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Summary Social Influence: Textbook + added articles & video clips

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  • Course
  • Social influence (PSMIN07)
  • Institution
  • Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RuG)
  • Book
  • Influence: Pearson International Edition

This document provides a compact and clear summary of all of the content for the course Social Influence (PSMIN07). The summary provides a good basis for understanding the concepts of social influence. I would advise to read a part of the summary, and then watch the lecture about the same chapter(s...

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  • Yes
  • February 8, 2024
  • 16
  • 2023/2024
  • Summary

Subjects

  • cialdini
  • reciprocity
  • influence
  • contrast
  • commitment
  • consistency
  • social proof
  • liking
  • authority
  • social norms
  • dishonesty
  • egoism
  • motivation
  • compliance
  • conformity

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  • Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RuG)
  • Minor Psychology In Society
  • Social influence (PSMIN07)
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SI SAMV

CH1 Weapons of Influence (Robert B. Cialdini) (blz 1 ™ 20)

Items possibly get sold more when their price is higher → Expensive = good principle. Fixed-action patterns:
behavior occurs in the same fashion and the same order every time. This often works with a trigger feature.
This will be a tiny aspect, like a shade of color, or a sound. People too have programmed tapes, they usually
work to our advantage, but the trigger features that activate them can dupe us into playing the tapes at the
wrong times. Ellen Langer et al. demonstrated this in an experiment.

When we ask someone to do us a favor, it will be more successful when we provide a reason, even when the
reason does not make a lot of sense. Can I use the Xores, because I have to make some copies → Yeah duh.

In this rapidly changing world, we need shortcuts. Recently a number of mental shortcuts of daily judgments
have been uncovered. Judgmental heuristics: shortcuts which operate the same as expensive = good,
allowing for simplified thinking that usually works very well, but leaves space for occasional mistakes. There
is another heuristic saying ‘If an expert said so, it must be true’. Instead of actually thinking about it, we
often just allow ourselves to be convinced by the ‘expert’ status. The tendency to respond mechanically to
one piece of info is called automatic / click, whirr responding. the tendency to react on the basis of a
thorough analysis of all the info → controlled responding. People are more likely to deal with info
controlled when they have the desire and the ability to analyze it carefully. Otherwise, they rather do the
easy click, whirr approach. When it comes to the easy click and whirr response, we give ourself a safety net.
We resist the seductive luxury of registering and reacting to just a single trigger of the available info when
an issue is important to us. The current pace of modern life is not allowing us to make thoughtful decisions,
even on many personal relevant topics.

Mimics: copy the trigger features of other animals in an attempt to trick these animals into mistakenly
playing the right behavior tapes at the wrong times. They then exploit this inappropriate action for their own
benefit.

The contrast principle: affects how we see the difference between two things that are presented one after
another. If the 2nd item is fairly different from the first, we will tend to see it as more different than it
actually is. So if we lift a light object first and then a heavy object, we will estimate the 2nd heavier, than if
we would have lifted that without first lifting the lighter weight.
- It’s also better to sell expensive items first. So the commonsense view / lowballing theory does not
apply to this.
- Think about first showing very ugly houses, to make the prettier houses look more appealing to the
buyers. Automobile sellers use the contrast principle by waiting until the price of a car has been
negotiated, before suggesting one option after another. To then add tinted windows, better tires or
a special trim, seems almost trivial, because that extra pay is nothing compared to the total
amount. It's important to bring these details independently, so the add ons all seem small.

,CH2 Reciprocation “The old give and take… and take”

Rule of reciprocation: we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us. This becomes a
web of indebtedness. It also caused people to feel like their gift would not be ‘lost’ after they gave it,
because they would probably get something back. To understand how the rule of reciprocation can be
exploited, we might closely examine an experiment conducted by psychologist Dennis Regan. People who
received an unasked for favor before, were more likely to return the favor when asked for it. Regan found
that the more you like a person, the more likely you are to comply with them or buy something from them.
The relationship between liking and compliance was completely wiped out in the condition of the coke being
offered to the clients. For those who got a favor from him, it did not matter how much they liked him. So the
rule of reciprocity is stronger than the influence of liking. Another aspect of the reciprocity rule is that a
person can trigger a feeling of indebtedness by doing us an uninvited favor. Marcel Mauss: ‘there is an
obligation to give, to receive and to repay.’ Another aspect of reciprocity rule is that someone often wants to
repay with something ‘bigger’ than what was given to them. Generally, there is a distaste for someone who
does not conform to the dictates of the reciprocity rule, so someone who does not return favors. We will not
ask for a favor if we feel like we can’t rightfully repay it. The psychological cost outweighs the material loss
in this case.

There is another way to get someone to comply with a request by using the reciprocity rule. Moving from a
larger to a smaller request, even though both might be unwanted. Socially beneficial cooperation is
accomplished through procedures that promote compromise. Mutual concession is such a procedure. The
reciprocation rule brings about mutual concession in 2 ways: pressure recipient of an already-made
concession to respond in kind & give something first, so you don’t have to give something back.

Rejection-then-retreat technique: also known as door in the face. Firstly make a large request, then make it
smaller (this is what you’ve been interested in all along). An aspect of this is the Perceptual contrast
principle: This also works when people buy something expensive first, they will be more likely to buy
another sweater since it seems cheap next to the suit. The victim of the RTR technique might resent having
cornered into compliance. They can do multiple things. First they might not live up to the agreement made.
Second they might decide to never make a deal with that person again. If this happens multiple times, it
might not be the best idea to use RTR after all. Research however found that RTR caused people to comply
with requests more often, and also would volunteer to perform further requests.

But how is it possible that people keep complying? As long as it isn’t seen as an obvious trick, people will
return the concession. The target of the RTR feels responsible for having the final say, so they’re more likely
to live up to the contract. Secondly, targets were most satisfied with the final arrangement because they
forged the agreement through concessions.

, CH3: Commitment & Consistency “Hobgoblins of the mind”

Consistency principle: Once we make a choice or take a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal
pressures to behave consistently with that commitment. Consistency is so powerful because it is valued and
adaptive. Inconsistency is seen as an undesirable personality trait. High consistency is the heart of logic,
rationality, stability and honesty. However sometimes consistency is not the sensible way to be. So when it
occurs unthinkingly, consistency can be disastrous. Our consistency tapes make sure we don’t have to think
too much. Joshua Reynolds: ‘There is no expedient to which a man will not avoid the real labor of thinking.’

A second, more perverse attraction of mechanical consistency is that it’s sometimes not the effect of
cognitive work that makes us try to think less, but the harsh consequences of that activity. But what
produces the click that activates the whirr of the powerful consistency tape → commitment. Procedures that
create commitment can be very straightforward (Jack Stanko) or more subtle (Steven J. Sherman). Foot-in-
the-door technique: starting with a little request in order to gain eventual compliance with related larger
requests.
Once an active commitment is made, self-image is squeezed from both sides by consistency pressures. From
the inside there is pressure to bring self image info line with the action. From the outside there is a sneakier
pressure to adjust this image according to the way others perceive us. Consistency works with public goals
as well. Public commitments can lead to consistent further action.
People who go through a lot of trouble to attain something, tend to value it higher than people who get the
same thing without going through the trouble. Think of finding money. Commitments most effective in
changing self-image and future behavior are those that are active, public and effortful. In the Chinese
camps, they chose small rewards over large ones for the contests, because they wanted the participants to
own what they had done, and not feel like they did it for charitable purposes. Then we accept inner
responsibility for a behavior when we think we have chosen to perform it without lots of outside pressure.

Inner change is effective because it’s not specific to the first situation, but it covers a range of related
situations. Also the effects last long. Last, the change does not need to be reinforced, pressure of
consistency will take care of that, the thought has ‘grown their own legs’.

Lowballing (car dealer example): an advantage is offered that induces a favorable decision. Then, sometime
after the decision has been made, but before the bargain is sealed, the original advantage is deftly removed.
Later Cialdini even tested this by adding an unfortunate aspect, this also works.

Defense against consistency and commitment is awareness that even though consistency generally is good,
there is a foolish rigid variety to be shunned, so we must be aware of being consistent unthinkingly.
- Stomach signs can tell you that you’re trapped in something you don’t want to do.
- Cialdini then tends to tell himself exactly what is happening to him to keep it real.
- Heart of hearts will tell you you are being taken when it’s not clear to you just yet.
- Cialdini thinks: would I have made the same choice knowing what I know now.

A couple of factors influence commitment and consistency:
- Age: the older people get, the more the stronger their need for consistency is
- Individualism: people decide obv their own opinions / histories, this makes them vulnerable to
influence tactics that use what a person has said or done as leverage.

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