6 Powerful Techniques That Causes People To Say Yes
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini: Full Book Summary
“Those who don’t know how to get people to say YES soon fall away; those who do, stay and flourish.” — Robert Cialdini
Three Major Ideas From The Book:
1. It discusses 6 major blind spots in our thinking also known as weapons of influence i.e Consistency, Reciprocation, Social Proof, Authority, Liking & Scarcity.
2. Why do we have these blind spots, what are their original functions? And How they are used against us by compliance professionals.
3. Techniques we can use to protect ourselves from these weapons of Influence.
Introduction:
What are the factors that cause one person to say YES to another person?
Which techniques most effectively use these factors to bring about such obedience?
Why is it that a request presented in a certain way will be rejected, while a request that asks for the same favor in a slightly different manner will be successful?
If you want to know the answers to these questions and techniques that get people to say YES then read along.
This book is organized around 6 principles. These are
- Consistency
- Reciprocation
- Social Proof
- Authority
- Liking
- Scarcity
Each of these principles is discussed in terms of their function in society and in terms of how their enormous force can be exploited by individuals to serve their vested interests.
These principles are also known as “WEAPONS OF INFLUENCE.”
Why do we use shortcuts or automatic Tapes?
You and I exist in an extraordinarily complicated, which is changing all of the time in all kinds of ways so to make our survival easier and ease the cognitive load on our brain we need shortcuts.
We can’t be expected to analyze every situation or person from scratch, we neither have the capacity nor time for it.
So we often use our rules of thumb to classify things according to a few key features and then we respond mindlessly when one or another of these trigger features is present.
Our brain hasn’t evolved much in the last million years, We still use the same pre-programmed tapes or shortcuts that had helped us survive in the hunter-gatherer age. The only difference is that we now use it in a different environment.
The rule of reciprocation helped us survive when we had no food to eat of our own, someone else would return a favor and give us food to eat. So through thousands of years of conditioning, we developed an automatic response for someone who would do us a favor, and we felt obliged to return it.
All the marketers or individuals who seem so eager for us to try on their product for free, or doing us favors that we haven’t even asked for, are trying to exploit our automatic response for reciprocation.
They know that we will feel obliged either to buy some of their products or return their favor even when we didn’t even want the product or the favor in the first place.
Six Weapons of Influence:
1. Reciprocation:
This is one of the most potent weapons of influence around us. The rule says that People have extreme difficulty being in another person’s debt in other words we should try to repay, in kind what the other person has provided for us. It is deeply implanted within us by the process of socialization we all undergo.
It produces a “Yes” response to a request that except for the existing feeling of indebtedness, would surely be refused.
2. Commitment and Consistency:
This rule says our nearly obsessive desire to be(and to appear) consistent with what we have already done. Once we have made a choice or taken a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressure to stay true to our word to remain consistent with our commitments.
3. Social Proof:
The more people follow a certain idea, the better(truer) we deem the idea to be. And the more people who display a certain behavior the more appropriate this behavior is judged by others.
If in a crowded room if the majority of the people are doing a certain behavior then that is considered to be correct, no matter the merits of that behavior. We’ll view this behavior as more correct.
Our tendency to assume that an action is more correct if others are doing it is exploited in a variety of settings.
4. Liking:
The more we like someone, the more inclined we are to buy from or help that person. Our initial liking of a person is based on their physical appearance. If a person is good-looking then our chances of saying yes to their requests will be very high.
The second major reason is similarity, if someone shares or even pretend to share the same interests as you do or share the same origin(same country, background, color) then you are more likely to comply with their requests or help them in need.
5. Authority:
There is a deep-rooted sense of duty to authority within all of us. It is known as obedience to authority. Our extreme willingness to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority.
The most dangerous part is that it doesn’t matter to us whether the order to comply come from a person of real authority or not. A person with fake authority can easily make us do things that we are not supposed to do.
5. Scarcity:
The opportunities seem more valuable to us when their availability is limited. When something is available to us in abundance to likely take it for granted or do not value it enough.
The idea of potential loss plays a large role in human decision-making. People seem more motivated to avoid losing something, than by the thought of gaining something of equal value. Which is exploited by a lot of industries and their marketers.
Final Thoughts:
A fundamental book if you want to learn about persuasion techniques and the psychology behind it, it has applications in sales, marketing, social media, e-commerce, in your daily interactions with people. You can use it to correct those blind spots or for making people comply with your requests in your business.
It will also assist you in learning the techniques that world-class companies use to get their way in the business world.
A detailed account of every technique with relevant examples and studies supporting it, it’s not a book one should miss out on.
Thank you for reading till the end and giving your attention to this article.
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