Summary of: Influence; science and practice (5th ed.)
> Terms that seem important in the literature are italized
> Topics are underlined
> Titles are in bold
> Pros are +, cons are –
In this book the idea of ‘Click and whirr’ is used often. Click meaning whatever social
influence trick is used that triggers the whirr, whirr being the automatic response (shortcut)
that follows.
The weapons of social influence
+ Providing shortcuts for making decisions
- Making us vulnerable to attack of profiteers exploiting our preference for shortcuts
1. Principle of social proof
2. Stereotypes
3. Fluency
4. Rule of reciprocation
> Foot-in-the-door
> Door-in-the-face
5. Consistency principle + commitment
> Inner choice
> Low balling
6. The liking rule
7. The association principle
8. Authority principle
9. Scarcity principle
> Limited number tactic
> Deadline tactic
Chapter 1; Weapons of Influence
What are fixed-action patterns?
Regular, blindly mechanical patterns of action (like a script).
To not recognize and analyse all aspect in someone/something, but use stereotypes to use only
key features to classify and respond without thinking.
The behaviours occur in same fashion and order every time.
> Work well most of the time; triggers can be fabricated or wrong scripts are activated
> Trigger feature; a feature about something that triggers the fixed-action pattern (like
the word ‘because’, even without proper reason)
> Click; trigger activates appropriate tape. Whirr; standard sequence of behaviour rolls
out
- We are vulnerable to people who understand how these work, we often don’t
ourselves
Key to influencing automatic patterns is the way requests are structured and the weapons of
social influence.
, Mimics; organisms that copy trigger feature of their prey (often seen in animals_
What are stereotypes?
Standard principles, rules of thumb
1. Expensive = good; the more expensive something is, the better the quality must be. Coming
from the rule ‘you get what you pay for’
2. Contrast principle; is second item is fairly different from the first, we tend to see it as more
different than it actually is. Depending on nature of event that precedes it.
+ Virtually indetectable
What are judgemental heuristics?
Mental shortcuts, allowing simplified thinking that works well most of the time. We need
shortcuts to deal with our complicated and rapidly moving environment.
> For example; ‘If an expert said so, it must be true’ = captainitis
1. Automatic responding; respond mechanically to a piece of info
(click, whirr responding)
> Used when someone has desire (something is important to them) and ability (mental
capacity) to do so
2. Controlled responding; reacting on thorough analysis of all info, so more vulnerable to
mistakes
+ Selected aspect of info is enough to cue (mostly) correct response
> Used when there isn’t enough mental capacity or time for automatic
> Possible cues; reciprocation, consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity
Most frequently used shortcut; principle of social proof (do what people like us do). Picking
the popular option is often right, rarely far wrong an conserves energy.
Chapter 2; Reciprocation
Rule of reciprocation; we should try to repay what another person has provided us. It makes
us obligated to future repayment of favours/gifts/invitations etc. There is social sanctions and
derision for anyone who violates the rule, therefore we will often try to avoid this.
> For small favours, the desire to repay fades with time.
> Rule has strength, often produces yes response for request that surely would have
been refused
> The more someone is liked, the more success they will have with someone doing
them a favour. Yet how much someone likes you doesn’t effect the rule of
reciprocation. This also means that if we don’t like someone, they could do us a small
favour to make us more likely to do them a favour, even though we don’t like them
A feeling of indebtedness can be triggered when someone does us an uninvited favour. We
might feel more obligated to return a favour we have requested, but we can feel indebtedness
none the less. The power is in the hand of others. Yet we might also have a harder time
rejecting a favour someone gives without us asking for it (I brought you something).
In history, we shared food and skills in an honoured network of obligation , which is an
adaptive mechanism for humans. It allowed division of labour, exchange of diverse forms of
goods and different services and creating independency binding individuals together into
efficient units. This way, an individual could give away something without actually giving
something away (since you receive something back).
