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Summary Influence Pnie, ISBN: 9781292022291 Social Influence (PSMIN07)
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Influence Science and Practice, Robert B. CialdiniChapter 1: Weapons of Influence
• Fixed-action patterns: involve intricate sequences of behavior. A fundamental characteristic of these
patterns is that the behaviors comprising them occur in virtually the same fashion and in the same order
every time. It is almost as if the patterns were recorded on tapes within the animals. Those patterns are
activated by trigger features
• The automatic, fixed-action patterns of these animals work very well most of the time. We, too, have
our preprogrammed tapes; and, although they usually work to our advantage, the trigger features that
activate them can dupe us into playing the tapes at the wrong times.
• Experiments have shown that there are many situations in which human behavior does not work in a
mechanical, tape-activated way, she and many other researchers are convinced that most of the time it
does
• The word because triggered an automatic compliance response from Langer’s subjects, even when they
were given no subsequent reason to comply. Click, whirr
• It has been shown that many customers go by the expensive = good stereotypes when they are unsure
of an item’s quality
• Automatic, stereotyped behavior is prevalent in much human action, because in many cases, it is the
most efficient form of behaving, and in other cases it is simply necessary. But because we live in a
complicated environment we need shortcuts as we can’t be expected to recognize and analyze all the
aspects in each person, event, and situation we en- counter in even one day. We haven’t the time,
energy, or capacity for it
• Psychologists have recently uncovered a number of mental shortcuts that we employ in making our
everyday judgment. Termed judgmental heuristics, these shortcuts operate in much the same fashion
as the expensive = good rule, allowing for simplified thinking that works well most of the time but
leaves us open to occasional, costly mistakes.
• This tendency to respond mechanically to one piece of information in a situation is what we have been
calling automatic or click, whirr responding; the tendency to react on the basis of a thorough analysis
of all of the information can be referred to as controlled responding
• Quite a lot of laboratory research has shown that people are more likely to deal with information in a
controlled fashion when they have both the desire and the ability to analyze it carefully; otherwise, they
are likely to use the easier click, whirr approach
• An example of shortcut is “If an expert said so, it must be true”
• The form and pace of modern life is not allowing us to make fully thoughtful decisions, even on many
personally relevant topics. That is, sometimes the issues may be so complicated, the time so tight, the
dis- tractions so intrusive, the emotional arousal so strong, or the mental fatigue so deep that we are in
no cognitive condition to operate mindfully. Important topic or not, we have to take the shortcut.
• One group of organisms, often termed 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. The mimics
then exploit this altogether inappropriate action for their own benefit > profiteers
• Such profiteers can also be seen among human populations
• The contrast principle affects the way we see the difference between two things that are presented one
after another. Simply put, if the second item is fairly different from the first, we will tend to see it as
more different than it actually is
• An example if this principle could be presenting an expensive item before the less expensive one so that
the client would be more compelled into buying it
• The same thing can be made to seem very different depending on the nature of the event that precedes
it.
• Be assured that the nice little weapon of influence provided by the contrast principle does not go
unexploited. The great advantage of this principle is not only that it works but also that it is virtually
, undetectable. Those who employ it can cash in on its influence without any appearance of having
structured the situation in their favour
SUMMARY Ethologists, researchers who study animal behavior in the natural environment, have
noticed that among many animal species behavior often occurs in rigid and mechanical patterns. Called
fixed-action patterns, these mechanical behavior sequences are noteworthy in their similarity to certain
automatic (click, whirr) responding by humans. For both humans and subhumans, the automatic behavior
patterns tend to be triggered by a single feature of the relevant information in the situation. This single
feature, or trigger feature, can often prove very valuable by allowing an individual to decide on a correct
course of action without having to analyze carefully and completely each of the other pieces of
information in the situation.
The advantage of such shortcut responding lies in its efficiency and economy; by reacting automatically
to a usually informative trigger feature, an individual preserves crucial time, energy, and mental capacity.
The disadvantage of such responding lies in its vulnerability to silly and costly mistakes; by reacting to
only a piece of the available information (even a normally predictive piece), an individual increases the
chances of error, especially when responding in an automatic, mindless fashion. The chances of error
increase even further when other individuals seek to profit by arranging (through manipulation of trigger
features) to stimulate a desired behavior at inappropriate times. - Much of the compliance process
(wherein one person is spurred to comply with another person’s request) can be understood in terms of a
human tendency for automatic, shortcut responding. Most individuals in our culture have developed a set
of trigger features for compliance, that is, a set of specific pieces of information that normally tell us
when compliance with a re- quest is likely to be correct and beneficial. Each of these trigger features for
compliance can be used like a weapon (of influence) to stimulate people to agree to requests.
Chapter 17: Instant influence
• Very often when we make a decision about someone or something we don’t use all of 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.
• Compared to animals, humans have more elaborated brains, permitting them to better engage in
decision. Making and reactions. Still, we have our capacity limitations, too; 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.
• When making decisions under stressed, rushed, uncertain circumstances, we often revert to the rather
primitive but necessary single-piece-of-good-evidence approach.
• Modern life is different from any earlier time. Because of remarkable technological advances,
information is burgeoning, choices and alternatives are expanding, knowledge is exploding. In this
avalanche of change and choice, we have had to adjust. One fundamental adjustment has come in the
way we make decisions. Although we all wish to make the most thoughtful, fully considered decision
possible in any situation, the changing form and accelerating pace of modern life frequently deprive us
of the proper conditions for such a careful analysis of all the relevant pros and cons. More and more, we
are forced to resort to another decision-making approach, a shortcut approach in which the decision to
comply (or agree or believe or buy) is made on the basis of a single, usually reliable piece of
information. The most reliable and, therefore, most popular such single triggers for compliance are
those described through- out this book. They are commitments, opportunities for reciprocation, the
compliant behavior of similar others, feelings of liking or friendship, authority directives, and scarcity
information.
• Because of the increasing tendency for cognitive overload in our society, the prevalence of shortcut
decision making is likely to increase proportionately. Compliance professionals who infuse their
requests with one or another of the triggers of influence are more likely to be successful. The use of
these triggers by practitioners is not necessarily exploitative. It only becomes so when the trigger is not
, a natural feature of the situation but is fabricated by the practitioner. In order to retain the beneficial
character of shortcut response, it is important to oppose such fabrication by all appropriate means.
Influence Science and Practice, Robert B. Cialdini
Chapter 4: Social Proof, Truths are us
The principal of social proof
• The principle of social proof states that we determine what is correct by finding out what other people
think is correct. The principle applies especially to the way we decide what constitutes correct behavior.
We view a behavior as correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it.
• The tendency to see an action as appropriate when others are doing it works quite well normally. As a
rule, we will make fewer mistakes by acting in accord with social evidence than by acting contrary to it.
• This feature of the principle of social proof is simultaneously its major strength and its major weakness.
Like the other weapons of influence, it provides a convenient shortcut for determining the way to
behave but, at the same time, makes one who uses the shortcut vulnerable to the attacks of profiteers
who lie in wait along its path.
People Power
• Television executive use social evidence, in this case social proof for profit: the use of canned laughter
(the pre-recorded laughter), people generally don’t like it but it increases people’s laughter even when
the situation is poorly funny
• An other example is: Bartenders often salt their tip jars with a few dollar bills at the beginning of an
evening to simulate tips left by prior customers and thereby to give the impression that tipping with
folding money is proper barroom behavior.
• Advertisers love to inform us when a product is the “fastest-growing” or “largest-selling” because they
don’t have to convince us directly that the product is good; they need only say that many others think
so, which seems proof enough.
• Attitudes of personalities in movies also have an impact of the ones who watch it. In fact, the watcher
might think that the personality’s behavior is correct and might start acting similarly. This phenomenon
has been shown to be used in therapy by psychologist to aid children’s behaviors
Cause of Death: uncertain(ty)
• 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 and accept the actions of others as correct. Another
way that uncertainly develops is through lack of familiarity with a situation. Under such circumstances,
people are especially likely to follow the lead of others there.
• In the process of examining the reactions of other people to resolve our un- certainty, we are likely to
overlook a subtle, but important fact: Those people are probably examining the social evidence, too.
Especially in an 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.
• The psychologists speculated that, for at least two reasons, a bystander to an emergency will be unlikely
to help when there are a number of other bystanders present.
• The first reason is fairly straightforward. With several potential helpers around, the personal
responsibility of each individual is reduced: “Perhaps someone else will give or call for aid, perhaps
someone else already has.” So with everyone think- ing that someone else will help or has helped,
no one does.
• The second reason is the more psychologically intriguing one; it is founded on the principle of social
proof and involves the pluralistic ignorance effect
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