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Pre-Suasion
Robert Cialdini
More books on Mind
Palm reading: Bend their thumb a little bit and tell them "I can see you're quite a stubborn person when people try to push you in a direction you don't want to go" and they will immediately start thinking of times when, yes, they have been like that. Or, tell them "I can see you are quite a flexible person .... " and they will think of things that confirm that.
More books on Behaviour
Cult recruiters first Q is, are you unhappy? which stacks the deck by steering people to focus on their discontents. (And then "Well if you're unhappy, you'd like to do something about changing that, wouldn't you?")
If clipboard guy in the mall tries to stop you with "Can you spare a moment?" get 30% agree. But if ask "Do you consider ys a helpful person?" get 77%.
We 'pay' attention, and cognitive research shows that we do 'pay' - the toll is a momentary loss of focused attention on everything else. If you need to find a trun off while driving, you need to turn off the music. If you're listening to the music, or talking on the phone, you'll often miss the exit.
We assume that what we are focusing on is the most impt thing happening. So if there is a lot of media coverage of a crime or an accident, we greatly over estimate how often that happens.
Put fluffy clouds in background of your web page and people will have greater trust in quality of your product or your advice. But put pennies or dollars in background and they'll evaluate on price.
Can flash 5 sec banners while displaying text. People don't even recall noticing them, but the more of them dispyed, the more reader favors them.
To counter over-optimism, planning meet to answer 2 Qs: "What future events cd make this plan go wrong?" and "What wd happen to us if it did go wrong?"
1982 someone (still unknown) poisoned Tylenol capsules with cyanide before returning them to the shelves where they were sold. Seven people died. Johnson and Johnson issued a warning to avoid packages with serial numbers 2880 and 1910. Bizarrely, there was a huge uptick in thiose numbers being chosen by people buying lottery tickets. Because of the publicity surrounding them, they became the focus of attention, which made them seem to have causal properties - the ability to make events occur.
(Innocent) people confess to crimes they didn't commit far more often than you'd think. In fact, the techniques and even exact question interrogators use, date back to the Salem witch trials. If you get caught up in an interrogation, what you have to do is, first, ID camera location. Move your chair so that the camera is on both you and the questioner, side on. If camera only on you, the viewer will see you as the likely guilty party, no matter what your responses are.
More books on Crime
Sex sells, but only for items that are related to sex purposes - lipstick, grooming products - but not unrelated - soft drinks, kitchen appliances.
Pavlov had trouble repeating his famous expt when animal led into new surroundings. Realized that what he called the investigatory reflex (it is now called the orientating response) overrides everything else. We are genetically predisposed to immediately investigate a new environment, evaluate differences for dangers or opportunities. Which is why you forget what you came for when you walk through a doorway.
Suggest that advertisers can use this in video ads. When they cut to a new scene, shd immediately focus on the aspect you want to emphasize. Every cut shd have that purpose and nothing else.
More books on Business
If you want people to pay attention right through your lecture, start with a mystery: describe a somewhat perplexing state of affairs and then invite the listener into your story to dispatch the enigma. And actually more educational bc engages listener/reader, who wamts to make sense of situation described.
More books on Education
Cites the story of cigarette advertising. In 1969 execs from all main cos appeared before Congress strongly recommending that all cig advertising on radio and tv be banned, even tho their research told them that those were best media for getting new customers.
Why? Because concerned for nation's health? Hardly. They simply moved most of resources to print ads and sports sponsorships.
The key reason was a ruling from FCC that said the 'fairness' doctrine required that equal advertising time on radio and TV had to be given to both sides of an impt and controversial topic. So if one side bought ad time, the other side had to be given the same time to argue the other side. During the 3 years that this was in force, tobacco consumption decreased by 10%.
Then, once new law banning broadcast ads went into effect, sales rebounded (and tobacco cos actually spent a lot less).
People respond to images and words related to success. Fund-raisers for a charity were given info designed to help them explain why the donation was needed. Half the volunteers got just a list of data, the other half same data but with a pic of a runner winning a race. By the end of 3 hour shift, the second group had raised 60% more money.
Best insurance salesman good at choosing right metaphor. He didn't talk of dying, he said you walked out (of life), with implication that walking away from resp of caring for family. And, he would say "When you walk out, your insurance walks in.
We think that a heavier thing is more valuable, more serious. If we're holding a hot drink we act more warmly to someone else.
Salesmen trained not to say 'cost' or 'price', but 'purchase' or 'investment'.
We like things that remind us of ourselves. So like someone with same birth date (oe evn year). Coca Cola expensively added 150 common names to their coke bottles and cans, and produced first increase in sales in a decade.
Rolling Stone mag in 2004 chose the best 500 songs from past 50 years. The top two, according to the Rolling Stone editors, were Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone and the Rolling Stones I Can't Get No Satisfaction. (Check any other similar lists - there's lots of them online - and you won't find any others that think those two were best).
When we grasp an idea fluently - we can picture it or process it quickly and affortlessly - we see it as more valid and worthwhile. If you can turn something into a simple rhyme with regular pattern it comes across as having more aesthetic value.
Just stating a goal ("I'm gonna try to lose some weight") doesn't work. You have to establish a routine set of actions in predictable circumstances. "For dessert I will always have mint tea." Forpeople who forget to take medication: "When it is 8am I will brush my teeth and then take my pills."
If you want them to buy something expensive, get them to write down a larger number first.
If you want them to try a new preoduct, first ask them if they consider t/s adventurous.
If you want them to feel warmly towards you, give them a hot drink.
If you want them to be more helpful, first show them a picture of people standing close together.
If you want them to be more achievement-oriented, show them a pic of someone winning a race.
If you want them to carefully consider something, show them a pic of Rodin's The Thinker.
Give them a gift before they buy (but has to be relevant). People given sample of chocolate as entered candy store spent more. Hotels that posted a notice saying they had already given donation in guest's name got more co-operation (re-using towels) than notice saying they will give donation.
Waiters got more tips when gave patrons a chocolate with their bill. Got even bigger tips if gave them one choc, then said "take another". And even bigger when gave them first choc, then started to walk away, then came back and said "You seem like nice people, have an extra one".
So best gifts are meaningful, unexpected and customized.
Salesmen work best when customer thinks you like them, and are like them. And to get them to believe that, highlight similarities and give compliments. (Rem old saying: 'people don't care what you know until they know you care') Parallel language - types vocab and expressions. Waitresses coached to mimic customer verbal style doubled their tips. We like compliments even when we're told they are pre-written or generic.
People are more likely to believe your claims about a product if you first admit weaknesses in your argument. And you use bridging terms like 'however' or 'but', as in 'I am inexperienced, but I am a proven fast learner'.
WW2 Germans wanted their Japanese ally to exterminate their Jews. They sent a Gestapo colonel known as "The Burcher of Warsaw" to Tokyo to argue their case. The Japanese asked two prominent rabbis to make their case for tolerance. The Japs listened to the German then asked the Jewish scholar "Why do the Germans hate you so much?". Rabbi answered "Because we are Asian, like you." It was enough to swing the decision their way, and Jews were tolerated, not persecuted.
More books on Politics
Why do so many young women chaseafter musicians? Cialdini's answer is that weare uniquely vulnerable to persuasion by song or rhyme. Advertisers follow Voltaire: "Anything too stupid to be spoken, is sung." Women open to persuasion by harmonies - melodic ones that lead to emotional ones.
NYT article headlined "To Fall In Love With Anyone, Do This". Psychologists Arthur and Elain Aron put pairs facing each other while they worked through 36 increasingly personal questions, taking in turns to answer. Start with "What would constitute a perfect day for you?", then later "What do you value most in a friendship ?" and finally "Of all the people in your family, whose death would be the most disturbing Relationships deepened beyond all expectations. The procedure generated feelings of emotional closeness and unity (to the extent that some participants have got married). The gradual opening up to each other in the way tightly bonded pairs do, and the co-ordinated synchronicity of the process.
More books on Dating
Medical and dental appointments missed are a problem. Found you cd drastically increase attendance by getting the patientto write out the date and timeon the appointmant card.
More books on Health
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