Influence
Chapter 1 | Weapons of influence
Click, Whirr
Called fixed-action patterns, they can involve intricate sequences of behavior, such as entire
courtship or mating rituals. 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 where recorded on tapes within the animals.
Click and the appropriate tape is activated, whirr and out rolls the standard sequence of
behaviors.
When an animal acts to defend its territory for instance, it is the intrusion of another animal of the
same species that cues the territorial-defense tape of rigid vigilance, threat and if need to be combat
behaviors.
• It is not the rival as a whole that is the trigger; it is, rather, some specific feature.
_ The trigger feature.
Often the trigger feature will be just one tiny aspect of the totality that is the approaching intruder.
Two important things about the trigger features:
1. The automatic, fixed-action patterns of these animals work very well most of the time
2. We also have our programmed tapes which usually work to our advantage
But the trigger features that activate them can dupe us into playing the tapes at the wrong times.
Experiment: Langer et al. (1978)
A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor, we will
be more successful if we provide a reason. People simply like to have reasons for what they do.
Langer asked a small favor of people waiting in line to use a library copying machine:
• “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I’m in a rush?”
_ 94% of those asked let her skip ahead of them in line.
• “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?”
_ 60% of those asked complied.
• “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine, because I have to make some
copies?”
_ 93% of those asked let her skip ahead of them in line.
It seems that it is not about the whole series of words that made a difference, but just the first word
‘because’. Even though there is no real reason, or no new information added to justify a compliance.
The word ‘because’ triggered an automatic compliance response from the subjects, even when they
were given no subsequent reason to comply.
Betting the shortcut odds
People who are unsure of an item’s quality often use the stereotype ‘expensive = good’ to guide their
buying. Price alone can become a trigger feature for quality.
® This has worked quite well, since normally the price of an item increases along with its
worth; higher price typically reflects higher 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.
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,To deal with the extraordinarily complicated environment, that is easily the most rapidly moving and
complex one that has ever existed on planet we need shortcuts.
• We don’t have the time, energy or capacity to recognize and analyze all the aspects in each
person, event and situation.
We use our stereotypes to classify things according to a few key features and then to respond
without thinking when one or another of these features is present.
Judgmental heuristics 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.
There is an unsettling tendency in our society to accept unthinkingly the statements and directions of
individuals who appear to be authorities on the topic.
® Rather than thinking about an expert’s arguments and being convinced, we frequently ignore
the arguments and allow ourselves to be convinced just by the expert’s status as ‘expert’.
Controlled responding is the tendency to react on the basis of a thorough analysis of all of the
information; the click, whirr responding.
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.
• However, sometimes the issues may be so complicated, the time so tight, the distractions so
intrusive, the emotional arousal so strong or the mental fatigue so deep that we are in no
cognitive condition to operate mindfully; we have to take shortcuts.
The profiteers
One group of organisms 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; mimics.
® These mimics then exploit this altogether inappropriate action for their own benefit.
There are some people who know very well where the weapons of automatic influence lie and who
employ them regularly and expertly to get what they want. The effectiveness lies in the way that
they structure their requests.
Jujitsu
The contrast principle affects the way we see the difference between two things that are presented
one after another. If the second item is fairly different from the first, we will tend to see it as more
different than it actually is.
o If we lift a light object first and then lift a heavy object, we will estimate the second object to
be heavier than if we had lifted it without first lifting the light one.
o If we are talking to a very attractive individual at a party and are then joined by an
unattractive individual, the second will strike us as less attractive than he or she actually is.
This principle is virtually undetectable; those who employ it can cash in on its influence without any
appearance of having structured the situation in their favor.
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, Chapter 2 | Reciprocation: the old give and take… and take
By virtue of the reciprocity rule we are obligated to the future repayment of favors, gifts, invitations,
and the like.
It is a sense of future obligation that is critical to produce social advances of the sort.
® A widely shared and strongly held feeling of future obligation made an enormous difference
in human social evolution because it meant that one person could give something to another
with confidence that the gift was not being lost.
Although obligations extend into the future, their span is not unlimited. Especially for relatively small
favors, the desire to repay seems to fade with time.
How the rule works
Human societies derive a truly significant competitive advantage from the reciprocity rule, and they
make sure their members are trained to comply with and believe in it.
® Each of us has been taught to live up to the rule and each of us knows the social sanctions
and derision applied to anyone who violates it.
Because there is a general distaste for those who take and make no effort to give in return, we will
often go to great lengths to avoid being considered a moocher, ingrate or freeloader.
Experiment: Regan (1971)
A subject who participated in the study rated, along with another subject, the quality of some
paintings as part of an experiment on art appreciation. The other rater was only posing as a fellow
subject and was actually an assistant.
Two conditions:
1. The assistant did a small, unsolicited favor for the true subject
During a short resp period, the assistant left the room for a couple of minutes and returned with
two bottles of Coca-Cola (one for himself and one for the subject).
o “I asked the experimenter if I could get myself a Coke, and he said it was OK, so I bought one
for you too”.
2. The assistant did not provide the subject with a favor; he returned from the two-minute
break empty-handed.
Later on, the assistant asked the subject to do him a favor (buying some raffle tickets). The assistant
was more successful in selling his raffle tickets to the subjects who had received his earlier favor.
® The participant had the feeling that he owed the assistant something.
The rule is overpowering
One of the reasons that reciprocation can be used so effectively as a device for gaining another’s
compliance is its power. The rule’s force can overpower the influence of other factors that normally
determine compliance with a request.
Regan was also investigating how liking for a person affects the tendency to comply with that
person’s request. There was a significant tendency for subjects to buy more raffle tickets from the
assistant the more they liked him.
The interesting finding of the Regan experiment was that the relationship between liking and
compliance was completely wiped out in the condition under which subjects had been given a Coke
by the assistant; it made no difference whether they liked him or not.
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