6 Psychology Principle of Persuasion
Principle 4: Liking
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion — In-Depth Summary
This Book consists of seven chapters, the first chapter introduces the basis for weapons of Influence used by compliance professionals. The next six-chapter builds on top of chapter one (So make sure to read chapter one first). Each chapter introduces one principle of persuasion listed as below:
6 Psychology Principle of Persuasion
Principle 1: Indebtedness
Principle 2: Commitment and Consistency
Principle 3: Social Proof
Principle 4: Liking
Principle 5: Authority
Principle 6: Scarcity
Principle 4: Liking
“The main work of a trail attorney is to make a jury like his client.” — Clarence Darrow
We often prefer to say yes to the request of someone we know and like. It is interesting to note this simple rule is used in hundreds of ways by total strangers to get us to comply with their requests. For example, Tupperware uses many compliance tactics, a) reciprocity (to start, games are played and prizes won by the partygoers; anyone who doesn’t win a prize gets to reach into a grab bag for hers so that everyone has received a gift before the buying begins) b) commitment (each participant is urged to described publicly the uses and benefits she has found in the Tupperware she already owns) c) social proof (once the buying begins, each purchase builds the idea that other, similar people want the product; therefore, it must be good) d) liking (when approached by familiar people or someone we like, the strength of that social bond is twice as likely to determine product purchase as is a preference for the product itself).
“Endless Chain”
What is interesting to note is that, the friend or the familiar person doesn’t even have to present to be effective, often just mentioning the friend’s name is enough. Shaklee Corporation who specializes in door-to-door sales advises its salespeople to use the “endless chain” method to find a new customers. Once a customer admits to liking a product, he or she can be pressed for the names of friends who would also appreciate learning about it. The individuals on that list can then be approached for sales and a list of their friends, who can serve as sources for still other potential customers, and so on in an endless chain. When each new prospect is visited by a salesperson, they will be greeted with “Mr. So-and-so, suggested I call you” Just by mentioning the person name, it is hard to turn away the salesperson because it almost like rejecting the friend.
What creates liking
- Physical Attractiveness. The researcher has shown that human tends to automatically assign positive traits such as kindness, honesty and intelligent to good-looking (includes the dimension of the body) or good grooming individuals. This attractiveness often influences people’s perceptions or decisions even judicial ones, for example, research shows that “handsome men” (rated by the judge before the trial) received a lighter sentence.
- Similarity. The similarity in the area of opinions, personality traits, background, lifestyle, age, religion, politics, cigarette-smoking habits, or any sort of similarity, has higher chances of complying with any request by the requester.
- Compliments. Humans have this automatic positive reaction to compliments that we can fall victim to someone who uses them in an obvious attempt to win our favor.
- Contact and Cooperation. Familiarity often plays important role in our decision, including the politicians we elect. It appears that in an election booth voters often choose a candidate merely because the name seems familiar. The greater exposure time (contact time) of a person’s face can generate greater liking that leads to greater social influence. However, this only works when the continued exposure of a person or object is associated with a pleasant condition. If it is shown under unpleasant conditions such as frustration, conflict, or competition, the person or object will be associated with distastefulness and leads to less liking. On the other hand, if the previously known opponent is viewed as allies, conjoint efforts between them to reach towards common goals can bridge the rancorous rift between them.
- Conditioning and Association. We are often associated with whatever we are in or doing without even realizing it. Remember how people often warn us against playing with bad kids, it didn’t matter if we did something wrong ourselves, in the eyes of the neighborhood, we would be “known by the company we kept”. A more absurd example is the weatherman, one of the examples described how Bob Gregory, a TV weather reporter received threats — “if it snowed over Christmas, you wouldn’t live to see New Year’s”, another one that happened with Tom Bonner, also a TV weather reporter received similar threats — “You’re the one that sent that tornado and tore my house up… I’m going to take your head off”. This is the negative side of the principle of association. Association principle can also work for us, for example, manufacturers regularly rush to connect their product with the current cultural rage and we have seen this with the collaboration between McDonald’s and BTS.
“Luncheon technique” A technique discovered by Gregory Razran in the 1930s, the technique found that a subject became fonder of the people and things they experienced while they were eating. Or normal reaction towards food can be transferred to some other thing through the process of raw association.
Some of the strange behavior of people around us can be explained by the association principle, some purposefully try to link themselves to positive events or separate themselves from negative events, for example, when the football team they support wins, they exclaimed “We WIN!!!” However, when the team lose, they will say “They have lost” instead of “We lose”
Most of the time, Humans root for their own sex, own culture, own locality. Whomever you root for represents you; and when they win, you win. This is because often humans want to prove that their own superiority. But who are we proving to? Ourselves and certainly everyone else. We try to look good by manipulating the visibility of our connections with winners and losers, in the attempt to bask in the reflected glory of the successes we are even remotely associated with. A provocative implication emerges: why are we doing it? Research has shown that when our prestige (both public or private) is low that we will be intent upon using the successes of associated others to help restore our image. This book points out a very important point, people who do it have “a sense of low personal worth that directs them to seek prestige not from the generation or promotion of their own attainments, but from the generation or promotion of their associations with others attainment.”
How to say no?
Our proper response should be a conscious effort to concentrate exclusively on the merits of the deal. Of course, in making a compliance decision, it is always a good idea to keep separate our feelings about the requester and the request. But once immersed in even a brief personal and sociable contact with a requester, that distinction is easy to forget. In those instances when we don’t care one way or the other about a requester, forgetting to make the distinction won’t steer us very far wrong. The big mistakes are likely to come when we are fond of the person making a request.
Disclaimer
All information above are the summary of the book: “Influence: The Psychology Principles of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini” There are a lot more interesting and eye-opening techniques used by compliance professionals that are not mentioned in this summary. Find out more by buying this book at Amazon.com