NotesfromthebookInfluenceThePsychologyofPersuasionByRobert Cialdini

1. Weapons of influence. 2. Experiment involving a mother turkey and a stuffed polecat. For a turkey, a real polecat is a natural enemy whose approach is to be greeted with squawking, pecking, clawing rage. This was exhibited in case of a stuffed polecat too. But when the same stuffed pole cat carried inside it a small recorder that played the cheep cheep sound of baby turkeys, the mother not only accepted the on coming pole cat, but gathered it underneath her. 3. Ethologists tell us that this sort of behavior is far from unique to turkey. 4. Called fixed action patterns, these involve intricate sequences of behaviour, such as entire courtship or mating rituals. A fundamental characteristic of these patterns is that the behaviors that compose them occur in virtually the same fashion and in the same order every time. 5. These behaviors are triggered based on a specific feature, also called the trigger feature. 6. Human beings are also susceptible to such actions and they usually work to the advantage the trigger features that activate them can be used to dupe us into playing them at the wrong times. 7. A well known principle of human behavior says that when we ask some one to do us a favor, we are more successful when we provide a reason. 8. Just as the cheep cheep sound of turkey chicks triggered an automatic mothering response from maternal turkeys even when it emanated from a stuffed pole cat so too, did the word because trigger an automatic compliance response from people even when they were given no subsequent reason to comply. 9. Expensive = good is another stereotype that people use to guide their buying. This is because people are brought up with the rule you get what you pay for and who had seen that rule borne out over and over in their lives. 10. Before long people translate that rule to mean expensive = good. This works most of the time because the price of an item increases with its worth; a higher price typically reflects higher quality. But people can also fall for this and by assuming that something that is highly priced is worth it without really thinking why it is so. 11. Automatic stereotype behavior is prevalent in much of human action, because in many cases, it is the most efficient form of behaving and in other cases it is simply necessary. You and I exist in an extraordinarily complicated stimulus environment, easily the most rapidly moving and complex that has ever existed on this planet. To deal with it, we need shortcuts. We cant be expected to recognize and analyze all the aspects in each person, event and situation we encounter in even one day. We havent this time, energy, or capacity for it. Instead very often we must use our stereotypes, our rules of thumb to classify things according to a few key features and then to respond mindlessly when one or another of these trigger features is present. 12. Sometimes, the behavior that unrolls will not be appropriate for the situation, because not even the best stereotypes and trigger features work every time. But we accept their imperfection, since there is really no choice. Without them we would stand frozen cataloging, appraising and calibrating as the time for action sped by and away. 13. Renowned British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead recognized this inescapable quality of modern life when he asserted that civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without even thinking about them. 14. We know very little about automatic behavior patterns. Perhaps that is so precisely because of the mechanistic unthinking manner in which they occur. 15. These automatic behavior patterns make us terribly vulnerable to anyone who does know how they work. 16. There is a group of people who know very well where the weapons of automatic influence lie and who employ them regularly and expertly to get what they want. 17. The secret of their effectiveness lies in the way they structure their requests, the way they arm themselves with one or another of the weapon of influence that exist within the social environment. 18. They do this by using a correctly chosen word that engages a strong psychological principle and sets an automatic behavior tape rolling within us. 19. There are several components shared by most of the weapons of automatic influence to be described in this book. 20. The nearly mechanical process by which the power within these weapons can be activated, and the consequent exploitability of this power by anyone who knows how to trigger them.

NotesfromthebookInfluenceThePsychologyofPersuasionByRobert Cialdini
21. A 3 component involves the way that the weapons of automatic influence lend their force to those who use them. 22. There is a principle in human perception, the contrast principle, that affects the way we see things. The contrast principle is well established in the fields of psychophysics and applies to all sorts of perceptions besides weight. 23. If we are talking to a beautiful woman at a cocktail party and are joined by an unattractive one, the second woman will strike us as less attractive than she actually is. 24. In fact research done on contrast principles by the Arizona and Montana State universities suggest that we may be less satisfied with the physical attractiveness of our own lovers because of the way popular media bombard us with examples of unrealistically attractive models. Reciprocation. 1. Reciprocity rule says that we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us. 2. Human societies derive a truly significant competitive advantage from the reciprocity rule, and consequently they make sure their members are trained to comply with and believe in it. 3. This rule possesses awesome strength, often producing a yes response to a request that, except for an existing feeling of indebtedness, would have surely been refused. 4. People we might ordinarily dislike- unsavory and unwelcome sales operators, disagreeable acquaintances, and representatives of strange or unpopular organizations can greatly increase the chance that will do what they wish merely by providing us with a small favor prior to their requests. 5. Politics is another arena in which the power of the reciprocity rule shows itself. Reciprocation tactics appear at every level. 6. Corporate officials recognize the strength of the reciprocity rule by providing judicial and legislative officials with gifts and favors and the series of legal restrictions that companies have put in place against receiving such gifts. 7. The power of reciprocity rule can be found in merchandising field as well. 8. Merchants engage the reciprocity rule through the concept of free sample. 9. The beauty of the free sample, however, is that it is a gift and, as such, can engage the reciprocity rule. 10. Another aspect of the reciprocity rule is that people can trigger a feeling of indebtedness in others by doing an uninvited favor. 11. Although the obligation to repay constitutes the essence of the reciprocity rule, it is the obligation to receive that makes the rule easy to exploit. 12. Hence the obligation to receive reduces our ability to choose whom we wish to be indebted to and puts the power in the hands of others. 13. The rule of reciprocity also demands that one sort of action be reciprocated with a similar sort of action. But within the similar action boundaries, considerable flexibility is allowed. A small initial favor can produce a sense of obligation to agree to a substantially larger return of favor. 14. This is since the rule allows one person to choose the nature of the indebting first favor and the nature of the debt canceling return favor; we could easily be manipulated into an unfair exchange by those who might wish to exploit it. 15. Because reciprocal arrangements are so vital in human social systems, we have been conditioned to be uncomfortable when beholden. 16. If we were to ignore breezily the need to return another persons initial favor, we would stop one reciprocal sequence dead and would make it less likely that our benefactor would do such favors in the future. 17. But neither event is in the best interests of the society. Hence we are trained from childhood to chafe, emotionally, under the saddle of obligation. 18. For this reason alone, we may be willing to agree to perform a larger favor than we received, merely to relieve ourselves of the psychological burden of debt. 19. A person who violates the reciprocity rule by accepting without attempting to return the good acts of others is actively disliked by the society. 20. Moocher and welsher are unsavory labels to be scrupulously shunned. So undesirable are they that we agree to an unequal exchange in order to dodge them. 21. In combination, the reality of the internal discomfort and the possibility of external shame can produce a heavy psychological cost. When seen in the light of this cost, it is not so
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NotesfromthebookInfluenceThePsychologyofPersuasionByRobert Cialdini
puzzling that we will often give back more than we have received in the name of reciprocity. 22. Reciprocal concession is another way to employ the reciprocity rule to get someone to comply with a request. It is more subtle than the direct route of providing with a favor and then asking for one in return; yet in some ways, it is more devastatingly effective than the straight forward approach. 23. This term Reciprocal concession is an obligation to make a concession to someone who has made a concession to us. This is also called the rejection-then-retreat technique. 24. This technique works when two requests are made and when the first is refused and when the second request which is relatively smaller is made, it is invariably accepted. When the first request is extreme to be called as unreasonable, this tactics doesnt work. 25. Another form of the rejection-then-retreat technique is when door to door sales person when you refuse their request for a sale, ask for a referral of friends and relatives, who may be interested in the sale. Due to the reciprocity concession, people invariably end up sharing the names. 26. One reason for the success of the rejection-then-retreat technique is its incorporation of the reciprocity rule. The larger-then-smaller request makes use of the contrast principle by making the smaller request appear smaller on a relative scale. 27. The second reason is its ability to prompt its victims to agree to further requests. How to Say NO 28. When a requester who employs the rule of reciprocation, you and I face a formidable foe. 29. With proper understanding of the nature of our opponent, we can come away with the battlefield unhurt and sometimes, even better off than before. 30. It is essential to recognize that the requester who invokes the reciprocation rule is not the real opponent. The real opponent is the rule. If we are not to be abused by it, we must take steps to defuse its energy. 31. A policy of blanket rejection is ill advised since we will always encounter generous individuals as well as many people who try to play fairly by the reciprocity rule rather than exploit it. These people will doubtless become insulted by someone who consistently rejects their efforts; social friction and isolation could well result. 32. Another solution advises us to accept the desirable first offers of others but to accept those offers only for what they fundamentally are, not for what they are represented to be. 33. Once we understand that the initial offer was not a favor but a compliance tactic, we need only react to it accordingly to be free of its influence. 34. As long as we perceive and define the opponents action as a compliance device instead of a favor, the person no longer has the reciprocation rule as an ally; 35. The rule says that favors are to be met with favors; it does not require that tricks be met with tricks. Commitment and Consistency 1. A study done by a pair of Canadian psychologists uncovered something fascinating about people at the racetrack; just that after placing a bet, they are much more confident of the horses chances of winning than they are immediately before laying down that bet. 2. This is because of 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 pressures to behave consistently with that commitment. Those pressures will cause us to respond in ways that justify our earlier decision. 3. Human beings fool themselves from time to time in order to keep our thoughts and beliefs consistent with what we have already done or decided. 4. Psychologists have long understood the power of the consistency principle to direct human action. 5. This tendency to be consistent is really strong enough to compel us to do what we ordinarily would not want to do. 6. The drive to be and look consistent constitutes a highly potent weapon of social influence, often causing us to act in ways that are clearly contrary to our own best interests. 7. Consistency is so powerful a motive why? In most circumstances consistency is valued and adaptive. 8. Inconsistency is commonly thought to be an undesirable personality trait. 9. The person whose beliefs, words and deeds dont match may be seen as indecisive, confused, two-faced or even mentally ill.

NotesfromthebookInfluenceThePsychologyofPersuasionByRobert Cialdini
10. Good personal consistency is highly valued in our culture. It provides us with a reasonable and gainful orientation to the world. 11. Without consistency, our lives will be difficult, erratic and disjointed. 12. Because it is so typically in our best interests to be consistent, we easily fall into the habit of being automatically so, even in situations where it is not sensible to be so. 13. When it occurs unthinkingly, consistency can be disastrous. 14. Why is consistency so valued? Like most other forms of automatic responding, it offers a shortcut through the density of modern life. 15. Once we have made up our minds about an issue, stubborn consistency allows us a very appealing luxury. 16. We really dont have to think about the issue anymore. Instead all we have to do when confronted with the issue is to turn on our consistency tape, whirr and we know what to believe, say, or do. 17. Consistency allows us a convenient, relatively effortless, and efficient method for dealing with the complex daily environments that make severe demands on our mental energies and capacities. 18. So it is not hard to understand, then, why automatic consistency is a difficult reaction to curb. It offers us a way to evade the rigors of continuing thought. 19. The second, more perverse attraction of mechanical consistency as well. Sometimes, it is not the effort of hard, cognitive work that makes us shirk thoughtful activity, but the harsh consequence of that activity. 20. Sometimes, it is the cursedly clear and unwelcome set of answers provided by straight thinking that makes us mental slackers. There are certain disturbing things we simply would rather not realize. Because it is preprogrammed and mindless method, automatic consistency can supply a safe hiding place from those troubling realizations. 21. If it appears that automatic consistency functions as a shield against thought, it should not be surprising that such consistency can also be exploited by those who would prefer that we not think too much in response to their requests for compliance. 22. For exploiters, whose interests will be served by an unthinking, mechanical reaction to their requests, our tendency for automatic consistency is a gold mine. 23. In fine jujitsu fashion, they structure their interactions with us so that our own need to be consistent will lead directly to their benefit. 24. Commitment is the key. Commitment produces the click that activates the whirr of the powerful consistency tape. 25. Social psychologists tell us that if people make a commitment ( to take a stand, go on record), then they have set up the stage for our automatic and ill-considered consistency with that earlier commitment. 26. Once a stand is taken, there is a natural tendency to behave in ways that are stubbornly consistent with the stand. 27. The question of what makes a commitment effective has a number of answers. A variety of factors affect the ability of a commitment to constrain our feature behavior. 28. Trivial requests: agreeing to seemingly small and trivial requests, because people can get compliance for a small act and use that to get compliance on the bigger act the bigger acts are usually remotely connected to the smaller and trivial requests. 29. This happens like this. you can use small commitments to manipulate a persons self image; you can use them to turn citizens into public servants, prospects into customers, prisoners into collaborators. 30. Once you have got a mans self-image where you want it, he should comply naturally with a whole range of your requests that are consistent with his view of himself. 31. How this commitment and consistency can be used and misused. 32. What those around us think is true is enormously important in determining what we ourselves think is true. 33. Written statements are more committing than oral statements. That is why people are requested to set a goal and write it down. 34. People live up to what they have written down. 35. The purpose of why I like a product contests is to get as many people create a written testimonial on liking the product. These contests create a favorable opinion in peoples mind about the product and people need to follow up on the commitment by buying it. 36. People say something and go on to act/behave to make that statement true.

NotesfromthebookInfluenceThePsychologyofPersuasionByRobert Cialdini
37. Whenever one takes a stand that is visible to others, there arises a drive to maintain that stand in order to look like a consistent person. 38. For appearances sake, then, the more public a stand, the more reluctant we will be to change it. 39. Persons who go through a great deal of trouble or pain to attain something tend to value it more highly than persons who attain the same thing with minimum effort. 40. Commitments are most effective in changing a persons self image and future behavior when they are active, public and effortful. 41. This is the reason why fraternities have initiation ceremonies that can be down right, quite demeaning. 42. Social scientists have determined that we accept inner responsibility for a behavior when we think we have chosen to perform it in the absence of strong outside pressure. 43. A large reward is an external pressure. It may get us to perform a certain action, but wont get us accept inner responsibility for the act. 44. The same holds for strong threats; it may motivate immediate compliance, but is unlikely to produce long term commitment. 45. For parents, this means that they should never heavily bribe or threaten our children to do the things we want them to truly believe in. 46. Compliance professionals love commitments that produce inner change. First that change is not just specific to the situation where it first occurred; it covers a whole range of related situations, too. 47. Second, the effects of the change are lasting and these changes grow their own legs and the initial reason that brought about the change is no longer needed. 48. The advantage to an unscrupulous compliance professional is tremendous. Because we find reasons to support choices we have committed to, an exploitative individual can offer us an inducement for making such a choice, and after a decision has been made, can remove that inducement, knowing that our decision will probably stand on its own legs. 49. New car dealers regularly use this technique called low balling. It typically happens like this. A price lesser than the competitors price is given for the car. Once customer decides to buy the car, the lesser price is cancelled through some means; typically as a financier or banks mistake. 50. The following is the sequence that happens irrespective of the type of low balling. 51. An advantage is offered that induces a favorable purchase decision. Then, sometime after the decision has been made, but before the bargain is sealed, the original purchase advantage is deftly removed. 52. The best part about this low balling technique is its ability to make a person leased with a poor choice. Those who have only poor choices to offer us, are especially fond of this technique. HOW TO SAY NO: 53. A foolish consistency is hobgoblin of little minds Emerson. Although consistency is generally good, even vital, there is a foolish, rigid variety to be shunned. It is this tendency to be automatically and unthinkingly consistent that Emerson referred to. And it is this tendency that we must be weary of, for it lays us open to the maneuvers of those who want to exploit the mechanical commitment -> consistency sequence for profit. 54. There are two kinds of signals to tip us off. 55. The first sort of signal occurs in the pit of our stomachs when we realize we are trapped into complying with a request we know we dont want to perform. 56. The second is by asking the question, Knowing what I now know, if I could go back in time, would I make the same choice? The important part of the question is Knowing what I now know. SOCIAL PROOF. 1. Experimenters have found that the use of canned laughter causes an audience to laugh longer and more often when humorous material is presented and to rate the material as funnier. And some evidence suggests that canned laughter is most effective for poor jokes. 2. Canned laughter works because of a potential weapon of influence, the principle of social proof. 3. Principle of social proof states that one means we use to determine what is correct is to find out what other people think is correct. 4. The principle applies especially to the way we decide what constitutes correct behavior.

NotesfromthebookInfluenceThePsychologyofPersuasionByRobert Cialdini
5. The tendency to see an action as more appropriate when others are doing it, normally works quite well. 6. As a rule, we make fewer mistakes by acting in accordance with social evidence than contrary to it. 7. Usually when a lot of people are doing something, it is the right thing to do. 8. This feature of the principle is its strength and weakness. 9. Like other weapons of influence, it provides a convenient shortcut for determining how to behave but, at the same time, makes one who uses the shortcut vulnerable to the attacks of profiteers. 10. Our tendency to assume that an action is more correct if others are doing it is exploited in a variety of settings. 11. Bar tender often salt their tip jars with a few dollar bills at the beginning of the evening. 12. Church ushers sometimes salt collection baskets for the same reason. 13. Advertisers love to inform us when a product is the fastest growing or largest selling because they dont have to convince us the product is good, they only need have to convince us that many others think so, which seems proof enough. 14. The producers of charity telethons devote inordinate amounts of time to the incessant listing of viewers who have already pledged contributions. 15. Sales and motivation consultant Since 91 percent of the people are imitators and only 5 percent initiators, people are persuaded more by the actions of others than by any proof we can offer. 16. Researchers have employed procedures based on social proofs. Socially shy and withdrawn preschool children, when showed films of scenes involving children watching some ongoing social activity and then joining the group, to everyones enjoyment, started interacting with their peers at the level of normal children. 17. In general, when we are unsure of ourselves, when the situation is unclear or ambiguous, when uncertainty reigns, we are most likely to look to an accept the action of others as correct. 18. In the process of examining the reactions of other people to resolve our uncertainty, however, we are likely to overlook a subtle, but important fact. Those people are probably examining the social evidence too. 19. Especially in ambiguous situation, the tendency for everyone to be looking to see what everyone else is doing can lead to a fascinating phenomenon called pluralistic ignorance. 20. A thorough understanding of pluralistic ignorance phenomenon helps immeasurably to explain a regular occurrence of the reluctance of an entire groups of bystanders to aid victims in agonizing need of help. 21. Three natural characteristics of urban environments their confusion, their populousness, and their low levels of acquaintanceship lead to decreased bystander aid, as shown by research. 22. The key realization is that bystanders are unsure rather than unkind. So in case anyone needs help, it is better to point to a person and ask for help. 23. The principal of social proof operates most powerfully when we are observing the behavior of people just like us. It is the conduct of such people that gives us the greatest insight into what constitutes correct behavior for ourselves. 24. We are more inclined to follow the lead of a similar individual than a dissimilar one. 25. That is why we are seeing an increasing number of average-person-on-the-street testimonials on TV these days. 26. Messages get across better if it is from the same age group or a peer. Liking (The friendly thief) 1. Few people would be surprised to learn that, as a rule, we most prefer to say yes to the requests of someone we know and like. 2. This simple behavior is used by total strangers to get us to comply with their requests. 3. The clearest example is the way sales happen in a tupper ware party. 4. In these parties, the liking bond between the friends is used by compliance practitioners to produce assent and hence sell. 5. In such parties and similar events, the professionals strategy is to get us like them first. 6. Physical attractiveness has an advantage in social interactions to a much greater extent than any of us can even visualize.

NotesfromthebookInfluenceThePsychologyofPersuasionByRobert Cialdini
7. Peoples response to physical attractiveness falls into a category that social scientists call halo effect. 8. A halo effect occurs when one positive characteristic of a person dominates the way that person is viewed by others. Physical attractiveness is one such characteristic. 9. Reasearch shows that we automatically assign favorable traits, to good looking people, as talent, kindness, honesty and intelligence. 10. We make these judgements without being aware that physical attractiveness plays a role in the process. 11. Results good looks influence hiring process, legal judgments and more. 12. Hence the halo effect of physical attractiveness is regularly exploited by compliance professionals. 13. For e.g. because we like attractive people and because we tend to comply with those we like, it makes sense that sales training programs include grooming hints, that fashionable clothiers select their floor staffs from among good-looking candidates, and that con-men are handsome and con women pretty. 14. Similiarity is another area where compliance professionals make use and influence our opinions/decisions. 15. This similarity can be in the areas of opinions, personality traits, background, or life-style. 16. Hence people who wish to be liked in order to increase our compliance can accomplish this by appearing ( not actually, but just appear) similar to us in any of the wide variety of ways. 17. Dress is a good example. Studies show that we are more likely to help those who dress like us. 18. Other way requesters can manipulate similarity to increase liking and compliance is to claim that they have backgrounds and interests similar to ours. 19. Because even small similarities can be effective in producing a positive response to another and because a veneer of similarity can be so easily manufactured, special caution, in the presence of requesters who claim to be just like you , is very much needed. 20. Compliment is another area that compliance professionals can use to trick us to take decisions that they want. 21. Information that someone fancies us can be bewitchingly effective device for producing return liking and willing compliance. 22. So often in terms of flattery or simple claims of affinity, we hear positive estimation from people who want something from us. 23. Human beings are phenomenal suckers for flattery. Although, there are limits to our gullibility especially when we can be sure that the flatterer is trying to manipulate us we tend, as a rule, to believe praise and to like those who provide it, often times when it is clearly false. 24. Contact and Cooperation: Familiarity plays a key role in decisions about all sorts of things that we make. 25. We have to realize that our attitude toward something has been influenced by the number of times we have been exposed to it in the past. 26. The opposite is also true. Continued exposure to a person or object under unpleasant conditions such as frustration, conflict, or competition leads to less liking. 27. When we like some one, we don't think much before we cooperate with them. 28. Compliance professionals make use of cooperation to get answers they want and can even manufacture the cooperation when it is absent. 29. Compliance professionals are forever attempting to prove that we are working for the same goals that we must pull together for mutual benefit, that they are, in essence, our teammates. 30. Good Cop/Bad Cop is one such example where cooperation is manufactured. 31. Good Cop/Bad Cop works for several reasons Bad cops threats and behavior ensure that theperson playing Good Cop will seem like an especially reasonable and kind man; and because the good cop repeatedly intervenes in favor of suspect, reciprocity rules pressure for a return favor. 32. The principle of association is a general one, governing both negative and positive connections. An innocent association with either bad things or good things will influence how people feel about us.

NotesfromthebookInfluenceThePsychologyofPersuasionByRobert Cialdini
33. There is a natural human tendency to dislike a person who brings us unpleasant information, even when that person did not cause the bad news. The simple association with it is enough to simulate our dislike. 34. The saying you are known by the company you keep and mothers warning us about being associated with the bad kids was a lesson in the negative side of the principle of association. 35. Beautiful models appearing in automobile ads is an example of positive association being used by compliance professionals. 36. The advertisers hope that we will respond to the product in the same ways we respond to the attractive models merely associated with it. 37. Association principle works very well and unconsciously manufacturers regularly rush to connect their products with the current cultural rage. 38. Linking of celebrities to products is another way advertisers cash in on to the association principle. 39. Professional athletes are paid to connect themselves to things that are directly relevant to their roles ( shoes, rackets ) or wholly irrelevant ( soft drinks, watches) 40. The important thing for the advertiser is to establish the connection; it doesn't have to be a logical one, just a positive one. 41. Luncheon technique- subjects become fonder of the people and thjngs they experienced while they were eating. 42. Politics has caught on to this and hence all the lunch and dinner meetings. 43. This has the basis in Ivan Pavlovs research. Distinguished psychologist Gregory Razran figured out that it is possible to associate many responses to food besides salivation. Therefore it is possible to attach this pleasant feeling, this positive attitude to anything ( political statements /policy statements being one example) that is closely associated with food. 44. In the eyes of markeing professionals today, food has been replaced by anything good. 45. A lot of strange behavior can be explained by the fact that people understand the association principle well enough to strive to link themselves to positive events and separate themselves from negative events even when they have not caused the events. 46. The union of sports and sports fan is explained by the principle of association. 47. As Issac Asimov put it in describing our reactions to the contests we view. All things being equal, you root for your own sex, your own culture, your own locality and what you want to prove is that you are better than the other person. Whomever you root for represents you; and when he wins, you win. 48. When looked at in this light, the passion of the sports fan makes sense. The game is no light diversion to be enjoyed for its inherent form and artistry. The self is at stake. That is why hometown crowds are so adoring and, more tellingly, so grateful toward those regularly responsible for home team victories. 49. So we want our affiliated sports team to win to prove our own superiority. We are trying to prove to ourselves, and to everyone else too. According to the association principle, if we can surround ourselves with success that we are connected with in even a superficial way, our public prestige will rise. 50. This tendency to try to bask in reflected glory by publicly trumpeting our connections to successful others has its mirror image in our attempt to avoid being darkened by the shadow of others defeat. 51. We purposefully manipulate the visibility of our connections with winners and losers in order to make ourselves look good to anyone who could view these connections. 52. This association is taken to an extreme step by some individuals. These are not merely great aficionados; they are individuals with very poor self worth. Deep inside is a sense of low personal worth that directs them to seek prestige not from the generation or promotion of own attainments, but from the generation or promotion of their associations with others of attainment. 53. Certain of these people work in a slightly different way. Instead of striving to inflate their visible connections to others of success, they strive to inflate the success of others they are visibly connected to. Clearest illustration is the notorious stage mother, obsessed with securing stardom for her child. 54. How to say no to this practice: Because liking can be increased by any means, a proper consideration of defense against a commonplace professionals who employ the liking rule must be a short one.

NotesfromthebookInfluenceThePsychologyofPersuasionByRobert Cialdini
55. The time to act protectively is when we feel ourselves liking the practitioner more than we should under the circumstances. 56. Undue liking has been produced and once we realize this, we should separate the decision and the person and focus on the decision. 57. That is why it is so important to be alert to a sense of undue liking for a compliance practitioner. Authority 1. A multilayered and widely accepted system of authority confers an immense advantage upon a society. 2. It allows the development of sophisticated structures for resource production, trade, defense, expansion, and social control that would otherwise be impossible. 3. Hence we are trained from birth that obedience to proper authority is right and disobedience is wrong. 4. This essential message fills the parental lessons, the schoolhouse rhymes, stories, and songs of our childhood and is carried forward in the legal, military, and political systems we encounter as adults. 5. Notions of submission and loyalty to legitimate rule are accorded much value in each. 6. Confirming to the dictates of authority figures has always had genuine practical advantages for us. 7. The problem is that once we realize that obedience to authority is mostly rewarding, it is easy to allow ourselves the convenience of automatic obedience. 8. The important lesson is that in many situations where a legitimate authority has spoken, what would otherwise make sense is irrelevant. In these instances, we don't consider the situation as a whole, but attend and respond to only one aspect of it. 9. This obedience to authority is made use of by compliance people. 10. First example is the use of doctors with a medical coat and steth, advertising a product. 11. Title is one sign of authority that people have to be careful about. 12. Clothes is another kind of authority symbol that can trigger our mechanical compliance. 13. How to say No: Posing two questions to ourselves can help enormously to say a No. 14. The first is to ask, when confronted with what appears to be an authority figures influence attempt. is this authority truly an expert?. 15. The above question is important as it allows us to focus on a pair of crucial information: the authoritys credentials and the relevance of those credentials to the topic at hand. 16. If the person is really an expert, then the second question that has to be asked is. How truly can we expect the expert to be here? This is a question of their trustworthiness in the situation. Scarcity 1. Scarcity principle says that opportunities seem more valuable to us when their availability is limited. 2. This is the same reason why we interrupt an important conversation to pick up a call from an unknown caller. 3. The idea of potential loss plays a large role in human decision making. 4. Some people are more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something of equal value. 5. Collectors of everything from baseball cards to antiques are keenly aware of the influence of the scarcity principle in determining the worth of an item. 6. With scarcity principle operating so powerfully on the worth we assign things, it is natural that compliance professionals will some related operating on their own. 7. Straightforward use of scarcity principle is in the limited number tactic, where the customer is informed that certain product is in short supply and cant be guaranteed to last long. 8. Related to the limited number tactic is the deadline tactic, in which some official time limit is placed on the customers opportunity to get what the compliance professional is offering. 9. Right now is a variant of the deadline tactic much favored by some face to face high pressure sellers because it carries the purest form of decision deadline. 10. Compliance practitioners reliance on scarcity as a weapon of influence is frequent, wide ranging systematic and diverse. 11. This principle has powers to direct human action. The power comes from two sources. 12. First is that scarcity principle makes use of our weakness for shortcuts.

NotesfromthebookInfluenceThePsychologyofPersuasionByRobert Cialdini
13. Because we know that things that are difficult to possess are typically better than those that are easy to possess, we can often use an items availability to help us quickly and correctly decide on its quality. 14. Thus by following the scarcity principle, we are usually right. 15. There is a unique, secondary source of power within the scarcity principle; 16. As opportunitites become less available, we lose freedoms: and we hate to lose freedoms we already have. 17. This desire to preserve our established prerogatives is the centerpiece of psychological reactance theory. 18. According to this theory, whenever free choice is limited or threatened, the need to retain our freedoms makes us desire them significantly more than previously. 19. So increasing scarcity of anything else interferes with our prior access to some item, we will reach against the interference by wanting and trying to possess the item more than before. 20. The reactance theory explains the terrible two behavior in kids. 21. Teenage is when the kids tendency to react against restrictions on freedom of action takes a rebellious form. 22. People tend to want what has been banned and see it as important. 23. This tendency is not limited to commodities, but to all restrictions on information. 24. In an age when the ability to acquire, store and manage information is becoming increasingly the determinant of wealth and power, it is important to understand how we typically react to attempts to censor or otherwise constrain access to information, 25. Censoring an information result in people wanting more of that information. It also raises the worrisome possibility that especially clever individuals holding a weak or unpopular position can get us to agree with that position by arranging to have their message restricted. 26. Hence the most popular way for members of fringe group to popularize their views may not be to publicize it, but to get those views officially censored and then to publicize the censorship. 27. Hence by refusing the restrain the freedom of speech, governments can ensure that new political notions would not win support via the irrational course of psychological reactance. 28. The same course suggested for political freedom is also suggested for sexually relevant material. 29. Research shows that censorship of anything is likely to increase the desire of people for that thing and consequently, to cause them to view themselves as the kind of individuals who like such things. 30. Information may not have to be censored for us to value it more. It only has to be scarce and then we will find the information more persuasive. 31. A thing ( commodity, information)s drop from abundance to scarcity produced a decidedly more positive reaction to the cookies than did constant scarcity. 32. This is borne out by the way revolutions happen ( study from history). 33. People who study history are more likely to find revolutions where a period of improving economic and social conditions is followed by a short sharp reversal in those conditions. 34. Thus it is not the traditionally most downtrodden people who have come to see their deprivation as part of the natural order of things who are especially liable to revolt. 35. Revolutionaries are more likely to be those who have been given at least some taste of a better life. 36. Competition plays an important role in the pursuit of limited resources. Not only do we want the same item more when it is scarce, we want it most when we are in competition for it. 37. Sales people take advantage of hesitant customers by creating competition for a resource ( where it is non existent). 38. How to say No: The main point to remember with a scarce commodity is that the joy is not in experiencing a scarce commodity, but in possessing it. 39. Whenever we confront the scarcity pressures surrounding some item, we must also confront the question of what it is we want from the item. If the answer is that we want the thing for the social, economic, or psychological benefits of possessing something rare, then fine; scarcity pressures will give us a good indication of how much we would want to pay for it the less available it is, the more valuable to us it will be.

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NotesfromthebookInfluenceThePsychologyofPersuasionByRobert Cialdini
40. But very often, we don't want a thing purely for the sake of owning it. We want instead for its utility value. In such cases, it is vital to remember that scarce things do not taste or feel or sound or ride or work any better because of their limited availability. 41. Should we find ourselves beset by scarcity pressures in a compliance situation, then, our best response would occur in a two-stage sequence. 42. 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. 43. Once that is done, 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 can spend for it. 44. However if the answer is that we want it primarily for its function (something good to drive, drink, eat, etc), then we must remember that the item under consideration will function equally well whether scarce or plentiful. Epilogue 1. Very often in making a decision about some one or something, we dont use all the relevant available information; we use, instead, only a single, highly representative piece of the total. An isolated piece of information, even though it normally counsels us correctly, can lead us to clearly stupid mistakes mistakes that when exploited by clever others, leave us looking silly or worse. 2. Despite the susceptibility to stupid decisions that accompanies a reliance on a single feature of the available data, the pace of modern life demands that we frequently use this shortcut. 3. Human beings are unchallenged in their ability to take complex decisions by taking into account a multitude of facts. 4. Since we have our capacity limitations and for the sake of efficiency, we must sometimes retreat from the time-consuming, sophisticated, fully informed brand of decision making to a more automatic, primitive, single feature type of responding. 5. We have been exploring several of the most popular of the single pieces of information that we use to prompt our compliance decisions. 6. These prompts precisely work because these are the most reliable ones, those that normally point us toward the correct choice. 7. That is why we employ the factors of reciprocation, consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity so often and so automatically in making decisions. 8. We are also likely to use these factors when we dont have the inclination, time, energy, or cognitive resources to undertake a complete analysis of the situation. 9. Where we are rushed, stressed, uncertain, indifferent, distracted, or fatigued, we tend to focus on less of the information available to us. 10. When making decisions under these circumstance, we often revert to the rather primitive but necessary single-piece-of-good-evidence approach. 11. With the sophisticated mental apparatus that we have used to build world eminence as a species, we have created an environment so complex, fast paced, and information-laden that we must increasingly deal with it in the fashion of the animals we long ago transcended. 12. Because technology is evolving faster than we can, our natural capacity to process information is likely to be increasingly inadequate to handle the surfeit of change, choice, and challenge that is characteristic of modern life. 13. Compliance practitioners who seek to profit from the rather mindless and mechanical nature of shortcut response indulge in trickery ( as they want to deceive us and take advantage of the shortcut response. 14. As the frequency of use of short cut response increases ( because of modern life), frequency of the trickery is destined to increase as well. 15. The real treachery, and the thing that we cant tolerate, is any attempt to make their profit in a way that threatens reliability of our shortcuts. 16. The blitz of mdern life demands that we have a faithful shortcuts, sound rules of thumb to handle it all. 17. These are not luxuries any longer; they are out and out necessities that figure to become increasingly vital as the pulse of daily life quickens.

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NotesfromthebookInfluenceThePsychologyofPersuasionByRobert Cialdini
18. That is why it becomes necessary for us to retaliate whenever we see someone betraying one of our rules of thumb for profit. 19. We want that rule to be as effective as possible.

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