INFLUENCE: The Psychology of Persuasion

This is an eye – opening book written by Robert B. Cialdini.

CH – 1 WEAPONS OF INFLUENCE

FIXED ACTION PATTERNS:– A fundamental characteristic of this patterns is tht the behaviors that compose them occur in virtually the same fashion and same order every time. The whole senerio is not the trigger, often a small part of the whole senerio that is approaching the intruder is the trigger.

MOTHER TURKEYS:-

• All the mothering is triggered by “cheep-cheep” noise of the chicks and if they don’t make such sound, the mothers will ignore them or even kill them. Other features like smell, touch, appearances, etc seem to play minor role in the mothering process.
• Polecat is its natural enemy whose approach is greeted by squawking, pecking, clawing rage. When a stuffed model of polecat is moved towards it, it responds by immediate and furious attack. However, when the same stuffed animal has a tape inside it which plays the sound of “cheep-cheep”, the mother turkey doesn’t attack it and instead accepts and gathers it underneath her.

GIVING REASON:-

• When we ask someone to do a favour, we will be more successful if we provide a reason.
• You are waiting in a line for using the xerox machine, and you want to go ahead  in the line. You say:
• CASE1 = “Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May i use the xerox machine?” – 60% people agree
• CASE2 = “Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the xerox machine because I’m in a rush? – 94% people agree
• CASE3 = “Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the xerox machine because I have make some copies?” – 93% people agree
• In the 3rd senerio, the word “because” is used and the effect is same as that in 2nd senerio. No new justification or information was added in the 3rd case and still it worked effectively so the word “because” makes all the difference.

JEWELRY SHOP:-

• They were unable to sell certain goods since a long time. The owner asked the salesperson to sell it in half the price but the salesperson by mistake labeled all the stones at double their price.
• Much to the owner’s surprise, all the stones were sold off quickly.
• Customers, with little knowledge of turquoise, were using their standard principle – a stereotype – to guide their buying : “expensive = good quality”
• Price alone had become triggering feature for quality

We often use our stereotype, our rules of thumb to classify things according to few key features and then to respond mindlessly when one or another of these trigger features is present.

“Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them” –  Alfred North Whitehead

FEMALE FIREFLY OF PHOTURIS GENUS :-

• They feed on males fireflies of another genus (Photinus).
• These males avoid contact with them.
• But the Photuris females have recognized a weakness in their prey – a special blinking courtship code by which members of victim’s species tell one another that they are ready to mate.
• They mimic their courtship code and the prey willingly comes into death’s embrace.

SABER-TOOTHED BLENNY:-

• It is a small fish.
• Takes advantage of unusual cooperation between worked out by members of other 2 species of fish ( 1 small and 1 large)
• The smaller fish serves as a cleaner to the large one, which allows the cleaner to approach it and even enter its mouth to pick off fungus and other parasites that have attached themselves to the big fish’s teeth or gills. Bigger group gets cleaned off and smaller gets dinner.
• The small fish perform an undulating dance which gets the big fish to open their mouth and stay still.
• Blenny will approach the big fish, copying the cleaner’s dance and automatically producing the tranquil, unmoving posture of the big fish. It quickly bits a mouthful of the large fish’s flesh and then darts away.

CLOTHES SHOP:-

• There is 1 salesman and 1 head tailor.
• The salesman would act as if he has hearing problem.
• When the customer likes a dress, he would ask the head tailor for the cost by shouting it loudly to him
• The head tailor would say ” For that beautiful all-wool suit, 42 dollars”. The sales man would ask again and he would say ” 42 dollar”. The salesman would tur to the customer and say that “He says 22 dollars”.
• Customer would hurry to buy the suit and scramble out of the shop with his ” expensive=good” bargain before they discover their mistake.

CONTRAST PRINCIPLE :-

• It is upon you to make the price of an item seem high or low (good or bad), depending on the previously presented article.
• CLOTHES SHOP: They try to sell costlier items 1st and then the cheaper items bcause then we will find the cheaper items to be more cheaper and costly items to be less costly because our brain thinks it relative to the cost of the previous items.
• REAL ESTATE: the agent first shows a few bad houses and then a better one and the customer easily like the better house and thinks it is extremely good.
• AUTOMOBILE: the salesman first waits till the car price is finalized and then on the final price, and then suggests one option after another that can be added (accessories).

CH – 2 RECIPROCATION

We try to repay, in kind, what other person has provided us.

We are obligated to future repayment of favors, gifts, invitations, etc.

This exists in each society and is pervasive also.

Cultural anthropologists Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox view this “ web of indebtedness ” as a unique adaptive mechanism of humans,  allowing for division of labor, exchange of diverse forms of goods and services, and the creation of cluster of inter-dependencies that bind individuals tightly together into highly efficient units.

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Mexico and Ethiopia

1985 – Ethiopia economy  was in ruins. Food supply ravaged by years of drought and internal wars. Mexico sent 5000 dollar relief donation.

But this aid had gone in reverse direction . Native officials of Ethiopian Red Cross had decided to send money to help victim of that year’s earthquake in Mexico.

This was because they felt obligated to do so because Mexico had helped them by sending aid in 1935, when it was invaded by Italy.

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Because there is a general distaste for those who take and make no efforts to give back, we often go to great lengths to avoid being considered as one of them and, in the process, be “taken” by individuals who stand to gain from our indebtness.