Influence

Influence (Robert Caldini)

  • Very good. Reads well, learned a lot
  • Six basic tactics to get compliance. Each governed by fundamental psychological principle that directs human behavior: Mental Models Consistency / Reciprocation / Social Proof / Authority / Liking / Scarcity Mental Models
  • Well known principle of human behavior: when we ask someone to do us a favor will be more successful if we provide a reason. Munger
  • As the stimuli saturating our lives continue to grow more intricate and variable we will have to depend increasingly on shortcuts to handle them all.
  • Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them. -Whitehead
  • Odd that despite their current widespread use and looming future importance most of us know very little about our own automatic behavior patterns.
  • Contrast Principle: If second item fairly different from 1st, we will tend to see it more differently than it actually is. Mental Models
  • We are human b/c our ancestors learned to share their food and their skills in a honored network of obligation.
  • Human societies derive a truly significant competitive advantage from the reciprocity rule => they made sure their members are trained to comply and believe in it.
  • Desire to be and look consistent is a highly potent weapon of social influence often causing us to act in ways contrary to our best interest. Mental Models
  • Social Proof: thinking short cut, find out what others think is correct (Also vulnerable to attack) Mental Models > When we are unsure of ourselves, when there is uncertainty, we are most likely to look and to accept the actions of others as correct. > Fake applause at opera: "Claque" / "Chef de claque"
  • How to defend against authority : "Is this authority truly an expert ? " / "How trustful can we expect the expert to be here?" Mental Models Rationality
  • With all six of these principles we are usually and efficiently correct.
  • They fact that news conveying the fact that a product is going to be scarce is itself (the news) scarce makes it esp. persuasive.
  • Knowing these weapons of persuasion is often not enough. Knowing is a cognitive thing, cognitive processes are suppress by our emotional reactions to the different weapons.

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