Before it was cool to make lists, Robert Cialdini made a list of the six most popular and effective methods of persuasion. In his classic book, Cialdini describes how these six methods have been used by salesmen, interrogators, religious leaders, and various other unscrupulous agents to get us to act against our own best interest. Below I'll be summarizing these methods.
(Note: The most recent edition of the book was published in 2007, which means some of the research is out of date, so read with a grain of salt.)
TL;DR: Reciprocation, Commitment/Consistency, Social proof, Liking, Authority, Scarcity
1. Reciprocation
Humans don’t like being in debt to others. We are motivated to repay in kind what another person has provided us. That’s the rule for reciprocation. It explains why grocery stores give free samples, why guys buy girls drinks, and why lobbyists offer lavish presents to politicians. Indeed, the fact that we’ve had to enact laws to forbid such presents is a testament to how powerful the rule for reciprocation is. It also illustrates how frustratingly difficult it can be to avoid falling victim to the rule (and how easy it can be to exploit it). It doesn’t matter if we never asked for the favor in the first place; we’re trapped nonetheless. What’s worse, we often feel an obligation to receive other people’s favors. After all, rejecting a favor can be seen as rude or disrespectful. The consequence of this perception, however, is that our ability to choose the people we wish to be indebted to is curtailed. The Hare Krishnas were a religious sect that used this understanding to their advantage in the 1970’s. They would approach unsuspecting travellers in airports and hand out free flowers. Many people would try to hand back the flowers in an effort to absolve themselves of any debt. However, when the Hare Krishnas refused to take back the flowers, the inexorable pull of the reciprocity rule persuaded people to take out their wallets and donate a few dollars.
Savvy negotiators might also exploit our need to reciprocate by using what Cialdini calls the “rejection-then-retreat technique.” Briefly put, when entering into a negotiation, one party might ask for a little more than they expect to get. When the other party rejects the offer, the initial party will readily concede and lower their request. The other party will then feel inclined to respond with a concession in kind. You might expect someone who’s been tricked in this way to feel exploited and sour about the deal, but the exact opposite is the case. When people see someone make a concession and themselves make a concession in turn, they feel greater satisfaction with and responsibility for the ultimate arrangement, and they’re more likely to make similar arrangements in the future.
How do we avoid falling victim to the reciprocity rule? Cialdini suggests reappraising a situation such that we no longer think of favors as favors. When someone pushes a flower into our hand, he says we should see that not as an act of kindness but as an attempted act of manipulation. With that view in mind, we might flip the reciprocity rule on our would-be swindlers by politely taking their gift and walking away. “After all,” Cialdini says, “the reciprocity rule asserts that if justice is to be done, exploitation attempts should be exploited.”
2. Commitment/consistency
Humans like to be consistent, even at the cost of their own material interest. We want our thoughts to match what we say and to match what we do. The key, then, of any aspiring persuader is to get someone to make an initial commitment. After that, you can let your patsy do the rest of the work for you. One example of this is what Cialdini calls the “foot-in-the-door technique.” It’s simple and intuitive. First, use a small commitment to manipulate a person’s self-image. Second, once they’ve internalized that self-image, you can nudge them in the direction of a whole range of behaviors consistent with that self image. The foot-in-the-door technique can turn prisoners into informants, citizens into public servants, and prospects into customers.
Humans like to be consistent, even at the cost of their own material interest. We want our thoughts to match what we say and to match what we do. The key, then, of any aspiring persuader is to get someone to make an initial commitment. After that, you can let your patsy do the rest of the work for you. One example of this is what Cialdini calls the “foot-in-the-door technique.” It’s simple and intuitive. First, use a small commitment to manipulate a person’s self-image. Second, once they’ve internalized that self-image, you can nudge them in the direction of a whole range of behaviors consistent with that self image. The foot-in-the-door technique can turn prisoners into informants, citizens into public servants, and prospects into customers.
The foot-in-the-door technique is especially powerful if you can get a person to make their commitment in writing. There are a number of reasons for this. The first is that it’s enormously difficult to forget or deny that the commitment happened. Once in writing, there’s no weaseling out of your words. Second, a person’s writing can easily be made public, and the public is a harsh master. A person who appears inconsistent in the court of popular opinion may be thought of as indecisive, confused, two-faced, or even mentally ill. Consequently, our need for social approval binds us to our past words and deeds. One unfortunate example of this can be found in a study of jury decisions. In cases where juries expressed their initial opinion by a show of hands, hung juries were much more frequent. Unsurprisingly, the fact that people’s opinions were made public hardened them against changing their minds. A third reason why writing may be particularly effective as a commitment technique is that it often requires more effort. Generally, the more effort we put into something, the more we like and believe in what we’ve struggled to get. This explains why tribal initiation rituals can be so grueling and torturous. The same might be said of fraternity hazing, which has sometimes involved beatings, exposure to cold, thirst, and disgusting food, and even threats of death. These extreme trials and tribulations perversely bond people even more closely to the people who abused them.
A final condition can make our need to appear consistent especially strong: voluntariness. When we believe we are acting independently of external pressures, we are particularly likely to continue what we’re doing. A threat can persuade us to perform a certain action, and the same is true for a large reward. But if you want someone to do something in a variety of situations over a longer period of time, get them to believe it’s their own choice.
So what’s a sucker to do when faced with someone trying to persuade us with this technique? Unfortunately, Cialdini is *extremely* unhelpful at answering this question... One piece of advice he gives is to just tell the salesperson or whomever that you’re aware of their strategy. He even imagines a conversation between himself and an erstwhile saleswoman in which he says, “I refuse to allow myself to be locked into a mechanical sequence of commitment and consistency when I know it’s wrongheaded. No click, whirr for me.” Not only is this painfully socially awkward, it also doesn’t address the root of the problem. You’ve still made a commitment, and you still feel compelled to follow through with it. It seems Cialdini is suggesting committing to being sooo socially awkward that you no longer feel any compunction to be consistent with your earlier commitment. Hardly advice becoming of an eminent social psychologist.
3. Social proof
“We view behavior as more correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it.” Cialdini illustrates this in a dozen different ways. We laugh when we hear canned laughter on TV. Children initially afraid of dogs, lose their fear when they see their peers playing with dogs. Shy children are more outgoing after seeing a video of a shy child joining a group of peers. The litany of examples would be too long to list.
We’re especially vulnerable to social proof under conditions of uncertainty. This is not entirely irrational. When we don’t know what’s going on, it makes sense to look to others to see if they have any additional information. What makes this tendency potentially pernicious is that oftentimes the others that we look to for information will also be looking to us. And because people prefer to appear poised and unflustered among others, an emergency situation might elicit a thorough indifference when everyone looks to each other for guidance.
Social proof is also especially powerful when the people we look to are similar to us. This is often the reason why advertisers use testimonials from people taken from off the street. It’s because companies want to show that common ordinary folk just like you use their product too.
How do we avoid the siren song of conformity? First, Cialdini suggests paying attention to the social information given to us. Sometimes it will be outright counterfeit as when TV shows add a laugh track or when advertisers use phony testimonials. By recognizing that there aren’t really any people to follow, we can disabuse ourselves of any pressure to act in a particular way. Cialdini’s second suggestion is as useless as a eunuch’s condom. He basically advises the reader to be more vigilant of conformity. That’s it...
4. Liking
We’re more easily persuaded by people that we like. It’s why, for instance, Tupperware parties are so successful marketing strategies. The product pitch is of course made by a salesperson, but the real pressure comes from the friend hosting the party, who everyone knows gets a cut of the commission. But persuasion via liking can be found well beyond the confines of friendship. People who are more physically attractive are more likely to be hired, are more successful political candidates, and are treated more leniently in court. People who seem similar to us in terms of their opinions, personality, or backgrounds also benefit from a boost in persuasion, since we tend to like people who are like us. And as obvious as it might seem, we tend to like people who compliment us. What’s surprising is that this is true *even when the compliment is clearly false*.
Other methods of inducing liking include mere exposure to another person, engaging in cooperative activities with another person, and repeatedly associating a pleasant stimulus with a neutral stimulus. An example of this last principle can be found in car and food commercials where a scantily clad woman eats a hamburger or stands by a car. The product becomes more well liked by association with the woman.
How might we undermine our tendency to be persuaded by people or things we like? Again, Cialdini sucks at giving advice. He suggests noticing that we like something and then only paying attention to the pros and cons of the product in question. This advice is as lame as a paraplegic person wearing a fedora.
5. Authority
We’re remarkably obedient to authorities in every form. As children we often blindly follow our parents’ orders, and we later extend this deference to our teachers, employers, government and religious leaders, doctors, and scientists. This isn’t necessarily bad. Oftentimes, these people will have our best interest at heart, and they often have more information and clarity of judgment than we do. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case, and unfortunately, we can be tricked into following someone because of their mere symbol of authority even when they have no superior knowledge at all. The most easily faked symbol of authority is a title. Anyone can call themselves a doctor or professor, and smooth-talking con artists know this well. Clothes and other accessories can also be used to give a person an heir of authority. Fancy cars are given more leniency on the streets, and the requests of people dressed in business suits or guard uniforms are heeded more often than those of people dressed in casual clothing.
To avoid falling prey to unscrupulous scammers, Cialdini advises two things. First, consider how likely it is that a person is actually an expert in the domain they claim to have authority over. For instance, an actor who plays a doctor on TV has no more medical expertise than any other person on the street. Second, ask yourself how likely it is that the authority in question is trying to deceive you. A waiter at a restaurant may know about the wine selection or the best dishes on the menu, but they also know that a bigger meal means a bigger tip. So keep in mind a person’s potential conflicts of interest when evaluating their trustworthiness.
6. Scarcity
When there is few of something, we value it more highly. Consider, for instance, a misprinted baseball card or stamp. Ordinarily, a flaw would decrease their value, as when they’re folded or torn. But a unique misprint may inflate a collector’s item substantially because it is so rare. In one case, a one dollar bill was sold for $400 because it was accidentally printed without any serial numbers or government seals. Advertisers take advantage of consumers’ propensity to flock towards scarce resources by emphasizing a product’s uniqueness or in some cases artificially restricting the supply of the product. A variation of this technique is advertising the limited deadline for acquiring the product. Companies may say they’re only selling the product “while supplies last” or “for a limited time only.” When we believe something will no longer be around in the future, we’re eager to have it before it’s gone.
Our scarcity detectors will be particularly active when there’s been a sudden drop in a resource’s abundance, more so than when there’s been a constant scarcity. This may be true, not only of cars and vacuum cleaners, but also of human rights. Cialdini speculates that once a developing country grants its citizens certain freedoms, there will be hell to pay if those freedoms are suddenly taken away. Aspiring dictators, then, should be careful about the timing with which they release their hold on the reins of state control. Cialdini suggests that parents, too, should consider the consequences of giving their children certain freedoms because once they’re granted, returning to the way things were will become exceedingly difficult.
Avoiding our inclination to respond to scarcity is hard, and like with his other methods of persuasion, Cialdini doesn’t help at all. His advice is as wise as riding a golf cart through a forest of cacti.
If you’ve made it this far in the post, congratulations. You are now marginally better at persuasion and at wasting your time.
