Influence: Science and practice

Influence: Science and practice

Pearson new international edition; Robert B. Cialdini; fifth edition

• Weapons of influence

Researchers have begun to identify regular, blindly mechanical patterns of action in a wide variety of species. Called fixed-action patterns, they can involve intricate sequences of behavior, such as entire courtship or mating rituals. A fundamental characteristic of these patterns is that the behaviors comprising them occur in virtually the same fashion and in the same order every time. Click and the appropriate tape is activated; whirr and out rolls the standard sequence of behaviors. An interesting aspect of all this is the way the tapes are activated, it can be a specific feature, the trigger feature that activates the tape (robin reacting to read feathers alone). Often the trigger feature will be just one tiny aspect of the totality.Automatic, fixed-action patterns of these animals work very well most of the time. Humans too have preprogrammed tapes; and, although they usually work to our advantage, the trigger features that activate them can dupe us into playing the tapes at the wrong time.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. People simply like to have reasons for what they do. A research showed that the word ‘because’ triggered an automatic compliance response from the subjects, even when they were given no subsequent reason to comply (Excuse me, I have 5 pages, may I use the machine because I have to make some copies?). Another example is increasing the price of jewelry, people used a stereotype: expensive = good. Price alone had become a trigger feature for quality and a dramatic increase in price alone had led to a dramatic increase in sales among the quality-hungry buyers.These buyers were people who had been brought up on the rule: you get what you pay for. The expensive=good stereotype had worked quite well for them in the past. So when they found themselves in the position of wanting good turquoise jewelry but not having much knowledge, they understandably relied on the old standby feature of cost to determine the merit.By reacting solely to the price they were playing a shortcut version of betting the odds. They were just counting on one feature of the jewelry.Automatic, stereotyped behavior is prevalent in much human action, in many cases it is the most efficient form of behaving and sometimes it’s necessary. To deal with an complex, ever changing environment we need shortcuts, we can’t analyze everything. We must very often use our stereotypes, our rules of thumb, to classify things accordingly to a few key features.Sometimes the behavior that unrolls will not be appropriate for the situation, because not even the best stereotypes and trigger features work every time. We will accept their imperfections because there is really no other choice.Psychologists have recently uncovered a number of mental shortcuts that we employ in making our everyday judgments. Termed judgmental heuristics, these shortcuts operate in much the same way as expensive=good, allowing for simplified thinking that works well most of the time but leaves us open to occasional, costly mistakes. Consider, for example, the shortcut rule that goes: if the expert said so, it must be true. We are convinced by status instead of thinking about the arguments. This is also an automatic or click,whirr respons. The tendency to react on the basis of a thorough analysis of all of the information can be referred to as controlled responding.Quite a lot of laboratory research has shown that people are more likely to deal with information in a controlled fashion when they have both the desire and the ability to analyze it carefully. We resist the automatic response when an issue is important to us. Sometimes the issues may be so complicated, the time so tight, the distractions so intrusive, the emotional arousal so strong or the mental fatigue so deep that we are in no cognitive condition to operate mindfully. Important topic or not, we have to take the shortcut. 1 / 2

Most of us know very little about our automatic behavior patterns. They make us terribly vulnerable to anyone who does know how they work. Our automatic tapes usually develop from psychological principles or stereotypes we have learned to accept. We have been subjected to them from such an early point in our lives, and they have moved us about so pervasively since then, that you and I rarely perceive their power. In the eyes of others, a weapon of automatic influence.The profiteers can commission the power of these weapons for use against their targets while exerting little personal force. Tis gives the profiteers an enormous additional benefit, the ability to manipulate without the appearance of manipulation. Even the victims themselves tend to see their compliance as a result of the action of natural forces. Example: contrast principle, if the second item is fairly different from the first, we will tend to see it as more different than it actually is (first lift high object, than a light object, estimate the second object heavier). The great advantage of this principle is not only that it works but also that it is virtually undetectable. Clothing stores instruct their sales personnel to sell the costly item first. It is possible to make the price of the same item seem higher or lower depending on the price of a previously presented item.

• Reciprocation

The rule of reciprocation says that we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us. By virtue of the reciprocity rule, we are obligated to the future repayment. The impressive aspect of reciprocation with its accompanying sense of obligation is its pervasiveness in human culture. All human societies subscribe to the rule. By obligating the recipient of an act to repayment in the future, the rule for reciprocation allows one individual to give something to another with confidence that it is not being lost. This sense of future obligation within the rule makes possible the development of various kinds of continuing relationships, transactions and exchanges that are beneficial to society. Consequently, all members of society are trained from childhood to abide by the rule or suffer serious social disapproval.Although obligations extend into the future, their span is not unlimited. Especially for relatively small favors, the desire to repay seems to fade with time, but when gifts are of notable and memorable value, they can be remarkably long-lived.The decision to comply with another’s request is frequently influenced by the reciprocity rule. One favorite and profitable tactic of certain compliance professionals is to give something before asking for a return favor. The exploitability of this tactic is due to three characteristics of the rule for reciprocation. First, the rule is extremely powerful, often overwhelming the influence of other factors that normally determine compliance with a request (for example, how much you like the requester).The power of reciprocity can be found in the merchandise field as well. For example the free sample to ‘see if they like it’. The reciprocity rule governs many situations of a purely interpersonal nature where neither money nor commercial exchange is at issue (armed robber who crashed a dinner party but left after he as offered some of the remaining food).Second, the rule applies even to uninvited first favors, thereby reducing our ability to decide whom we wish to owe and putting the choice in the hands of others. It is the obligation to receive that makes the rule so easy to exploit.Finally, the rule can spur unequal exchanges; to be rid of the uncomfortable feeling of indebtedness, an individual will often agree to a request for a substantially larger favor than the one he or she received. The rule allows one person to choose the nature of the indebting first favor and the nature of the debt-canceling return favor. Why should it be that small first favors often stimulate larger favor returns? One important reason concerns the clearly unpleasant character of the feeling of indebtedness. Another reason is that someone who violates the rule is disliked by the society.

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