WEAPONS OF INFLUENCE BYROBERT CIALDINI

Presenter: Rijah Sarah AMM-03

About the author:Robert Cialdini

• Dr Robert was born on April 27, 1945 and is 65 years old.

• By occupation he is a Psychologist and an Author

• He wrote many books on persuasion and influences.

• Dr Robert Cialdini is best known for his popular book on persuasion and marketing, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

•His book has also been published as a textbook under the title Influence: Science and Practice.

• In writing the book, he spent three years going "undercover" applying for jobs and training at used car dealerships, fund-raising organizations, telemarketing firms and the like, observing real-life situations of persuasion

What is the definition of influence:• Influence means change-creating

change in some way. Change can be in an attitude; it can be in a perception; or a behavior. But in all instances, we can't lay claim to influence until we can demonstrate that we've changed someone.

Who has influence?

•We all have the potential to be influential, although some of us make more use of it than others.

How do we get it?

•The ability to influence is not simply inborn. We can learn to become dramatically more successful at it. For centuries, the ability to be influential and persuasive has been thought of as an art, but there's also a science to it. And if it's scientific, it means it can be taught. It can be learned. So we all have the potential to become more influential as a consequence.

Chapter 1:

Weapons of Influence

•Cialdini describes how both animals and humans have a built-in automatic response to stimuli called "fixed-action patterns" activated by a "trigger feature.“

•He characterizes these automatic responses with the phrase "click-whirr": "Click and the appropriate tape is activated; whirr and out rolls the standard sequence of behaviors"

Fixed Action Patterns:• Mostly what scientists call “fixed-action

patterns” in animals, is a precise and predictable sequence of behavior. It’s instinctive, an automatic response. This sequence is set in motion by a specific “trigger.”

• Fixed-action patterns are common among animals. But what about humans? What if you could use a trigger to set off a desirable sequence of behavior in a potential customer — like saying “yes” to a request you make?

•Humans are more likely to comply with a request if a reason is also given, even if that reason makes no sense. The word "because" triggers the automatic compliance response.

• A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason. Always use the word, because.

• "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I'm in a rush?“

• The effectiveness of this request plus-reason was a great way to influence people around.

Fixed action patterns

•Trigger featureøTurkey and polecat

Click . . . whirr

•Fixed action patterns EXPENSIVE=GOOD

•A lady in a jewelry store was trying to push certain kinds of turquoise jewelry without much success. She finally left her assistant a note telling her to cut prices by 1/2.Her assistant misread her note and doubled prices.The jewelry sold out.Can you guess why?

Because the vacationers, who wanted "good" jewelry, saw the turquoise pieces as decidedly more valuable and desirable when nothing about them was enhanced but the price. And the price alone had become a trigger feature for quality.

BETTING THE SHORTCUT ODDS:

•You and I exist in an extraordinarily complicated environment, easily the most rapidly moving and complex that has ever existed on the planet. To deal with it, we need shortcuts.

•We can't be expected to distinguish all the aspects in each person, event, and situation we encounter in even one day. Instead, we must very often use our stereotypes, our rules of thumb.

• Judgmental heuristics . . . especially relevant . . . are those heuristics that tell us when to believe or do what we are told.

• - “If an expert said so, it must be true.”

Jujitsu

• - The ability to manipulate without the appearance of manipulation.

• - The contrast principle.that affects the way we see the difference between two things that are presented one after the other."