Influence

· 1848 words · 9 minute read

Influence 🔗

0. Provide a Reason when asking for a favor 🔗

1. Contrast principle 🔗

When showed one after another, difference seems bigger

  • How is exploited? Some times sellers will show you something way expensive, and there something “just” expensive.
  • but by the contrast, seems much cheaper

2. Reciprocation 🔗

If somebody does you a favor, we feel in debt. This can trick you into doing something you would not normally do, just to feel free of debt

Rejection then retreat: a derivate of reciprocation, when asking something hard and then you negotiate, the other part feels obliged to accept, since you are already giving the a favor (lowing the demand).

In the book Never split the difference this is called anchoring, if you are able to land first the terms, you are anchoring the frame of negotiation.

3. Commitment & Consistency 🔗

  • Consistency: We all have a high pressure to behave consistently. -> People who is not consistently seems less trusty. And we all want to be trustworthy.
  • Commitment: Once we commit into something we are trap into consistency. two forces appear.
  1. Inside: our self-image changed and we want to take actions to be consistent with ourself.
  2. outside: we want to be accepted socially, so we try to keep up our belief/community

Of course, the more public the commitment is, the greater is the pressure to be consistent.

4 Principle of social proof. 🔗

To determine what is correct we look at what others do. Is a shortcut for our brain –> if is good for others, probably is good for us.

The unclearer is the situation for us, the more we look outside for an answer.

sadly, this is being exploited all the time (best sellers, canned laughs, instagram etc…)

This can lead to… pluralistic ignorance, when an emergency situation is being ignored cause everybody is looking at each other without knowing how to act, and since nobody is acting, everybody thinks it’s okay to do nothing.

5 Likely 🔗

We say yes to request from people we like:

  • physical attractivenes
  • flattery
  • similar to us

6 Authority 🔗

We are more obedient from orders that came from respectable people (Doctors/Police…)

Why? It’s another shortcut of our brain, doctors, police have earned the respect of society, they are respectable cause it’s hard to become one them.

Exploitable? Oh yes! people that want to scam us will come with a “title” or nice dressing etc..

7 Scarcity 🔗

Opportunities seem more valuable to us when their availability is limited

  • This offer is only for today
  • This house might not be for renting tomorrow

They use this techniques to make our brain to not think, and just act.

Book on amazon: https://www.amazon.es/influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Business-Essentials/dp/006124189X

CLIPS! 🔗

Influence 🔗

Metadata 🔗

Highlights 🔗

Ah, uncertainty—the right-hand man of the principle of social proof. We have already seen that when people are uncertain, they look to the actions of others to guide their own actions. In the alien, Guyanese environment, then, Temple members were very ready to follow the lead of others. But as we have also seen, it is others of a special kind whose behavior will be most unquestioningly followed—similar others. And therein lies the awful beauty of the Reverend Jim Jones’s relocation strategy. In a country like Guyana, there were no similar others for a Jonestown resident but the people of Jonestown itself. — location: 2508 ^ref-42844

Milgram is sure he knows the answer. It has to do, he says, with a deep-seated sense of duty to authority within us all. According — location: 3436 ^ref-29395

Whenever we are faced with so potent a motivator of human action, it is natural to expect that good reasons exist for the motivation. In the case of obedience to authority, even a brief consideration of human social organization offers justification aplenty. A multilayered and widely accepted system of authority confers an immense advantage upon a society. It allows the development of sophisticated structures for resource production, trade, defense, expansion, and social control that would otherwise be impossible. The other alternative, anarchy, is a state that is hardly known for its beneficial effects on cultural groups and one that the social philosopher Thomas Hobbes assures us would render life “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” — location: 3485 ^ref-61924

We rarely agonize to such a degree over the pros and cons of authority’s demands. In fact, our obedience frequently takes place in a click, whirr fashion, with little or no conscious deliberation. Information from a recognized authority can provide us a valuable shortcut for deciding how to act in a situation. — location: 3501 ^ref-58956

After all, as Milgram himself suggests, conforming to the dictates of authority figures has always had genuine practical advantages for us. Early on, these people (for example, parents, teachers) knew more than we did, and we found that taking their advice proved beneficial—partly because of their greater wisdom and partly because they controlled our rewards and punishments. As adults, the same benefits persist for the same reasons, though the authority figures now appear as employers, judges, and government leaders. Because their positions speak of superior access to information and power, it makes great sense to comply with the wishes of properly constituted authorities. It makes so much sense, in fact, that we often do so when it makes no sense at all. — location: 3504 ^ref-32527

One protective tactic we can use against authority status is to remove its element of surprise. Because we typically misperceive the profound impact of authority (and its symbols) on our actions, we are at the disadvantage of being insufficiently cautious about its presence in compliance situations. A fundamental form of defense against this problem, therefore, is a heightened awareness of authority power. When this awareness is coupled with a recognition of how easily authority symbols can be faked, the benefit will be a properly guarded approach to situations involving authority-influence attempts. — location: 3691 ^ref-34947

“Is this authority truly an expert?” The question is helpful because it focuses our attention on a pair of crucial pieces of information: the authority’s credentials and the relevance of those credentials to the topic at hand. — location: 3702 ^ref-55069

“How truthful can we expect the expert to be here?” — location: 3724 ^ref-36603

To all appearances, he was at once knowledgeable and honest, a combination that gave him great credibility. And Vincent was quick to exploit the advantage of this credible image. — location: 3766 ^ref-38427

Since that encounter with the scarcity principle—that opportunities seem more valuable to us when their availability is limited—I — location: 3821 ^ref-33211

The idea of potential loss plays a large role in human decision making. In fact, people seem to be more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something of equal value. For — location: 3827 ^ref-34145

Related to the limited-number technique is the “deadline” tactic, in which some official time limit is placed on the customer’s opportunity to get what the compliance professional is offering. — location: 3868 ^ref-12180

The first is familiar. Like the other weapons of influence, the scarcity principle trades on our weakness for shortcuts. The weakness is, as before, an enlightened one. In this case, because we know that the things that are difficult to possess are typically better than those that are easy to possess, we can often use an item’s availability to help us quickly and correctly decide on its quality. Thus, one reason for the potency of the scarcity principle is that, by following it, we are usually and efficiently right.106 — location: 3921 ^ref-41562

easily than did the Tampa consumers.111 This sort of response is typical of individuals who have lost an established freedom and is crucial to an understanding of how psychological reactance and scarcity work on us. When our freedom to have something is limited, the item becomes less available, and we experience an increased desire for it. — location: 4019 ^ref-10570

The people involved came to want the restricted item more and, as a result, came to feel more favorable toward it. — location: 4064 ^ref-4442

The principle works for messages, communications, and knowledge, too. Taking this perspective, we can see that information may not have to be censored for us to value it more; it need only be scarce. According to the scarcity principle, then, we will find a piece of information more persuasive if we think we can’t get it elsewhere. — location: 4091 ^ref-38684

people for it. The feeling of being in competition for scarce resources has powerfully motivating properties. The ardor of an indifferent lover surges with the appearance of a rival. It is often for reasons of strategy, therefore, that romantic partners reveal (or invent) the attentions of a new admirer. Salespeople are taught to play the same game with indecisive customers. For example, a realtor who is trying to sell a house to a “fence-sitting” prospect will sometimes call the prospect with news of another potential buyer who has seen the house, liked it, and is scheduled to return the following day to talk about terms. When wholly fabricated, the new bidder is commonly described as an outsider with plenty of money: “an out-of-state investor buying for tax purposes” and — location: 4205 ^ref-39103

But then the bidding started. ABC opened with two million. I came back with two point four. ABC went to two point eight. And the fever of the thing caught us. Like a guy who had lost his mind, I kept bidding. Finally, I went to three point two; and there came a moment when I said to myself, “Good grief, if I get it, what the heck am I going to do with it?” When ABC finally topped me, my main feeling was relief. It’s been very educational.120 — location: 4244 ^ref-3990

extreme caution is advised whenever we encounter the devilish construction of scarcity plus rivalry. — location: 4255 ^ref-59768

The joy is not in experiencing a scarce commodity but in possessing it. It is important that we not confuse the two. Whenever — location: 4279 ^ref-19005

As soon as we feel the tide of emotional arousal that flows from scarcity influences, we should use that rise in arousal as a signal to stop short. Panicky, feverish reactions have no place in wise compliance decisions. We need to calm ourselves and regain a rational perspective. — location: 4324 ^ref-39945

we can move to the second stage by asking ourselves why we want the item under consideration. If the answer is that we want it primarily for the purpose of owning it, then we should use its availability to help gauge how much we want to spend for it. However, if the answer is that we want it primarily for its function (that is, we want something good to drive, drink, eat, etc.), then we must remember that the item under consideration will function equally well whether scarce or plentiful. Quite simply, we need to recall that the scarce cookies didn’t taste any better. — location: 4326 ^ref-26103