to the annual Boy Scout circus the author declined to buy the five dollar ticket after which the boy asked if seeing as how he wasn't buying any tickets he would at least buy some chocolate bars for a dollar a piece as a result the author found himself buying two in order to match the concession the boy made when he retreated to peddling the cheaper Wares what makes rejection then Retreat such a powerful persuasion technique is that in addition to evoking our desire to reciprocate concessions it also benefits from the contrast principle when two items are presented to us one after the other the difference of the second to the first is magnified thus the one dollar chocolate bar the boy offered seemed disproportionately cheap compared to the more expensive Circus ticket the dynamic is fairly simple to put to use if you want something specific from a negotiation partner start with an offer they are pretty sure to reject then Retreat from your initial offer to what you really want your opponent will probably see this as a concession and feel obliged to make a similar one this strategy is often employed by labor negotiators Who start with extreme positions and then gradually Retreat while extracting concessions from the other side however researchers have discovered that there is a limit to how extreme your opening position can be if it's too outrageous you'll be seen as a bad faith negotiator and subsequent concessions will not be reciprocated the rejection then Retreat strategy has even brought down presidents such as in the infamous Watergate scandal in 1972 the re-election of President Richard Nixon seemed inevitable yet somehow a man called G Gordon Liddy managed to convince the committee to re-elect the president CRP that they should give him 250 000 to burglarize the offices of the Democratic National Committee this was a preposterously risky undertaking but Liddy used the rejection then Retreat strategy he started by suggesting a one million dollar scheme involving kidnapping mugging and prostitution though his later second and third proposals were still scandalous and Incredibly ill-conceived the CRP felt they had to give Liddy something for his concessions from his first scheme also compared to the initial outrageous one million dollar proposal the 250-000 scheme involving mere burglary no longer sounded that bad as you probably know the burglars were caught and the resulting Scandal eventually forced Nixon to resign chapter 4.
when opportunities become scarce we desire them more for a limited time only last chance sale ends in two days there's a reason advertisers often emphasize that a sale won't last forever according to the scarcity principle when something is hard to obtain it makes us more inclined to buy it we humans see opportunities as more valuable if their availability is limited and this seems to be because we just plain hate missing out a 1982 study by one of celdini's students showed that when Shoppers were told of a limited time sale on meat they bought three times more than if there was no time limit interestingly this effect was compounded when people were told that only a select few knew about the sale the scarcity of both the offer and the information itself made Shoppers buy six times more meat than customers unaware of either limit so when does scarcity become a powerful influence on our decision making two conditions need to be fulfilled first we tend to want something more if its availability has decreased recently than if it has remained steady over time this is why revolutions tend to happen when living conditions deteriorate sharply rather than when they are consistently low the sudden drop increases people's desire for something better so they take to the streets second competition always sets our hearts racing whether in auctions romances or real estate deals the thought of losing something to a rival often turns us from reluctant to overzealous this is why for example real estate agents often mention to buyers that several other bidders are also interested in a given house whether true or not in fact a competitive situation can induce a Feeding Frenzy for a scarce good even among seasoned negotiators take the story of Barry Diller an executive at the TV network ABC who was considered a mogul for his success in the entertainment industry but then in 1973 he paid 3. 3 million dollars for the right to show the movie The Poseidon Adventure on TV once this was the highest amount ever paid for a one-time showing of a film and ABC later estimated it would lose a million dollars on this deal so why on Earth did Diller pay this unprecedented amount simple this was the first time the rights were sold to networks in an open bid auction where the competitor's bids were visible to each other this pushed the buyers into an irrational bidding war and when the dust settled ABC's competitors were actually relieved they hadn't won meanwhile Diller grimly stated that ABC would never participate in such an auction again to counter the eagerness that arises from scarcity we should always consider whether we want the item in question because of its use to us for example its taste or function or merely because of an irrational wish to possess it when scarcity is being used against us the answer will often be the latter chapter 5. Banning something makes it very desirable you know the old adage that people only want what they can't have well there is some truth to it parents for example often observe this phenomenon in their children a toy will immediately become far more attractive if a child is expressly forbidden from playing with it this effect is prevalent in the adult world too and it is why censorship is such a double-edged sword when information is banned it is perceived as more valuable than if it were freely available for example a study conducted in the 1970s at the University of North Carolina showed that when college students were told that a speech opposing co-ed dorms was to be canceled and banned on campus they became more sympathetic to the idea and this without having heard a single word of the speech similarly courtroom Research indicates that juries are also influenced by censored information it has long been known that when juries know that an insurance company will pay the bill they tend to award larger damages to plaintiffs interestingly though they award even higher damages if they are expressly told by the judge to ignore the fact that the defendant has Insurance The Forbidden information seems more relevant to them and makes them overreact just like a forbidden toy seems immensely desirable to any child and this applies to other things than information too just consider the example of Dade County Florida when it declared laundry detergents containing phosphate to be illegal not only did residents begin smuggling and hoarding masses of the product but they also started to see phosphate-based detergents as better than before this pining for the banished is known as the Romeo and Juliet effect so named because parents who erect barriers to hinder the Romantic relationships of their children often only managed to deepen The Lover's attraction one study of Colorado couples found that when the parents tried to interfere with their relationship feelings of love and desire for marriage only intensified and when the interference was lessened romantic feelings tended to cool off too just like the case with scarcity the Romeo and Juliet effect also stems from the fact that humans really hate losing opportunities chapter 6.
we want to stay true to our word imagine you're lying on the beach enjoying a well-deserved day off it's a hot day and you long for a refreshing dip in the water but what are you going to do with your wallet and keys hide them or ask a neighboring Sun worshiper to keep an eye on them a study by psychologist Thomas Moriarty shows that asking someone is probably a better idea than you think his results showed that in general when people on a beach witnessed a staged theft of a radio from a neighboring towel only 20 percent reacted but if the owner of the towel had first asked people to please watch my things 95 of their neighbors became near Vigilantes even chasing down the thief and forcefully grabbing back the radio why quite simply we humans have a strong desire for consistency we wish our actions to be consistent with what we've said as the study showed this drive is so strong that it even seems to Trump concerns for our own personal safety this desire for consistency stems mainly from the fact that it makes life easier we don't need to decide how to respond to each situation we encounter if we can simply be consistent with our earlier decision this kind of automation helps us navigate our complex world but what dictates consistency the answer is simple commitment research shows that once we commit to something with words or actions we wish to be consistent with that commitment and public commitment is the most powerful driver of all for example after the Korean War Chinese interrogators got American prisoners of War to collaborate using this tactic first they asked them to make very small concessions such as writing and signing innocuous statements like America is not perfect but then when these statements were read publicly across the prison camp The Prisoner was often labeled a collaborator by his compatriots astonishingly The Prisoner then started to see himself as a collaborator as well consequently becoming more helpful to the Chinese interrogators he effectively adjusted his self-image to be consistent with what he had written down before and having the commitment in writing was also an important element in this process there is something inescapably powerful about written words signed by oneself the widely known foot in the door sales technique takes advantage of how even small commitments affect our self-image the first goal of salespeople is to get prospects to make a small purchase that is not even intended to make a profit rather it constitutes a small commitment that changes the prospect's own perception into one of a customer making them much more amenable to the larger deal down the line so the next time A salesperson asks you to buy something no matter how inexpensive be careful chapter 7. the harder we have to work to get something the more we value it from tribes in Africa to college fraternities in the United States when a new member is being inducted into a group initiation rituals commonly involve pain and degradation sometimes even death and efforts to curb the brutal practices always meet with dogged resistance but why is that quite simply the groups engaging in these rituals know that if people go through a lot of trouble to attain something they tend to Value it more the effort needed to achieve membership makes the members more committed to the group but interestingly groups like college fraternities have also resisted efforts to transform their initiations into some form of community service like changing bedpans at hospitals this is simply because they want members to make the inner choice to participate in the degradation and not make excuses like this was for the good of the community which would allow them to use an external justification for their behavior to make the inner Choice they'll need to convince themselves that it's worth it and this means elevating their view of the group they're joining indeed research has shown that such inner choices are more likely to produce lasting interchange compared to choices made due to external pressure compliance professionals like salespeople can use for example the lowball trick to try to generate inner change in US a car dealer might make such an astoundingly cheap offer on a car that we immediately decide to buy it the dealer knows full well that during the test drive we will then independently construct several other reasons to buy the car besides the price like it's good mileage or nice color at the last minute the initial grade offer is retracted because of a bank error or another flimsy excuse and we are quoted a more expensive price usually we still end up buying the car because of the reasons we came up with independently this is yet another facet of our desire for consistency to defend against this manipulation simply ask yourself if you'd make the purchase had you known about the true price beforehand if the answer is no you should walk away chapter 8. when uncertain we look for social proof have you ever wondered why sitcoms often have laugh tracks in fact Research indicates laugh tracks will make us laugh longer and more often especially at bad jokes this is due to the principle of social proof which states that we often decide what the correct course of action is by looking to others Behavior in the case of the laugh track even artificial laughter helps convince us that others consider the jokes funny meaning we probably should too this Dynamic is also used by Church ushers who salt collection baskets with a few bills before the service to make it seem like everyone is making donations and it's why companies often advertise products with lines like best selling or fastest growing it makes customers feel like others are buying the products too social proof becomes a particularly powerful influence when we Face uncertainty consider the famous case of Kitty Genovese who was stabbed to death outside her apartment building in New York in 1964.
some neighbors heard the young woman's cries for help but no one intervened or called the police the media soon reported that the neighbors had been callous and completely unconcerned about their neighbor sparking outrage later it was discovered that some individual neighbors had yelled out of their windows or called the police but still the case is studied as a perfect example of bystander in action where people are less likely to help a victim in an emergency if other people are present psychologists speculate that this bystander effect is mostly due to two factors first when many people are involved it diminishes the personal responsibility felt by each participant maybe someone else will call the police second it's often hard to identify a real emergency especially in an urban environment does the man sitting by the street need medical attention or has he just had too much to drink is the scream from a murder victim or someone watching a thrilling football game this kind of uncertainty drives people to look to others behavior for guidance in the Kitty Genovese case people were trying to inconspicuously peek out their windows so this may also have indicated to others that inaction was the right approach so let's say you get into an emergency amid a crowd how can you get help effectively the safest bet is to single out an individual from the group and direct a clear help request at them you in the green shirt call an ambulance this way the person can't shy away from the responsibility and won't need to look for guidance from the others as a result they will almost certainly help chapter 9. people who are similar to us can greatly influence our choices as we've just seen people tend to look to others for guidance as to how to behave and this tendency is strongest when the person observed is similar to ourselves an effect that can be seen in how susceptible teenagers are to the opinions and fashion choices of their peers our tendency to emulate others also produces a rather Grim statistic when a suicide is highly publicized in the media the number of people who die in airplane and car crashes increases dramatically in the following week at first glance this is a rather baffling phenomenon what could explain it the answer seems to be that after reading about a suicide in the paper some people resolve to take their own lives to emulate the victim for several reasons some decide to make their deaths seem accidental and some of them will opt to do so while driving or frighteningly flying hence there is an increase in unexplained crashes sadly these are not people who would have committed suicide anyway research has shown that every front page suicide story effectively results in the deaths of 58 people who would have otherwise gone on living this is known as The Werther effect named after an 18th century book that sparked a wave of suicides across Europe apparently an emulation of the protagonist on average this effect seems to be the strongest for people similar to the person whose suicide was publicized when young people read that another youngster has committed suicide they are more likely to take their own lives while older people are more likely to react to news of suicides by seniors in a less tragic setting this Dynamic is also why marketers often use advertisements featuring mostly fake interviews with regular people on the street who endorse a product Ordinary People comprise the largest potential market for any product and they value an endorsement by a person who seems similar to themselves to avoid falling for this trap make a conscious decision to be alert for such counterfeit social proof most of the time you'll find The Fakes easy to spot as the dialogue is clearly scripted and when you do spot them you should avoid all products from the company in the future for they deserve to be penalized for trying to manipulate you with phony social proof chapter 10.
